20th December 2000
20th December 2000 ATHLETIC are facing a holiday headache after striker Craig Dudley became the fifth first-team player to be struck by injury. With eight games planned for the next month, losing the in-form 21-year-old was one of the last setbacks the club could afford. Players are being hit at the rate of one per week, with Dudley joining Lee Duxbury, Barry Prenderville, Paul Jones and Neil Adams on the sidelines. Like Duxbury and Prenderville, he has a hamstring strain. And an absence of at least three weeks means he will miss the busiest time of year.
Dudley, the joint top-scorer with five goals, limped off in the first half last night as Athletic went out of the FA Cup to Peterborough. It deepened the woes of Andy Ritchie, who was rueing a missed opportunity to play Chelsea in the third round. “This is another injury at the wrong time,” groaned the Athletic manager. “You can’t legislate for losing three players with hamstring problems when there are so many games coming up.” Of the second-round replay defeat, Ritchie said: “We didn’t play particularly well in the first half, but we got away with it and then had enough chances to win two games. “We should have had two penalties, one of them absolutely blatant, but we just don’t seem to get them. Their ‘keeper made some great saves, but we deserved to go through over the 90 minutes. “I wish Peterborough all the best because going to Chelsea will be a great trip - but it’s money we could have done with ourselves.”
Midfielder Danny Boshell will be suspended for the home match against Walsall on December 30 after collecting five yellow cards. One of them came in the reserves, but the youngster raced to his ban by recently being booked in three consecutive games.
Athletic’s
youngsters, however, have raised some festive cheer during a bleak week
for the Boundary Park club. They are through to the fourth round of the
prestigious FA Youth Cup after winning 1-0 at Brighton. Athletic
faced spells of heavy pressure, but they made the long trip worthwhile
when Gareth Wademan scored near the end. Their next tie is one of the toughest
the competition can provide - an away match at highly-rated West Ham. The
reserves’ Avon Insurance League match at Birmingham tonight has been postponed
due to waterlogging at Hednesford Town, where The Blues play their home
games.
Latics
wave goodbye to Chelsea pay-day NO-ONE could
have known it at the time, but Jason Lee’s FA Cup equaliser at Peterborough
was the goal that killed Athletic’s golden goose. By losing last night’s
replay at Boundary Park, they kissed goodbye to a third-round pay-day at
Chelsea which will instead be enjoyed by Lee and his colleagues at Posh.
For one man, however, an Athletic victory would have been cruel injustice,
despite their second-half blitz of the visitors’ goal. Mark Tyler, the
Peterborough goalkeeper, staged a superhuman display and fully deserves
his chance to take on Hasselbaink, Zola and the rest of that galaxy of
stars. Tyler was utterly invincible, making seven quality saves, a couple
of which almost defied belief. Athletic will feel hard done to, even if
their finishing sometimes let them down, as they did everything but score
and should have had a penalty near the end. But the feeling that their
chance had gone in the first game — when they led in injury time against
a side badly hit by sickness — grew with every passing minute, and
with every moment of inspiration from the man between the posts.
In the first
half last night, Athletic started terribly and only improved to average.
They did have a couple of openings, but would have been out of the game
if Posh’s Andy Clarke had been cooler in front of goal. Athletic, though,
were attacking the half which looked like a ploughed field with a 20-yard
bowling green laid on top. Running with the ball, or even judging passes,
was extremely tricky and any creative ambition was strangled at birth.
Having kept Peterborough to a one-goal half-time lead, they were hoping
to exploit the underfoot conditions after the break. They did so, with
the visitors suffering the reverse fate, and opportunities to equalise
soon began to flow. Most of them came from the right-hand side, where Danny
Boshell, having switched roles from the weekend with John Sheridan, gradually
came to terms with his new position. With Sheridan back in the centre,
Tony Carss had more licence to get forward. And the midfielder also caused
consternation in Peterborough’s defence. Substitute Mark Allott held up
play intelligently, while Athletic’s onslaught eventually saw them throw
Andrew Holt and Shaun Garnett into attack.
But Tyler handled
everything they could throw at him, and such were the ’keeper’s heroics
that he even kept out a David Eyres shot by sitting on the ball inches
from his goal-line. “Now we have to go to Stamford Bridge and stop them
scoring ten,” said Posh’s ebullient boss, Barry Fry. If 23-year-old Tyler
puts in another performance like this, he could soon be joining the likes
of Chelsea, never mind getting in their way. The winner arrived after only
five minutes as Athletic were stunned by a very straightforward strike.
