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Dan Taylor slots home the equaliser

Athletic 1, Crewe 2

MATT Smith’s staggering miss summed up Athletic’s ‘annus horribilis’ perfectly.

Dean Furman had broken the offside trap and crossed low from the left. All Smith had to do was make a good contact from five yards out to send the ball into the net. That was the plan.

“And Smith must score”. Infamous words, appropriate here.

Boundary Park breathed in and waited for an age as Smith took a step towards the Rochdale Road Stand six minutes before half-time.

Perhaps the tall striker had too much time to think, talking himself out of relying on a forward’s natural instinct. Maybe the thought of not yet having netted at Boundary Park in two seasons suddenly travelled to the forefront of his mind.

In the end, he plumped for the worst possible option: a tricky side-foot shot, with his right foot, as the ball travelled across his body.

A horrid slice five yards wide and the crowd’s collective groan of exasperation later, the platinum-coated chance had vanished.

As Matt finishes go, it was as embarrassing as the half-completed paint job on the Chaddy End roof.

Poor old Smith didn’t hide afterwards and had plenty of other better efforts at goal. One was a second-half header he planted beyond Crewe goalkeeper Steve Phillips, only for the referee to halt premature celebrations by signalling for a push on his marker.

But Athletic won’t get away from the increasing malaise they find themselves in by passing up glaring opportunities.

Far too often in 2012, Paul Dickov’s side have failed on home soil. Only eight wins have come at Boundary Park in league and cup in the calendar year. And the scoring woes are illustrated by the statistics: 28 goals in 27 matches.

Athletic certainly weren’t anything like as bad against Crewe as they have been at times this year.

Dickov’s side controlled large portions of the game. As well as his ruled-out header, Smith was tugged back in the penalty box after the interval. It was the sort of non-decision struggling sides tend to suffer.

Had Jose Baxter been a little closer to his best form, more clear-cut chances would have arisen from bouts of heavy territorial pressure.

To balance that, Steve Davis’s visitors can point to a pair of early gilt-edged chances of their own.

How unmarked Mathias Pogba, brother of former Manchester United midfielder Paul, failed to find the target with a header from the centre of goal after only four minutes, only he will know.

That came after Harry Ellis, who netted the winner, was off target with a free header from a corner just over 90 seconds into the game.

Athletic were jolted into action. Some of the early passing play was very slick and Baxter was a touch unlucky with an audacious 50-yard chip which travelled only a few feet wide of a worried Phillips’ goal.

Smith headed wide twice and Youssouf Mchangama was off-target with a couple of drives from similar positions he scored from against Doncaster.

Athletic started the second half on the front foot and Smith’s drive over the bar was followed by a scuffed shot by Dean Furman which just travelled behind Baxter, who would have been in on goal.

By this time, Crewe has switched to a 3-5-2 formation to try to get a grip on the midfield battle they were losing.

Then came the opening goal. Pogba’s speculative drive took a big deflection off Cliff Byrne and defeated Dean Bouzanis.

Cristian Montano, Dan Taylor — to ironic cheers — and Kirk Millar all came on as Dickov tried to find the formula for an equaliser.

It came thanks in part to a wild mis-kick from Ellis. But that takes nothing away from Taylor. He gambled on the defender missing the ball and showed terrific composure to shape his shot inside the far corner.

Dickov said late last week that Taylor wasn’t quite ready for first-team football. The teenager’s low, angled finish bore the mark of a seasoned goal scorer.

The optimism the equaliser brought about swiftly disappeared. Furman sliced his volleyed clearance, Crewe substitute Byron Moore stood up and then surged past Millar and his far-post cross was nodded in from close range by Ellis.

It means Athletic end a year of almost unbridled misery at Boundary Park with another league defeat — a fourth in succession, and the seventh at home in an increasingly poor season.