22nd November 1999 

Latics clear out

ATHLETIC have continued to trim their top-heavy squad by releasing four young professionals. Lee Clitheroe, Jonathan Spurr, Patrick Johnston and goalkeeper John Mohan have all left the club after having their contracts terminated. The case of Clitheroe is an unfortunate one as the 20-year-old had looked promising during his five league appearances. He was a speedy winger who made his debut the season before last, but then had the cruel blow of breaking his leg against Walsall. 

The injury, which happened almost 12 months ago in a tackle with Neil Pointon, kept him out until the start of the current campaign. Clitheroe, who recently turned down a move to Northern Irish club Ballymena, was out of contract at the end of December. Manager Andy Ritchie said: "We feel we've been very fair with Lee because we didn't have to renew his contract when it ran out in the summer. "We gave him a chance to get fully fit but don't think he's going to make it into the first team. It's a pity because he's a super lad." Mohan only moved to Boundary Park five months ago after being released by York City. He has made one appearance in the first-team squad but, as there were six goalkeepers at the club, was deemed surplus to requirements. Ritchie explained: "We thought John had a great chance of making it, but it has been disappointing to see him go backwards since he came." Defenders Spurr and Johnston, both 18, have been unable to break into the reserve team in their first year as pros. Athletic still have 33 professionals — an expensive exercise and also one which holds back their promising trainees. 

They gave free transfers to David McNiven and Iain Swan last week and will go on making cutbacks over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Ritchie has given a cautious welcome to Athletic's FA Cup third-round draw at either Preston or Enfield. The Ryman League side earned a 0-0 draw at Deepdale on Saturday and the replay takes a place a week tomorrow. 

Ritchie said: "It's not a bad draw. Preston could be quite lucrative and it would be a game both sides thought they could win. "Enfield wouldn't be as much of a pull and they would be a bigger banana skin than Chelmsford were in the first round." In the Auto Windscreens Shield, Athletic were given a bye into the second round. 

OLDHAM ATHLETIC 1, SWANSEA 0

MORE than any other club in the last decade, Athletic know how it feels to pluck the bitterest item from the FA Cup goody bag. In this second-round match against valiant Swansea, the beaten semi-finalists of 1990 and ‘94 exacted a small measure of revenge on the most famous club competition in the world. This time it was the Welshmen who dominated higher-profile rivals, only to end up with the specious tag of gallant losers. Athletic, for their part, showed bags of determination to hold on to Steve Whitehall’s first-half goal, but still needed their goalkeeper to bail them out at the end. Twice in the last 13 minutes, Gary Kelly pulled off fabulous saves to repel the Swansea barrage. The second stop — from Steve Watkin’s header two minutes from time — bordered on the miraculous. On the only occasion Kelly was beaten, Whitehall popped up to clear off the line and deny the third division visitors a replay. The moment summed up Athletic’s afternoon, for this was a game in which sheer will to win overcame the flaws of the performance itself. Before Whitehall struck in first-half injury time, Athletic had been groping in the dark. They were blind to the few options open to them and unable to find any real sense of direction. For a while, the goal was like a shaft of light illuminating their path into the third round. But, after they failed to add to their lead, Swansea were decidedly unlucky not to take the shine off their afternoon.

Manager Andy Ritchie made three changes from the dire home defeat against Colchester, also casting aside his preferred formation. The return of a strict 4-4-2 system saw Mark Allott pushed out to the right in place of the injured Neil Adams and allowed Whitehall his first start for two months. At the back, Mark Hotte and Ben Futcher made way for the far more experienced pair of Shaun Garnett and Richard Graham. Both players stood up well to Swansea’s useful forward line, with Garnett’s aerial strength proving a necessity against 6ft 5ins Julian Alsop. His power has been missed in recent weeks. But, with Allott and Paul Rickers on the flanks, Athletic had no natural width. The supply line was poor and the lack of a wing-back to overlap and add penetration meant they couldn’t pull the visitors out of shape. Although the goal did eventually come from a cross, Ritchie remedied the problem with a half-time switch. Scott McNiven moved back to sweeper, Craig Dudley went to wing-back and Allott was restored up front — a major rejig which saw Athletic look far more comfortable and increase their attacking options no end. Swansea, who knocked Premiership club West Ham out of last year’s competition, had the confidence to impose themselves from the start. With striker Watkin running intelligently, it was soon clear that they had no intention of playing exclusively for a replay. They were kept at arm’s length, however, and, with Athletic also struggling to make inroads, the tie had a scrappy beginning.