A crossfield pass was headed down by David Farrell and Richard Forsyth,
bursting through from midfield, tucked his shot into Gary Kelly’s left-hand
corner. Athletic lacked any cohesion, giving away the ball in midfield
and being pulled out of position at the back. Twice in a minute, they were
almost punished. But Kelly made a good block from Clarke before the same
striker blasted wide when well placed. It was Clarke causing most problems,
but he did Athletic a huge favour in the 19th minute when Adam Drury’s
cross bounced through a static defence and reached him at the far post.
Though Clarke was only six yards out, he was denied by Kelly’s fine reactions.
Trailing by a goal and looking a long way from levelling, Athletic had
another setback when Craig Dudley — their most potent weapon in recent
weeks — was forced off by injury.
They were beginning
to get a toe-hold on the tie, but Peterborough went close again through
a shot by David Oldfield. Athletic’s best opening of the half came courtesy
of the pitch as the ball stuck under defender Simon Rea’s feet, allowing
Carlo Corazzin to steal into the box. When Corazzin’s weak cross was dug
out by Allott, Tyler made a brilliant one-handed stop. Tyler was back in
action just before the break, saving well from Corazzin after the Canadian
blundered through. And the ’keeper was again at his best after 50 minutes
as he clawed away an Eyres header which looked sure to arrow into the bottom
corner. Athletic were creating a tidal wave of pressure — but Tyler was
in the sort of mood where he could have walked on water. When Boshell crossed
to the increasingly-dangerous Eyres, there was another blinding save to
keep Posh on course for Stamford Bridge. Carss was next to be caught up
in the one-man wonder-show as Peterborough’s senses were scrambled by the
bombardment. They gathered themselves for a while but, after 76 minutes,
Tyler thwarted Eyres for a third time when the veteran might have done
better. Corazzin, having an off-colour game in Athletic’s attack, made
way for Holt, who immediately discovered that this goalkeeper was not to
be beaten.
He was also enjoying
some well-warranted luck, with the rebound from his latest save eluding
Garnett by a whisker. Athletic’s frustration was summed up by Kelly, who
dashed 40 yards to collect the ball for a free-kick, ended up clashing
with Forsyth and earned a booking for his trouble. But they were refused
what looked a clear penalty four minutes from time when Garnett was shoved
in the back by Rea. After Mark Innes just failed to finish at the far post
in the dying seconds, the game was finally up for the unfortunate hosts.
From the moment Lee scored at London Road nine days earlier, they were
destined to be deprived of their big day out.
Teamtalk
Oldham
Midfielder Richard Forsyth’s early goal and an astonishing performance from goalkeeper Mark Tyler earned Barry Fry’s men a 1-0 FA Cup second round replay win at Oldham last night and a money-spinning third round tie at holders Chelsea early in the New Year. Manager Fry described all his players as heroes and the 300 Posh fans present at Boundary Park clearly agreed as they roared their approval on the final whistle. Fry said: “It’s better than winning the lottery for us all. I’m thrilled to be going to Chelsea for several reasons, not least for the chairman who has a home not far from there and for the fans whose support has been superb for some time now. “But I’m pleased more than anything for the players because after all they’ve been through in the past couple of weeks, they deserve an opportunity to play against the best players in a great stadium. “They’ve endured some horrendous circumstances recently with the sickness that’s been going around the camp so to see them dig as deep as they did last night was truly heroic. “We’ve enjoyed a bit of good fortune and there’s no doubting we’ve been below par performance-wise in the last two games, but no-one can deny the tremendous spirit which has enabled us to get through a very difficult patch. “We’ve come close to winning that dream FA Cup tie on a couple of occasions in recent years so to finally get one is a fantastic boost for us all. We were lucky at times last night, but you could argue we’ve earned our luck.”
Tyler again earned special praise from his manager after following his man-of-the-match display in the derby draw at Cambridge last week by producing a string of brilliant saves last night. Fry added: “I’ve given Mark four improved contracts in the four years since I’ve been here and if he carries on like this I may have to give him another one very soon. “He played Cambridge on his own the other night and just carried that form into this game. Mark is tremendously agile and he’s also very brave, but he’s nowhere near his peak yet so there’s no telling just how good he will eventually become.”
Oldham ...
