Latics get what they deserve

Oumare Tounkara finds it tough going against the Acrrington defence

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OUTFOUGHT, out-thought, outplayed and out of the FA Cup.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Npower League Two outfit Accrington Stanley, currently 31 places below Paul Dickov’s side in football’s pyramid, were without a win in five matches entering this game, conceding 16 goals in that sequence.

Yet it is no exaggeration to suggest that the home team could easily have been six goals up at the Crown Ground before the visitors finally decided to get their act together.

With two-goal midfielder Ray Putterill rampant, Dean Brill stood between a half-paced, meek first-round exit and a complete and utter humiliation.

And this in a competition Athletic needed so badly to progress in, to bring in funds simply to keep the figurative head bobbing above the financial parapet.

Only Athletic’s goalkeeper and exciting 17-year-old debutant Carl Winchester can hold their heads high after this awful effort.

Defensively hesitant, unable to complete the simplest of five-yard passes in midfield and with an attack regularly bullied into submission by Stanley’s back line, at times it looked as if Athletic believed they simply had to turn up to win this game.

Some of that may be down to naivety in a youthful side.

But such a slack attitude towards what was always going to be a difficult tie at a compact little ground — and against a side who had given Newcastle United something to think about in a Carling Cup tie earlier in the season — was not helpful.

There were too many shoulders shrugged, too many heads not on the game and too many loose balls not competed for.

The team missed Dean Furman in midfield and the sticky toffee pudding of a pitch didn’t help with passing fluency — though in fairness, it didn’t seem to hinder John Coleman’s side too much.

The supposedly high-visibility orange ball introduced into this season’s FA Cup competition was difficult to pick out. And some players’ feelings will have been hurt by the surprisingly vitriolic abuse directed towards them from sections of the Accrington crowd in the stand in which the press box was situated.

Safe to say the band of around 1,500 travelling Athletic fans didn’t hold back at half-time when the players trudged back to the dressing room two goals down.

Such excuses won’t wash with Dickov, though.

And nor should they. As a player he was never one to shirk hard work, which must make this non-performance even tougher to deal with.

The signs were ominous right from kick-off.

Brill was called into action in the first two minutes to scoop out Sean McConville’s back-post volley in the first two minutes as the home side made their intentions clear.

The first goal arrived six minutes later. Awful defensive hesitancy in failing to shut down Putterill crippled Athletic and the former Liverpool trainee was able to turn back on to his right foot and stroke the ball home past the diving Brill’s left hand.

Stephens hit a free-kick narrowly off target, but Putterill was soon in the game again, forcing a superb one-handed reaction stop from Brill.

Terry Gornell came close to making it two with a flicked header as Athletic failed to get to grips with proceedings.

Winchester looked lively and after 20 minutes he had Athletic’s first attempt from open play, advancing down the right and exchanging passes before seeing his left-foot shot blocked.

But the irrepressible Putterill turned Athletic’s right-sided defence inside out before crossing beyond Brill for James Ryan to lash home into a virtually unguarded net.

The ease with which Accrington were piercing the visitors’ defence was unnerving.

The very quiet Oumare Tounkara hit a post with a curling right-foot shot and fellow on-loan Sunderland player Jean Yves Mvoto struck an effort over as the visitors pressed.

Still, it could easily have been 3-0 at half-time. A well-worked corner routine featuring a step-over resulted in Ryan firing in a shot which was well blocked in front of Brill, before two follow-up efforts fizzled out.

Jason Jarrett had a poor first half and winger Filipe Morais came on in his place for the second period, with his suspension for a sending off for the reserves in midweek not yet having come into effect.

Ritchie Jones moved into central midfield and struck narrowly over as Athletic looked to take the initiative.

Yet Stanley remained the more potent side.

Luke Joyce was unlucky to hit a post as he dug his shot out past Brill, but Accrington made it count seconds later.

More poor defensive work saw Joyce pick up the ball in space inside the area and his cross was palmed out by Brill with Putterill alert to the situation to fire in a third goal.

Gornell forced Brill into another low block and Putterill, sniffing out a hat-trick, headed the rebound just off target. That man Putterill was then released from halfway, using his pace to streak into the area and forcing a block from Brill.

Dickov thrust Mvoto up front and brought on Warren Feeney for Tounkara and the changes had a quick impact.

Winchester won a block tackle and forced the ball into the path of Feeney, who coolly finished off for his first goal in 18 months.

By now it was all Athletic and when Morais was felled in the area by Dean Winnard after turning on a sixpence, Stephens stuck the penalty home with conviction.

Feeney turned in a rebound while apparently in an offside position and Paul Black came within a whisker of equalising late on with a long-range chip which beat goalkeeper Ian Dunbavin, but hit the far post and came out.

In the end, Athletic absolutely got what they deserved: nothing.