This loss is hard to stomach

Photo: Pictures: Alan Howarth

HEADING FOR A FALL . . . Athletic winger James Dayton goes down under a strong challenge.

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Preston 2, Oldham 1

Statistics tell the story of a night of frustration
HARD to swallow and even tougher to digest, this defeat was enough to make anyone of an Athletic persuasion pig-sick.

A fourth loss in six Sky Bet League One matches featured more of the vibrant, positive attacking play that characterises Lee Johnson’s regime.

First-half goals from Stuart Beavon and Kevin Davies, from the penalty spot, were answered late on by a header from the utterly outstanding James Tarkowski... as Athletic were left pointless again.

The statistics tell the story better than a host of crafted paragraphs: SHOTS: Preston 7, Athletic 18;

CORNERS: Preston 1, Athletic 12; POSSESSION: Preston 38 per cent, Athletic 62 per cent.

But of course only one really matters: GOALS - see above.

Preston’s England under-21 international loanee Declan Rudd won the home sponsor’s man of the match award for a series of saves which kept Athletic out - and that alone illustrates how on top of the game the visitors were.

For all Athletic’s excellent work, there were two moments which exposed the shortcomings of Johnson’s side.

First, Sidney Schmeltz bizarrely tried to kick a ball that reached head-height a few feet outside his own team’s penalty area. The resulting free kick by Joel Byrom was inadvertently headed in by Beavon, totally against the run of play.

The next was a gift for a player as canny as Davies.

Putting his body in front of James Wesolowski, Athletic’s midfielder should have known better than to give the former England international the chance to tumble over under contact as he ran towards the corner flag.

A thoroughly innocuous situation became one of great danger. Davies hammered home the penalty for his first North End goal, putting Simon Grayson’s men two-up even though they had barely got out of their own territory.

On a big Deepdale pitch tailor-made for Athletic’s rapid attackers, the visitors created a host of first-half chances.

Though up against it at two down, Oldham’s slick passing and movement left the Lilywhites chasing shadows and fighting fires all over the pitch.

Athletic threw on three substitutes in the hope that finally, something would happen in the penalty area to crack the home resistance.

Davies wasted a good chance on the break and Tarkowski — the best player on show in both penalty areas, as well as everywhere in-between — almost made him pay when rising to head another effort off-target.

It was another of ‘those’ games for Athletic. There have been too many of them in 2013-14, and performances so far have been as exasperating as they have exhilarating.

It is time to start converting hard luck stories into epic victories. Johnson can’t be happy about his side’s lack of final-whistle success.