Subtle touch deserts Latics

Photo: Pictures by ALAN HOWARTH

ROBBIE Simpson, who made a bright debut as a substitute, produces a second-half shot on goal for Athletic.

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Athletic 1, Stevenage 1

Point hard-earned as Stevenage show steel and discipline

NOT every game can be a classic and one function of the forgettable contests is to render the better ones more enjoyable.

The yin and yang of football at this level dictates that for every seven-goal thriller, there will be at least a few score draws like this one, containing a total of three shots on target.

Athletic fans know better than most about the birds and the bees of life in the third tier.

And though they will have left Boundary Park disappointed their team did not have the ability to break down a Stevenage defence who defended with military precision, they may reflect that to pick up a point despite being under-par isn’t such a disastrous outcome.

Paul Dickov’s men pressed for a winning goal, but did not have the nous or subtlety to create good scoring opportunities. Filipe Morais, out with a knee injury, was a big miss with his creativity and at times, Athletic were drawn into humping the ball long towards man-of-the-moment Shefki Kuqi without sufficient accuracy.

With good, albeit not fully fit, footballers on board – including Robbie Simpson, the on-loan Huddersfield man who showed bright moments after coming on at the start of the second half – it has to be hoped that the attacking cohesion Athletic lacked here will show itself in future fixtures.

At the same time, they will certainly need to defend more robustly than was the case at the start of this contest.

Stevenage, who have lost only once in the league all season and that on a visit to MK Dons, burst out of the blocks from the kick-off.

Muscular left-back Darius Charles must have provided Athletic’s callow right-sided midfielder Carl Winchester with a terrifying sight and it was the all-action England ‘C’ man who had the game’s first shot in anger, forcing home ’keeper Alex Cisak to push out his 20-yard effort.

Kieran Lee, starting at left-back in a defence reshuffle due to Bradley Diallo’s absence through suspension, then conceded a corner.

John Mousinho is a tidy and well-versed player at this level and his clever right-sided kick was driven to Michael Bostwick, who was afforded acres of space on the edge of the penalty box.

Taking his time to control the ball and plant his shot, Bostwick’s effort was heading well wide of goal but fell perfectly on to the head of captain Mark Roberts, who nodded back across Cisak and into the far corner of the net after only four minutes.

Athletic failed to learn their lesson. After Zander Diamond had headed off target at the other end, another corner was pulled to the edge of the box to a waiting Boro player and as the ball trickled to the far post, desperate home right-back Nathan Clarke was forced onto his hands and knees as he blocked Chris Beardsley.

Then arrived the highlight of the 90 minutes for Athletic.

Kuqi is clearly not fully fit as yet, but has a happy knack of sticking his cranium in the right place in front of goal.

Chris Taylor and Lee had exchanged passes down Athletic’s left and as the former delivered a cross into the area, a glancing header from the Finn contained too much pace for ex-Boundary Park custodian Chris Day as the ball slipped from his grasp and over the line.

There was no swallow dive to the turf from Kuqi this time around, just a good old-fashioned jig of joy in front of the Rochdale Road Stand.

From that point, this fixture was as visceral as a particularly sleepy episode of Ballykissangel.

The main drama stemmed from the antics of referee Mark Brown, whose decisions often appeared to be arrived at completely at random.

Scott Laird’s cross fell on top of Cisak’s crossbar and a good defensive header from Jean-Yves Mvoto was needed to keep Beardsley at bay before the strong centre-back caused a commotion in an attacking sense.

Kuqi failed to get enough on his header from a Clarke cross, before Mvoto appeared to be shoved to the floor by Mousinho in attempting to reach a loose ball in the penalty area. No dice, said referee Brown.

Diamond’s last undertaking before retiring at half-time with a knee problem was to get involved in a spot of argy-bargy with Beardsley as the players went down the tunnel.

With Simpson getting a run-out on the right wing as the captain’s replacement, Clarke reverted to his more usual role at centre-back with Winchester moving to right-back.

The Northern Ireland international didn’t have the best of games and had a hairy moment four minutes into the second period, dispossessed by Mousinho who forced Cisak into a diving stop from 20 yards, Mvoto mopping up the loose ball.

Roberts headed a Charles cross wide under heavy pressure from Lee and Mvoto failed to get a left-foot shot on target as a Taylor free-kick fell between his feet.

Reuben Reid’s quiet afternoon was almost lit up as he narrowly failed to make proper contact to a ball over the top.

Kuqi was clearly pulled back when chasing a pass, electing to carry on regardless and punished for his honesty by failing to even get a free-kick when the danger vanished seconds later.

Smith tested Day at his near post with a fierce shot which was pushed behind, minutes before getting a big shove in the back in flicking on a cross.

The substitute was causing a few problems and almost netted when meeting Taylor’s cross, curled in from the left wing after an exchange of passes with Lee.

Kuqi, though, was better-placed behind him and would surely have done more than put the ball on the roof of the net.

Simpson’s curling free-kick with four minutes of regular time left had Day rooted to the spot and hoping that the ball would clear the bar. It did, just.

It was one of those not-quite afternoons for Athletic.