Latics alive and kicking
Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date published: 19 January 2012
PAUL Dickov came out fighting after suffering a half-time blow in Athletic’s bid to reach a Wembley final.
Chesterfield claimed the spoils in the first leg of the Northern area final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy with second-half goals from Scott Boden and ex-Athletic man Danny Whitaker, who converted a penalty after Jack Lester had been felled.
In between, Robbie Simpson rasped in an equaliser at the B2net Stadium, shortly after out-of-touch hitman Shefki Kuqi had rattled the crossbar with a spot-kick he earned for himself.
The result means re-jigged Athletic – who suffered the loss of defender Zander Diamond to injury in the pre-match warm-up, James Tarkowski stepping in very ably – now need to win the second leg at Boundary Park on Monday week to fulfil the dream of appearing in the showpiece final in the capital.
“It is all to play for with the second leg at our place,” said Athletic manager Dickov, whose side had plenty of shots on the night, too many of which were wild and off target from long range.
“I am very disappointed with the goals we conceded.
“James Tarkowski and others have told me that for their penalty, Tarky played the ball.
“But it should never have got to that stage in the first place and we should have cleared the danger beforehand.
“With their first goal, we constantly talk about taking too many touches in the middle of the park and giving the ball away and stopping crosses.
“It is bitterly disappointing because they did it a couple of times in the first half and we thought we had sorted it out.
“As long as we defend properly, I am confident. Our defending here was really sloppy at times but we will score goals.
“We had the blow with Zander going out, but Tarky came in and was magnificent.
“Shefki is disappointed and it is always like that when you miss a penalty.
“We had chances and their goalkeeper made some good saves.
“Our decision-making wasn’t the best. We are at our best when we work the ball and when we did that, we looked really threatening.”
