Morais leading quest to end goal drought

Filipe Morais unleashes a shot against Tranmere Rovers in midweek.

Shoot-on-sight policy underlines winger’s desire for change of fortune
FAIL to buy a ticket and you won't win the raffle, as the old adage goes.

Yet given his team's rotten fortune in front of goal, it appears Paul Dickov is engaged in a draw that is rigged.

The Athletic manager has somehow managed to pluck a ticket bearing a double-zero.

Luck? If the Scot has any, it's all bad at the moment.

Athletic simply can't buy a goal and the scoreless draw against Tranmere showed — not for the first time — just how annoying that can be for just about everybody concerned.

Dickov wore a rueful smile in the post-match press conference, masking his exasperation while safe in the knowledge that his team had again given everything they possibly could without those efforts bearing fruit.

One man in particular appears to be hell-bent on crashing the ball into the net in spectacular style.

Livewire winger Filipe Morais, who has three goals to his name so far this term, embarked on a shoot-on-sight policy that almost brought with it great reward on Monday evening.

The ex-Chelsea man, who appears settled with the club following a nomadic career which took him across the border into Scotland, lashed a second-half shot inches wide of the far post at the start of the second half.

And he also went close to diverting home an Aidan White cross-shot. Buying tickets for the goals draw isn't a problem for Morais.

"Personally, I am frustrated," said the Lisbon-born wide player, who started the Tranmere game up front alongside Oumare Tounkara.

"I didn't feel it was one of my best games.

"There are a lot of positives to take from the Tranmere game. We looked very solid, but at the same time we are just thinking 'is that ball going to go in or what?'

"I caught the ball as sweetly as I could with the shot that skimmed the post and Aidy (White) put a ball in that I nearly got on the end of.

"Tony Warner (Tranmere's goalkeeper) made saves, too.

"The players all want to score just as much as the fans want us to.

"I take a lot of shots and it certainly isn't through a lack of trying. I think everyone can see that.

"People say it is a bit of luck, but how many games is it now? Perhaps you make your own luck.

"If you work hard you get your rewards and we have to keep doing that.

"I feel it will come. Notts County is our next game and we are buzzing for it.

"We have stopped the rot, we have got a point and now we kick on."

Morais reckons that once Athletic have picked up a goal and three points — a combination that hasn't been managed since the first day of last month, 13 matches ago — there will be no stopping the team until the end of the campaign, which draws to a close with a home game against MK Dons on Saturday, May 7.

"I do feel that once we get a win, we will win all the way through to the end of the season," he added.

"I have been at clubs where this has happened before. Once you get that win, you go again.

"It usually happens with young squads like ours.

"The manager will never give up on us and we will never give up on him.

"We keep plugging away."

Jason Lowe made his first start for Athletic in midfield, replacing anchor man Dale Stephens, who has joined Southampton until the end of the campaign.

And Morais felt the new boy, who has Premier League experience this season with Blackburn, did well.

"Jason is composed and is physically strong," he said.

"Obviously in League One, the game is a bit more erratic than in the Premier League where players take their time and are a bit more composed.

"He adapted very well for his first game and is a good player. I am sure he will go from strength to strength here."