It was lifted from its rut after 25 minutes thanks to a clever reverse pass from Swansea’s Jonathon Coates. The dangerous midfield man released full-back Michael Howard, who cut in from the left and cracked his 18-yard shot against the outside of a post. The hosts had their first sight of goal on the half-hour when Graham’s effort was charged down following a corner. But there was little more to warm up the crowd until Athletic grabbed the lead with a goal which was not only against the run of play, but also out of the blue. The move began with a burst from defence by McNiven and soon left Allott in space on the right. Allott’s looping cross didn’t seem to carry much menace until Whitehall again showed his poacher’s instinct by heading it deftly inside the far post from eight yards. Sadly, the striker’s fourth goal in six games prompted an outbreak of fighting in the away end. Several spectators were led away by police before the start of the second half. On the field, Ritchie’s change of system almost paid off in the 53rd minute when Whitehall fired wide from Andrew Holt’s pass. Holt himself could have done better after Dudley’s run and cross showed the virtue of having a wide man able to beat defenders for pace. Swansea threw caution to the wind by bringing on a third forward in Jamaican World Cup star Walter Boyd, but Athletic’s best spell of the match continued with good chances for Rickers and Lee Duxbury. After visiting centre-back Matthew Bound escaped lightly with a yellow card for clattering Dudley, Swansea hit back to lay siege to Athletic’s goal. Kelly made his first brilliant save from Coates, whose 25-yard thunderbolt was heading for the top corner, then Whitehall cleared Alsop’s header off the line from the resulting corner. When Kelly somehow clawed away Watkin’s 88th-minute header — an effort which looked for all the world like Swansea’s longed-for equaliser — Athletic’s passage was finally sealed.

Swansea were the better side, admits Ritchie

ATHLETIC boss Andy Ritchie conceded his side had used a slice of good fortune to reach their third-round tie against Preston or non-league Enfield. Clutching a celebratory pint of lager, Ritchie compared the result to England’s win in the Euro 2000 play-offs. “Swansea were probably the better side but, a la the Scotland game, we’re through,” the manager said. “We might have had one or two more goals, but they could have scored a couple as well. “We had people playing today — Richard Graham, John Sheridan and a couple of others with niggles — who hadn’t trained all week and it wasn’t a vintage performance. “I thought we made it even-stevens in the first half without playing well, then we flowed much better after half-time. “But we lost it again in the last 20 minutes and Swansea bombarded us.” Ritchie altered his strategy for the match, but later admitted that the move had not paid off.

He said: “With Neil Adams injured and us not wanting to lose Craig Dudley’s potency up front, we decided to try a 4-4-2 with Mark Allott out wide. “Craig wasn’t at his best, so we went back to the formation the lads are more settled with and he put in some great crosses. “Our best system is 3-5-2 and it paid dividends in the second half. “A lot of people have been having a knock at Neil, but this game showed that we missed him. “I knew it would be a hard battle whatever we did, because Swansea are a good side. “They raised their game and we needed to do the same to rise above them. We just didn’t do it consistently.” John Hollins, who has come under fire during Swansea’s mediocre start to the season, took heart from his team’s display. He said: “We played very well in the first half and overall it was encouraging. “We frustrated Oldham and made sure the crowd got on to them, but we conceded a poor goal against the run of play. “We changed things around a bit for the last 25 minutes and went with three up front — you don’t get anything in the FA Cup if you don’t go for it. “I was sure we were going to score and, if we had, we would have got a second.”

Two held over football clash

TWO Swansea men were arrested during Saturday's Oldham Athletic match after trouble flared during half-time. A goal scored seconds before the whistle blew prompted Oldham fans into celebratory chanting and fighting broke out between fans at the Swansea end. Extra police were deployed to the area to help stewards restore order among the fans, and two people were arrested. One man was charged with a public-order offence and the second was charged with a racially-aggravated public-order offence. 

They were given police bail and will appear before magistrates in Oldham on Wednesday. Later, at around 6.45 pm, Swansea fans who stayed in Royton for a drink were attacked by a group of Oldham fans. Police responded to reports that around 40 youths were involved in a skirmish near the Old Grey Mare pub in Oldham Road. A 34-year-old Swansea man received a cut to the head and a window was smashed in a hire van, which the fans had used to travel to Oldham. Officers escorted the van out of the Oldham area to prevent further trouble between the two groups. 

City team forced to flee hotel blaze
Bristol City players were evacuated from a hotel in the early hours after revellers started a chimney fire.  The players were staying at Careys Manor Hotel in the New Forest in Hampshire before their 2-0 victory over Bournemouth in the FA Cup.  They were evacuated with 80 other guests at about 1.30am after a drunken party of businessmen threw hotel furniture – including two wooden chairs and a coffee table – on to a log fire.  Firefighters climbed on to the hotel roof to pour water down the chimney.  An estimated £20,000 damage was caused .  Hotel manager Paul Halliwell said: “The players were staying in the new wing of the hotel, away from the main lounge where the fire was.  “The private dinner party had moved into the lounge and they had had an awful lot to drink – they were putting extra logs on to the fire.  “The blaze started when the logs were built up to a silly height and a couple of hotel chairs and a table found their way on to the fire.  “We are investigating the incident which caused a lot of damage.”  Bristol City captain Shaun Taylor said: “The alarm woke us up and it went on ringing for about three minutes.  “We got dressed and went outside — it was a bitter night.  “There was a roll call and we went back in after about half an hour.”  Two London businessmen were questioned by police before being bailed until January.