Skipper’s bid to release season pressures

Photo: Pictures: DARREN ROBINSON

FRUSTRATION . . . Sean Gregan is acutely aware of Athletic’s failings.

BOUNDARY PARK LIFE: THE quest for goals continues for Athletic, but captain Sean Gregan has warned of the dangers of concentrating too much on finishing in training.

The team failed to score against Brighton on Saturday, the 19th time this season Athletic have drawn a blank.

Rickie Lambert's strike for Southampton in midweek gave him a tally of 31 goals so far in 2009-10 — one more than the division's lowest scorers have managed all term.

That fact emphasises just how difficult Athletic have found it to put away their chances.

But Gregan — far and away the club's top performer so far this season — hopes that things will turn around naturally.

"It was very frustrating against Brighton," said Gregan, speaking on the BBC's Late Kick-Off show.

"We had more than enough chances and many of those chances were at 0-0.

“Then their lad (Elliott Bennett) goes and puts one in the top corner from 30 yards.

"It is blatantly obvious what our problem is — we don't score enough goals.

"It isn't just the forwards. As a team, we don't. If you don't score enough goals you ain't going to be winning games.

"You can see we are creating the chances and we have been doing all season.

“We know that forwards go for the most money and get paid the most money as it is the hardest thing to do.

"We are struggling on that side of it. But you have to be careful you don't keep putting these sessions on as it could then become a mental thing where it gets into the players' heads that we are not scoring.

"Then, the next time they come in front of goal, they freeze.

"So we just have to keep plugging away and hopefully it will change for us."