Latics learn the hard way

ATHLETIC midfielder Tom Adeyemi vents his feelings to referee Fred Graham, which resulted in the player receiving an injury-time booking for dissent.

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Stevenage 1, Athletic 0
ONE slip, one goal, no points. This was another brutal lesson in elementary mathematics for Athletic.

That the crucial strike came inside added time at the end of the game made it all the more galling for Paul Dickov’s side, who had up to the 45th second after the initial 90 minutes defended stoically against one of npower League One’s most effective outfits on home soil.

Right-back Lawrie Wilson glided across the face of his marker to slam home a header from left-back Darius Charles’ cross, boosting Stevenage’s play-off charge when the contest had appeared to be heading for a scoreless finish.

Pushing forward late on, Boro clearly scented blood. Their adventure paid off.

Athletic had up to that stage matched their opponents for physicality in a no-frills game featuring perspiration aplenty, but precious little inspiration.

And they could also argue that even deeper into the game, a stray Stevenage arm connected with a Filipe Morais corner inside the penalty area. Athletic’s boisterous visiting fans made it clear they felt owed a spot-kick.

But the facts remain. While a persuasive argument could be made that Dickov’s men deserved to claim a draw at the Lamex Stadium, to add to what could have easily been a pair of home wins over Scunthorpe and Yeovil, they have picked up zero points rather than seven.

Comoros Islands international Youssouf Mchangama had been named in the starting line-up for the first time, playing neatly in a deep central midfield alongside Tom Adeyemi, secured for another month-long loan spell on the day of the game.

And Reece Brown started at left-back in a rejigged back four which featured Zander Diamond and Jean-Yves Mvoto as the centre-back pairing for the first time since January.

The first mild excitement in a tepid first half arrived when Mchangama — who clearly fancies his chances when given a shooting option — hammered a 30-yard effort which flew a yard or two over the goal of former Athletic stopper Chris Day.

Michael Bostwick was off-target down the other end with a skidding effort from slightly closer in, and Diamond’s final contribution came when flicking a Luke Freeman cross narrowly wide of his own goal.

The Scot went down on his haunches close to the centre circle soon after, meaning an early introduction for James Tarkowski — rested for the game after a run of seven starting appearances in less than a month.

Midway through the first half, Adeyemi hammered a decent first-time effort a couple of yards over the crossbar inside Boro territory, with Day scuttling back towards his own goal following a hurried low clearance.

His opposing glovesman Alex Cisak was called into action a couple of times. First, Freeman cut inside Brown a little too easily but scuffed an effort which was repelled easily by Athletic’s Aussie ’keeper.

Kieran Lee was forced to clear after Freeman reached the byline — the only time either side really got in behind the opposition’s back line in the first 45 minutes — and Jordan Slew hammered one shot over and one comfortably down the throat of Cisak.

Athletic began the second half on the front foot. Adeyemi hit a volley across his own body and only narrowly over the crossbar and a Morais dribble ended with his 20-yard left-footed shot arrowing well off-target.

Cisak had to be alert to block a close-range effort from Craig Reid which arrived from a narrow angle to the left of the area, and after a Bostwick free-kick had struck the defensive wall, Reid failed to connect properly with an off-balance follow-up.

Morais was then unlucky with a clever through-ball which ran just too far in front of Chris Taylor to prevent Day from sweeping up the danger.

Athletic’s big chance came after 77 minutes. A more confident Shefki Kuqi would certainly have set himself up for a shot at goal when slipped in on the right side of the box by Taylor, but the striker took an extra touch and the opportunity evaporated.

Scott Laird’s shot, angled narrowly wide of Cisak’s left-hand post with the ’keeper beaten, signalled a warning that Stevenage were not content to play out a draw.

Kuqi very nearly got to a long Mchangama pass before Day rushed out to clear, as the game finally picked up in its dying moments.

Highly-rated midf-ielder Bostwick went close with a right-foot volley after a bout of head tennis as Boro pressed.

After Wilson had headed home, the visitors felt a penalty should have been theirs.

Frustration, though, was the emotion of the night.

Athletic now need to quickly focus on overcoming Rochdale in the weekend derby at Spotland.

Not least, because points are still needed in the last dozen fixtures in order to avoid being dragged towards the nether regions of the division.