No signs of light as Latics go down with a whimper
Reporter: MATTHEW CHAMBERS
Date published: 20 January 2014
Photo: pictures: ALAN HOWARTH
DUEL . . . James Dayton gets little change out of his marker
Port Vale 1, Athletic 0
EVEN a salesman flogging straws to clutch at would have left Vale Park with empty pockets.
Athletic’s fans kept the faith, once again, only to witness another barren failure.
As City went over the 100-goal mark, Athletic extended their run to four goals in the last eight games: two goals in the last five and a half hours of League One football.
At Vale, Athletic faded after a promising first 45 minutes. Their opponents, whose direct attacks at pace carried far more purpose and threat, were worthy winners.
Home goalkeeper Chris Neal had one difficult save to make all afternoon, from an angled drive by David Worrall in the 86th minute.
The other highlight from Athletic’s perspective was a sublime penalty stop by Mark Oxley, who prevented Micky Adams’ side from going 2-0 up by flinging out a high left arm to halt Jennison Myrie-Williams’ attempt as he dived to his right after 65 minutes. Sadly, it didn’t inspire his team.
A goal to lighten the darkening mood at Boundary Park rarely looked like coming after the
interval. A corner in added time, which somehow sailed right across the penalty area without any of Athletic’s 11 players inside the box getting close to a touch, summed up the malaise.
The current record of Lee Johnson’s soft touches when faced with adversity is nowhere near good enough for a club that has aspirations to beat the odds and do better than simply bob above the League One water line.
The state of affairs riles the manager enough that he locked his team inside the dressing room for 20 minutes after the game, sending out his assistant Paul Murray to face the press.
The goal conceded was so shocking it was almost comic. Unmarked Jack Grimmer jogged to the near post in the 53rd minute to get his head to a corner. David Mellor slashed wildly while off-balance as the ball sliced off his left foot and trickled over the line at a pace a snail would be ashamed of.
From then on, despite Oxley’s stop after James Dayton had tripped Tom Pope in the area as Vale broke, the result carried an appalling inevitability.
Why do Athletic continually fail to hit the net with any regularity, particularly in terms of opening the scoring? Well, with confidence low and movement off the ball lacking, at worst their attacks progress at the pace of coastal erosion.
Final deliveries in promising positions, when eventually arriving, are too often conducted with great imprecision. When shooting chances are carved out, they are snatched at. Harkins was the prime culprit for this, scuffing one very presentable opportunity badly wide in the first half and stalling with another. In fairness, a scoring record in Scotland of 14 goals in 125 appearances indicates he is more a creator than a finisher. Harkins has shown signs of at least supplying the ammunition.
Athletic desperately need someone to start firing the bullets.
Athletic had more attacks than the home side, but the closest they got other than wild shots from Dayton and Korey Smith was an effort from Genseric Kusunga which Neal blocked after Harkins had hesitated, following a Neal fumble.
The less said about the second half, the better. MacDonald got in behind defender Chris Robertson early on but a heavy touch forced him wide and the opportunity was snuffed out. It was downhill from there.
Johnson’s mood is clearly not to see the funny side. This isn’t good enough and nobody knows that more than he does.
On the way home, I heard a disgruntled Manchester City fan ring a radio phone-in to complain that his team are too open in midfield. he should try watching Athletic some time.
