Murray slams ‘nearly men’

NO YOU DON’T . . . David Mellor is denied space on the ball.

PAUL Murray pulled no punches in assessing this latest failure.

Athletic's assistant manager faced the press at Vale Park because manager Lee Johnson was too upset to conduct his usual post-match chat after a second loss in four days.

"It is a big problem," Murray said when asked about Athletic's poor scoring record. "We are the nearly men.

"Mark Oxley tried to pull us out of the mire with his penalty save. But it was the same old Oldham second half. 'We’ll get something from Oldham', teams think. And they do.

"It is what we’ve been like all season. Teams know they will get something from us."

"We are not looking like scoring. So do we go a bit longer? Do we play higher up the field? We are going through everything in the dressing room with the lads, asking what they are thinking.

"We re debating everything."

Athletic faded away in the second half and for Murray, the incident in which Genseric Kusunga failed to get any contact on a cushioned header towards him by Jonson Clarke-Harris summed up the shortcomings.

"We are in a right battle at the moment. Have we got the desire and commitment? I don't think we showed it, second half.

"We must do something, as it is not happening. We are doing everything in the dressing room as staff and the players are training well. But obviously, something isn’t right somewhere."