It just wasn’t meant to be

Photo: Vincent Brown and Alan Howarth

NOT AGAIN: more misery for Latics as Filipe Morais is denied by another brave save.

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Athletic 0, Chesterfield 1
Wembley dreams in tatters as Latics fail to take their chances

WHEN the dust settles, Athletic won’t need to take too long and hard a look at both legs of this final to work out just how it went so horribly wrong.

Despite racking up almost a half-century of shots over the two games against John Sheridan’s side, only once in three hours of football did they manage to breach outstanding Tommy Lee’s goal.

That came in the first leg thanks to Robbie Simpson’s excellent long-range howitzer.

And there was to be no repeat show, on a night when frustration and a frantic desperation spread around Boundary Park like a virus from start to unsatisfying finish.

Despite beginning the second leg superbly, being in total control for the vast majority of the latter contest and raining 47 shots in on Lee’s goal over the two legs, the truth of Athletic’s failure to reach the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final at Wembley is this: The all-important finishing touch was missing.

It is a sign both of Shefki Kuqi’s importance in the realm of goal scoring and Athletic’s over-reliance on the veteran Finn that much of the analytical attention will focus on his penalty miss in the first leg, his shot which cannoned off a post in the third minute of this game – what a radically different spin that alone would have put on the remainder of the tie – and his late second-half header from close range which was blocked by the legs of the heroic Lee.

But though the run of 11 fixtures without hitting the net shows a man with little confidence in front of goal, this was a collective failure of Athletic’s in front of goal. Blame should be shared.

A lack of potency apart, the remaining aspects of last night’s game – even allowing for a late

pantomime blunder between Jean-Yves Mvoto and goalkeeper Alex Cisak which allowed Jack Lester to seal Chesterfield’s dream deal – featured the sort of endeavour which simply cannot be faulted.

In terms of sweat shed and also, at times, neat football played, Athletic did themselves and their support proud. If only it could have been ultimately more productive.

Paul Dickov’s side hit the afterburners from the off and could have overhauled Chesterfield’s first-leg advantage inside the first five minutes.

On the first occasion, a sublime slid pass from Simpson sent Kuqi through between the visiting centre-backs and though the striker struck his shot truly, it cannoned back off the near post.

Filipe Morais – who clearly had the bit between his teeth – then headed powerfully at goal, forcing a desperate clawed stop by Spireites ’keeper Lee after a terrific swinging right-wing cross by Simpson.

There was little respite for John Sheridan’s beleaguered men.

James Wesolowski, carrying around a heavy strapping around his troublesome shoulder, had a shot charged down and after Chris Taylor had skated his way down the centre of the pitch, his skidding 25-yard shot was well held by Lee.

Morais was next to have a crack from distance, spinning a shot from the right comfortably off target from Lee’s perspective, before at the other end Drew Talbot failed to get sufficient power on his left-footed shot to see it dip over the alert Cisak.

Simpson hit a couple of tricky attempts off target, the first an overhead kick from a Mvoto nod-down into the turf, the second a header over and wide from Paul Black’s cross as Paul Dickov’s men continued to dominate without working Lee anywhere near as often as they would have liked.

Scott Boden had the visitors’ best attempt of the opening period, firing a left-footed shot when afforded space just outside the area which cannoned off the chest of Cisak.

The opening half ended with a pair of shots from Morais and Wesolowski failing to work Lee – a theme of the night – and to make matters worse, Zander Diamond was replaced at the interval after over-stretching to clear a ball away for a corner. James Tarkowski came on as his replacement.

Three minutes in to the second period, Talbot wasted a glorious chance to give the visitors an unlikely lead when hitting a tame left-footed shot at the legs of Cisak when in the centre of the penalty area.

Athletic responded with incessant and heavy pressure. Mvoto bundled one wide from a Simpson corner, an angled Morais drive was well held by Lee and the same player struck a free-kick a yard over the top after Taylor’s low cross-shot had almost paid dividends, drifting a few feet wide of Lee’s right-hand post.

With five minutes left, Athletic almost snatched a late goal which could have kept the Wembley dream on life-support. Simpson, moved inside to a central midfield role with debutant Keanu Marsh-Brown and Matt Smith thrown onto the field, drove in a right-wing cross to the far post and it was met by Kuqi’s head.

The effort was too close to Lee, who saved well with his legs.

Marsh-Brown manufactured an appeal for handball in the penalty area which produced nothing, but after Lester had chased down the loose ball successfully when Mvoto and Cisak came together indecisively near the edge of the area, home hopes died.