Bolt from the blue

Photo: Pictures: ALAN HOWARTH

ONE IN THE EYE . . . Kirk Millar falls to the ground as a strong challenge comes in on the touchline.

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Athletic 2, Swindon 1
CARL Winchester has had a rocky time since he last lit up Boundary Park with a goal.

As an 18-year-old, the fledgling boy from Belfast was considered the finest natural prospect to have emerged from the club’s youth system in a generation.

Two years on, it seems that for every highly promising performance like this one, there have been truly horrible counter-moments. Winchester is only five months younger than James Tarkowski, but his inconsistency has meant he has only half as many first-team appearances.

But after his stunning goal here, it’s perhaps time for Winchester to stop beating himself up.

He lit up a game which had, up to the point of his intervention, been a tactical battle high on intrigue but lacking goalmouth action.

First the player produced a beautiful cross that the restored Kirk Millar failed to put away. Then he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Intercepting a sloppy pass on the half way line, a shift of the hips created space and, after racing to the right of the area, a curving shot was dispatched over the head of a surprised Wes Foderingham and into the net off the crossbar.

It was a fine moment to lift the spirits of the disappointing crowd of 3,837.

Perhaps some stayed away because of the disappointing nature of the Wolves defeat last Tuesday.

The idea there had been to adopt a Barcelona-style formation. What Athletic managed on Saturday, in a more traditional line-up, was to successfully mimic the Spanish giants’ intense work-rate.

James Wesolowski led the midfield charge with his tireless work. So dominant were he and Korey Smith that the visitors, who came into this clash with four wins from their last five games, didn’t have a single shot in the opening 45 minutes.

Swindon couldn’t have been as toothless in the second half as they were in the first.

The mood generated by Winchester’s goal had already been dampened by Tarkowski’s booking for a lunge after losing possession.

His fifth yellow card of the season puts him out of tomorrow’s clash at Notts County, but worse was to come. Tarkowski stuck out a left foot to inadvertently divert a through-ball over Mark Oxley’s head and into his own net.

To their credit, Athletic stuck at their task. And the team was boosted by the introduction of Jonson Clarke-Harris – a man on a mission to prove he can be effective in an Athletic shirt.

Philliskirk then took up the role of match-winner, with the first league goal of a career which is finally starting to blossom.

After a surge forward by Sidney Schmeltz down the left, Jonathan Grounds swung in a cross that Philliskirk attacked at the far post, stooping to head home in front of the Chaddy End.

It was a special moment, well deserved for the industry he shows and the product of a sense of bravery for sticking his head in where it could hurt.

Schmeltz then missed two chances, the first a tough left-footed volley and the second an absurd scuff when presented with an open goal.

After Foderingham had left his net empty to compete for a corner as Swindon pushed forward in a frantic finale, Schmeltz broke downfield and with an empty goal in front of him, tried to place it from 45 yards. It dribbled tamely to three yards out before being hacked clear.

It was a moment of farce out of keeping with an Athletic performance full of heart and intelligence.