0
Posh ...1
Forsyth (5
mins)
JUST how Posh managed to win this quite remarkable FA Cup tie is a question capable of baffling the world’s greatest minds for years to come. Oldham spent the last hour of the match pummelling Posh so badly one half-expected the British Medical Association to condemn football as a dangerous sport and call for an immediate ban. But thanks to some luck, friendly refereeing, poor finishing, stout defending and a barely believable goalkeeping performance from Mark Tyler, Posh won that glittering prize of a third round trip to Stamford Bridge to face Cup holders Chelsea. Richard Forsyth’s splendidly-taken fifth-minute goal could add £300,000 to the London Road coffers (a reasonable boost for a club with a City Council approach to losing money), but in terms of dreams and expectations the value is surely far higher. And predictably Posh boss Barry Fry was quick to start making the sort of outlandish comment which will earn him plenty of TV time between now and third round day. “I think our name might be on the Cup,” he announced upon returning from cloud nine. “We score a 94th minute equaliser in the first game to earn this replay and it’s fair to say we rode our luck tonight after missing several early chances ourselves. I haven’t got a clue how we kept a clean sheet, but quite frankly I couldn’t give a monkey’s. We’re going to Chelsea and we’re going to love every minute of it even if we get beat 10-0!”
The idea of anyone putting 10 past Tyler at present is really quite ridiculous. The Posh number one is not the biggest ‘keeper in the world, but he fills his goal with the complete confidence of a man at the top of his game and after breaking the hearts of the few Cambridge fans last week, he destroyed the hopes of the handful of Oldham supporters in Boundary Park last night. Fry had recalled Jason Lee and Dean Hooper to his starting line-up in place of Leon McKenzie and Tony Shields with Matthew Gill handed a rare run-out in midfield. And for 30 minutes the changes worked a treat as Posh were irresistible going forward and always looked likely to add to Forsyth’s strike from just inside the area following a neat flick from Lee. Sadly Andy Clarke was back to his menacing best everywhere except in front of goal. Overworked ‘keeper Gary Kelly saved at his feet on seven minutes, watched a missile from the misfiring forward sail miles wide after Farrell had sent him through two minutes later and then hurled himself forward to brilliantly block a shot after Clarke suddenly appeared all alone eight yards from goal following another Farrell cross. When Clarke miscontrolled yet another perfect Farrell cross inside the penalty area on the half-hour the feeling grew that the missed chances would soon be regretted and sure enough the home side started to threaten, strangely after dangerman Craig Dudley had limped off with hamstring trouble.
Five minutes before the interval Tyler somehow parried an explosive Danny Boshell shot from the edge of the penalty area and moments later he threw himself in front of Carlo Corazzin after he had barged unchecked into the area. But they were just the appetisers for a blistering second-half display from the new Posh hero. Oldham attacked in waves after the interval and although the Posh back-four all defended with tremendous spirit they were breached with alarming regularity. David Eyres saw an 18-yard piledriver turned away for a corner, Corazzin’s far-post header was acrobatically pushed aside and when Eyres connected with a low Boshell cross just six yards from goal, Tyler saved impossibly with his feet. Tony Carss was then denied from distance, Eyres was halted in his tracks after robbing Hooper and racing unchallenged into the penalty area and two minutes from time a quickly-taken free-kick led to substitute Andy Holt being thwarted from virtually on the goalline. It was stunning stuff, although even Tyler was grateful to see a glaring last-gasp miss from Mark Innes and the failure of referee David Laws to spot a blatant push from Simon Rea on Shaun Garnett inside the box during injury-time. Rea is currently the biggest victim of the Posh plague so his efforts were rightly appreciated by his team-mates afterwards, particularly the midfielders and strikers who could do little to lessen the second-half pressure. Poor passing choices and a tendency to frustratingly stray offside all helped Oldham stay on top with only a late run from substitute McKenzie which Kelly saved with his legs offering any excitement directly in front of the exuberant travelling support. Still they would have been delighted with the battling qualities and fighting spirit which finally earned Posh’s first cup tie against a Premiership club since the penalty shoot-out defeat by Spurs at White Hart Lane in 1994. If Posh can somehow take Chelsea that far, don’t bet against Tyler winning the day again.
Peterborough
Manager Barry Fry declared himself a lucky man last night as he saw his
side progress to a money spinning third round FA cup tie against Chelsea.
Fry admitted the 1-0 victory at Boundary Park was down to the world class
saves made by his keeper Mark Tyler and the inconsistency of match Referee
David Laws. Laws once again astonished the watching spectators with some
of his decisions and failed to penalise Peterborough for blatant time wasting,
adding just 1 minute of time in the first half and 2 in the second period.
But Fry expressed his relief when in the closing stages of the game the
Referee failed to award a penalty to Latics for a push on Garnett when
he had given two similar fouls outside the area only minutes earlier. "I
must say I was surprised and relieved when a penalty was not given" said
Fry. It is thought that the match Referee realised his mistakes after the
game when he asked the Boundary Park security staff for an escort back
to his car. Latics fans will be disappointed to learn that Mr Laws is scheduled
to return to Boundary Park on Saturday 30th December when he officiates
in the game against Walsall.