Festive season of frustration

UPBEAT MOOD: Fit-again defender Joe Jacobson reckons Athletic can beat most teams in Coca-Cola League One.

PARK LIFE: ATHLETIC’S players should, by rights, be feeling the pace right now.

A strenuous bout of action across the Christmas period, featuring games at home to Tranmere on Boxing Day and away to Hartlepool two days later, was to be followed up by a further fixture at Boundary Park against Swindon on the first Saturday of the New Year.

With a squad stretched by injuries, that sequence would have seen manager Dave Penney forced to push even more square pegs through round holes by fielding players out of position.

As it turned out, the Swindon clash was held back due to the opposition’s FA Cup commitments, to be replaced by the previously-postponed Hartlepool game, with the Tranmere match falling victim to an ice-laden Boundary Park.

The relaxed fixtures programme gave the Latics squad more time to tuck into Christmas dinner leftovers.

But in-between watching festive comedy specials at home, there will have been thoughts of frustration among the players.

Despite the injury list, confidence remains high and the feeling was that the Tranmere game in particular represented a good chance to gain the points which could have seen Athletic zoom upwards in a heavily-congested Coca-Cola League One table.

“If the game on Boxing Day wasn’t cancelled, and it was one where we had targeted taking three points, we could have been up in mid-table where you start to look up towards the top end of the division,” said Athletic defender Joe Jacobson, who now feels “100-per-cent” fit after an early-season plagued by a pelvic problem.

“That is how tight this league is — one or two wins and you are up a few places, one or two defeats and you are looking over your shoulder.

“We know we are capable of getting a good string of results together and that is what is needed now.

“The spirit is good as we know what we are capable of as a team.

“With a new manager coming in and new players as well, it takes time for people to adapt.

“We have had lots of injuries which have disrupted things. But things are getting better on that front now and we know that we can beat most sides in this league.

“I have been one of those injured boys and it has meant we haven’t been able to put out a settled team for a number of weeks now.

“Now we have started getting people back there is more competition for places and it will result in a more settled and stable team — which should help us to get results, as has already been shown this season.”

Athletic were certainly unfortunate not to add to their points tally at Hartlepool at the weekend.

Dominating possession while not managing to fashion many goal scoring opportunities in the first half, Penney’s side entered the changing rooms at a bitterly cold Victoria Park 2-0 down.

A stirring late comeback, powered by the introduction of Chris Taylor and Pawel Abbott, saw the latter claim a goal on his comeback after Hartlepool had been reduced to 10 men, with Peter Hartley dismissed for violent conduct.

It would have been even better had an assistant referee spotted that a handball from Dale Stephens’ right-wing free-kick occurred inside rather than outside the area, while several goalmouth scrambles and good chances for Taylor and Nick Blackman came to nothing.

It led to an understandably gloomy post-match mood, though one tempered by the knowledge that Athletic were the better side for long periods against a team now occupying 11th spot in the table.

“After the game the manager was gutted for us,” added Jacobson, who impressed at left-back.

“I think he saw the effort that we put in and knew that we couldn’t have given much more.

“It was disappointing. I didn’t think we played badly at all even in the first half, where we just lacked a goal.

“They didn’t really threaten until they got the goal off their first real attack of the game and they hit us with another soon after that, which left us on the back foot.

“For the last 10 to 15 minutes we really did pile the pressure on and did enough to deserve to get something out of the game.

“We played well but made two mistakes for the goals and were punished, which seems to be the way it is going at the moment.

“They were sloppy goals and it left us playing catch-up again.

“But there were a lot of positives to take out of it and our performance overall was good.”