Roller-coaster

SO SATISFYING . . . Aidan White is congratulated by Chris Taylor after scoring the winning goal at Dagenham

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Looking back at a season which promised so much, but ended in frustration
PAUL Dickov’s first season in charge of Athletic contained highs, lows and everything in between.

Here, the Chronicle presents its summing-up of the campaign in the form of an A-Z guide.

Attendances have continued to drop for home games at Boundary Park this season.

The high of a subsidised midweek 8,564 crowd against Carlisle contrasts sharply with the full-price 3,114 who arrived for the televised clash with Tranmere.

Take away the visiting fans from one of only a handful of local near-derbies in the division and there were just 2,669 Athletic fans present for the latter game.

Big Jean-Yves Mvoto, as his full official name goes, didn't look like much in his first appearance for Athletic in the Carling Cup at Scunthorpe.

In fact, he struggled badly at times with misplaced passes and ill-advised attempts to deal with the ball after it had bounced.

After getting to grips with his game, though, the on-loan Paris-born defender was a revelation.

An ankle injury meant he went back to Sunderland midway through the season and Athletic suffered; in the nine games since he came back Athletic conceded only seven goals, on five occasions with Mvoto playing alongside rookie James Tarkowski in the middle of the back line.

Cash, or more to the point a lack of it. Player and staff wages were picked up later than expected on at least two occasions, with the scrimping and saving of the post-Blitz and Gazal era even extending to stopping serving small cakes to the Press after home games.

Did the club’s financial woes affect fortunes on the pitch? Only the players know the answer to that one.

Dependable, consistent and assured — three words to describe Athletic's star right-back Kieran Lee (right).

Made available for loan by then-manager Dave Penney at the start of the 2009-10 season, it seemed that the ex-Manchester United prospect's career in the pro game was in danger of disappearing before it had even properly begun.

Thanks to injuries, he was given a shot at making the right-back spot his own and in this, his first full season in the first team, has proven to be one of League One's finest full-backs.

Every point counts equally. But one of the most pleasing of all victories in 2010-11 for Dickov was the 1-0 win at Dagenham.

Secured thanks to a debut goal from Leeds loan winger Aidan White, it was a real backs-to-the-wall effort from the team to secure the result against the most rugged and direct opposition the division can surely have ever seen. It was also a day much enjoyed by the 404 Athletic fans present at Victoria Road.

For, as in goals in the correct column . . . as opposed to ‘against’. If it weren’t for a pair of strikes in a 3-2 home defeat inflicted by Sheffield Wednesday, Athletic would have equalled the all-time Football League record set of 11 successive matches without scoring, held jointly by Coventry City (Second Division, 1919–20) and Hartlepool United (League Two, 1992–93).

With the aid of a striker topping 20 for the season — Oumare Tounkara was the club’s top-ranking out-and-out front man on seven, the last of which arrived back in January — Athletic would probably have hit the top six. Of course, such prolific forwards aren’t exactly ten-a-penny.

G is for the Galacdickovs, inspired by then-Notts County manager Craig Short's post-match assessment that his men made Athletic look like Real Madrid in a 3-0 loss at Boundary Park.

That game featured a goal to match some of the best conjured up by Messrs Zidane, Beckham and Figo, a 25-yard screamer from Dean Furman that formed the business end of a slick passing move, later voted as the Football League's overall goal of the year.

Home is where the heart is, at least for Chris Taylor.

Constantly linked with moves away from the club, the revitalised winger — top scorer for the season with 11 — showed no inclination to jump ship when then-Championship side Scunthorpe thrust a wad of cash in the club's face during the most recent transfer window.

Injuries didn't disrupt Athletic's cause too much in the opening half of the season.

On the horrible streak of no victories in 12 in February and March, though, vital partnerships through the spine of the team were disrupted by niggles and along with a wholesale dropping-off of confidence and the adverse impact of suspensions, Athletic's hopes of making the top-six were obliterated.

Joint 17th was how Athletic finished the season in League One. Tranmere Rovers ended up with the same number of points (56), the same goal difference (-7) and scored the same number of goals (53).

But Dickov's men pushed them a spot lower by virtue of the two Dale Stephens goals that secured a 2-1 win at Prenton Park on the opening day of the season, meaning that Athletic's head-to-head record — the two sides drew 0-0 at Boundary Park — was superior.

Key midfielder Dale Stephens' decision to depart on loan for Southampton disappointed Dickov.

At that time the club's top scorer with 10, the Bolton-born man played a role in guiding Saints to promotion and a cash offer for his services on a permanent basis may be forthcoming.

Loans are the new must-have accessory in lower-league football.

