Lifeless Latics run out of fizz

JUMP TO IT . . . Athletic substitute Matt Smith is forced to take evasive action.

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Athletic 0, Hartlepool 1
SHAPELESS and lifeless, this poor performance from Athletic could hardly have been purpose-designed better in order to at least partly deflate the bubble of optimism which has grown around the club lately.

Hartlepool won the clash at Boundary Park thanks to a James Poole goal in a first half in which the managerless visitors were thoroughly dominant. The margin of victory could and should have been greater.

A Luca Scapuzzi effort, wastefully hit against the legs of goalkeeper Scott Flinders after a neat first touch had offered a prime shooting position, was the best Paul Dickov’s men could offer in terms of threatening to find the net.

With an FA Cup tie against Liverpool and a two-legged ‘Destination Wembley’ Johnstone’s Paint Trophy duel with Chesterfield to come soon, Athletic will need to play with far more verve and imagination in order to fulfil their goals over the next month or so.

The post-Christmas hangover many in the crowd will have been feeling was replicated on the pitch.

Athletic started poorly and though their initial hesitancy ceased in the second half, by then Hartlepool – who suffered four successive defeats going into this game – had the confidence to repeal increasingly route-one attacks with relative ease.

James Wesolowski was a big loss. The Australian midfielder is missed when he doesn’t appear, mainly due to his energy and enthusiasm in mopping up spilled possession in the middle third.

Though he started the game, a dislocated shoulder sustained after making an attempted tackle in the first minute ended his involvement, Tom Adeyemi his replacement after a five-minute interval off the field in which it was decided that simply relocating the shoulder was not an option.

With Wesolowski gone, Hartlepool were all about picking up the ‘second ball’ in this encounter – particularly in the first half.

As Athletic made poor choices to cough up possession, the visitors – for whom left-back Evan Horwood, and forward duo Poole and Andy Monkhouse excelled – were incisive enough to fashion a host of excellent scoring opportunities.

After his opening goal, scored on the back of a knock-down from Anthony Sweeney after Horwood had drilled in a cross from the left and with no replacement for the prone Wesolowski having yet reached the pitch, Poole blazed a great chance over the bar from no more than eight yards.

And Sweeney himself would have made it two with an angled, powerful drive which Athletic goalkeeper Alex Cisak did brilliantly to get a faint touch on to deflect onto the crossbar.

The carol singers of doom gave Athletic a small round of boos as the team trudged off following the damp first half.The hope was that the disjointed showing, so disappointing bearing in mind the grit on show in securing a draw at Charlton in the previous fixture, would be followed up by something more substantial in the second period.

That was how it turned out. But that said, the graft of Dickov’s men was still lacking the finesse necessary to carve out scoring chances.

Flinders and his defenders gained only their second clean sheet since September with far too much ease. Hartlepool's custodian was extended in tipping a cross from the recalled, yet frustratingly erratic, Filipe Morais over the bar four minutes into the second half.

And before the hour mark, energetic Chris Taylor forced him into a fairly comfortable save with a far-post header that lacked power after a rare but slick attack.

Adeyemi sliced a shot wide as he arrived late into the area to get on the end of a miscued Morais effort at goal.

But once Matt Smith had replaced an again-quiet Scapuzzi – Athletic really need to start getting the best out of this talented but too-often wasted youngster – the direct approach towards goal was taken with too much eagerness.

A couple of crosses from Josh Parker and Morais would have caused problems but for nobody being on the end of them.

But on the break, Hartlepool came closest to adding to the scoring.

A three-on-three counter-attack ended with Andy Monkhouse shooting narrowly wide from the left corner of the area after 54 minutes and Gary Liddle should have worked Cisak rather than tamely stroking a half-volleyed lob a long way off target when well-placed.

This certainly wasn’t the showing of a side who have a dream of getting to the play-offs.

And in order to go to Anfield with confidence, the next two games against Notts County and Chesterfield have become even more important.