Dean’s gaffe stuns Latics

Photo: Pictures: Alan Howarth

YOU BEAUT: Athletic midfield man Youssouf Mchangama is congratulated by his team-mates after opening the scoring.

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Athletic 1, Walsall 1

Same old story as points go begging
POINTS were thrown away like cheap confetti as Athletic pressed the self-destruct button at Boundary Park last night.

Athletic looked pretty comfortable thanks to Youssouf Mchangama’s first-half strike.

But captain Dean Furman added his name to the blacklist of those responsible for defensive howlers already haunting the side this season.

The skipper can’t have seen Walsall’s George Bowerman lurking near Alex Cisak’s penalty area.

If he had, he wouldn’t have even attempted a risky back pass that allowed the substitute to side-foot a second-half equaliser.

It dropped the mood inside the ground to floor level — and Athletic couldn’t recover from the 79th-minute blow. Play became ragged, positionally disjointed and without direction.

While the defeats against Sheffield Wednesday and MK Dons were mitigated by the quality of the opposition, here there were no excuses.

Walsall played some attractive football in the final third, with Jamie Paterson cultured and effective and Ashley Hemmings unpredictable.

But Athletic’s players and supporters expected more than a draw to get the seasonal points tally up and running.

The goal was straight from a gaffes DVD. Mchangama struck the shot with meaning and as his 25-yard effort dipped towards the Walsall custodian, he dived almost on top of it, forcing the ball into the ground underneath him.

Unfortunately for David Grof, the ball leapt back up, took off the back of his prone body and trickled into the bottom-right corner of his goal. It was a stroke of luck that Athletic will feel they deserved.

But the home side failed to pepper the clearly ill-at-ease goalie with shots after half-time, which was a massive opportunity lost.

Passing was slow and loose. Athletic let Walsall off the hook, reaching for a single-goal win.

And when a team has as many fundamental mistakes in it as this one does, such foggy thinking as Athletic displayed will simply not result in positive results.

There must be clear concerns that without changes there lies a battle ahead to stay away from the nether regions of the division.




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