Even then, these players don't come cheap — unlike in Joe Royle's day, budding Premier League cast-offs simply aren't an option because of their wage demands.

Dickov managed to pull a few gems out in the shape of Mvoto, Oumare Tounkara, Cedric Evina and Ben Amos, and will be out to plunder the contact book to beg, steal and hopefully borrow some top talent in 2011-12.

Maintaining a dialogue with the supporters is one thing Dickov promised to do when he first came into the job.

And the regular question-and-answer sessions through the campaign have been well received, providing insight as well as entertainment.

No other team in League One, Bournemouth apart, lost as many points after taking the lead as Athletic (26 in total).

Away games at top-six sides Peterborough, Southampton and Brighton saw Dickov's men take the advantage before gaining nothing at full-time, as did the Hartlepool fixture at Victoria Park.

Had Athletic held on in every one of the 21 fixtures in which they found the net first, an Old Trafford play-off final would be only a two-legged tie against Peterborough away.

Old and tired is the kindest way to describe three-sided Boundary Park in its current state.

Athletic will again play out of their traditional ground next season but with the Failsworth project abandoned, uncertainty surrounds the ultimate whereabouts of the club — whose future, the board have warned, may lie beyond the town's borders.

Play-off hopes were high for a long stretch of Athletic's campaign, right up to mid-February, after which Athletic's form careered down a giant chasm.

Their up-and-down nature was encapsulated in both the Exeter game at home and the not-so talked about later away fixture at Carlisle.

In particular, that match featured some outstanding passing and movement on the break as Dickov's men completely dominated proceedings — before, from nowhere, shockingly conceding a two-goal advantage to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory at Brunton Park via an injury-time penalty.

Quality over quantity is the strategy for next season.

Just before his first home league game, Dickov had a squad of 29 full-time professionals on the books.

When play-off qualifiers MK Dons came to Boundary Park last week, there were 19.

Rochdale were back in Athletic's division following promotion, leading to the first league derby clashes between the sides in 36 years.

Keith Hill's side had the better of the two games. First they drew 1-1 at Spotland before a pair of goals from ex-Athletic striker Chris O'Grady helped Dale to a 2-1 win at Boundary Park at the turn of the year.

Shellackings at home were a feature of Athletic's season. While smashing Notts County and Hartlepool 3-0 and 4-0 respectively, Dickov's men were also humbled twice at Boundary Park. Rampant Southampton won 6-0, while Peterborough also showed promotion quality to serve up a 5-0 drubbing. Ouch.

Train timetables don't usually feature too heavily in the life of travelling footballers on away trips.

But Ritchie Jones was forced to plot a couple of connections to get home after being sent from a training camp in Taunton following a breach of discipline the day before the draw at Yeovil a month ago.

Unusual refereeing decisions didn't help the team's cause.

At Carlisle, left-back Paul Black was unlucky to concede an injury-time penalty when he didn't even see Francois Zoko, the player he allegedly fouled, until the last millisecond.

Filipe Morais was unlucky to see red against Walsall and in that same game, Warren Feeney should have been allowed to break his league scoring duck rather than be ruled offside.

Variable weather has always been a feature of Athletic's home, famously dubbed 'Ice Station Zebra' by Joe Royle.

Whether it can be put down to global warming or simply the usual weird and wacky atmospheric conditions prevailing around Boundary Park, a mid-season period of 40 freezing days without a game played out at home was as astonishing as it was record-breaking.

And it could be argued the enforced absence played played a major part in derailing Athletic's play-off push.

Wrecking ball was the phrase used to describe loan striker Oumare Tounkara earlier this season as he bullied Huddersfield's defence around the pitch in a memorably one-sided 1-0 win.

In the latter half of his first season in professional football, he wasn't nearly as destructive, but the big French striker will benefit from a summer of rest and Athletic may yet try to tie him down to a permanent contract.

X-rated is the only way to describe Chronicle columnist Gerry Taggart’s arrival into the melee in the Carlisle home game, for which he picked up a one-match FA touchline ban.

Rumour has it, the incident resulted in Athletic’s assistant boss receiving a heavyweight boxing ranking — one place in front of Audley Harrison.

Youth has been the name of the game for Athletic this season.

With Sean Gregan long gone, new captain Reuben Hazell suffering injuries and suspensions and striker Warren Feeney not getting much of a look-in at all until the final few games, Dickov's side has had to learn about the professional game the hard way.

But there is certainly plenty of promise among the likes of teenagers Carl Winchester and James Tarkowski.

Z is for zeal, a quality notable for its presence on the sidelines this season in comparison to the previous year.

Athletic’s management team have been questioned on plenty of things by fans, but the passion shown for the work they do has never been an issue.