29th November 1999   

Wrexham reports
injuries pile up

ATHLETIC will be hard at work in the treatment room this week as they bid to get three key players back on track. Making the most of a rare few days without a match, the Boundary Park backroom staff can focus on the fitness of Neil Adams, Richard Graham and Craig Dudley. All three missed Saturday's goalless draw with Wrexham but would be certain to return once fully recovered. The next match is at second-placed Preston on Saturday and manager Andy Ritchie will want all his top players available for a major test of Athletic's fine away form. The most likely to be fit is Dudley, who failed a late test on his thigh problem before the Wrexham game. Ritchie admitted that the striker's absence was keenly felt as Athletic failed to score for the first time in nearly two months. 

Adams, who suffered a hamstring strain a fortnight ago, will also be hopeful of making the Lancashire derby. The kind of injury he sustained usually needs two or three weeks to heal, so the experienced wing-back is now counting down the days. Graham, however, is already rated as doubtful due to the strained back muscles which are continuing to trouble him. The injury-plagued defender needs to rest until the inflammation settles down and Ritchie said: "If we push Richard to play, the problem won't clear up. "We don't want to be in the realms of him playing on Saturdays but not training all week." No new injuries were reported after Saturday so, if one or two of the walking wounded can recover, competition for places at Deepdale will be intense. Several squad members will be out to impress when Athletic reserves entertain Burnley tomorrow night. 

Kelly the hero again as Latics suffer an attack of home nerves 
OLDHAM ATHLETIC 0, WREXHAM 0 

IT is one of life’s great mysteries how the same 11 footballers can look like two utterly different teams. After the composed and fluent display at Bristol City only four day earlier, Athletic were suddenly stage-struck when confronted with Wrexham and, more importantly, a home crowd. They looked short of ideas and lacking in self-belief, needing a magnificent save by Gary Kelly to earn their first goalless draw for an amazing 59 matches. The one big bonus from a nondescript afternoon was that Athletic didn’t lose a game which, earlier in the season, would probably have gone against them. The point was secured not only by Kelly’s acrobatics, but with a durability they are showing more often. The knack of grinding out results has seen them rise to 14th place — equalling the highest position of Andy Ritchie’s reign — but the fans we-ren’t exactly doing ca-rtwheels out of the exit gates. For this was another example of Boundary Park playing tricks on the mind, seeming to blunt the sharpness of thought Athletic often show in away games. They began nervously, transmitted their fears to the crowd and could do nothing to prevent that burden from crushing their chances of victory. Wrexham goalkeeper Kevin Dearden was tested only once, while the visiting forwards had half a dozen clear sights of goal.

Despite that, Athletic defended well. It was in and around their opponents’ penalty area that they fell a long way short of their best. In that decisive position, they again missed Craig Dudley’s ability to offer something different and direct. Their attacks were too ponderous and the final ball was usually hopeful rather than loaded with goalscoring intent. It was a virtual carbon copy of the Bristol City match, only with Athletic switching roles. Wrexham were businesslike and tidy, alive to the gaps and giving options to the man in possession. Athletic, on the other hand, were unable to keep the ball for more than a few passes, particularly in the final third where there was little link-up between Mark Allott and Steve Whitehall. That meant they couldn’t relieve the pressure and, even more than usual, looked to John Sheridan as the only source of invention. Sheridan did the job well and also covered acres of ground, probably in annoyance at the lack of support he received. Wrexham, meanwhile, leaned heavily on tricky winger Robin Gibson, who had a fascinating tussle with his marker, Andrew Holt. It was one the Athletic man just about shaded to add his own contribution to a sterling effort at the back. Other than the odd lapse, both Scott McNiven and Mark Hotte were terrific, producing some excellent covering tackles when Athletic were stretched. And they needed to as Wrexham served up almost all of the best moves and, in Neil Roberts and Craig Faulconbridge, had a front pairing with strength and ingenuity.

If their finishing had matched their approach play, those two would surely have consigned Athletic to a sixth defeat in 10 home League games. Indeed, Wrexham could have gone ahead after only 50 seconds when midfield man Kevin Russell sent a dipping 30-yard lob just wide of Kelly’s goal. Russell was again at the heart of things in the 16th minute when his drive from just outside the box had the ‘keeper at full stretch. There was another chance for the Welshmen when former Manchester United midfielder Darren Ferguson delivered a free-kick which Faulconbridge headed over. It took 28 minutes for Athletic to muster a serious effort, but Allott’s shot from 20 yards didn’t have the direction to match its power. Just before half-time, Lee Duxbury dived into a melee of flying boots to go close with a header. But, in stoppage time, Athletic were furious with referee John Kirkby, who ignored claims that Duxbury was shoved in the area when there did look a clear-cut case for a penalty. It was similar fare after the break, with Wrexham having most of the chances while Athletic failed to make use of their possession. Roberts shot wildly when well placed before, on the hour, Kelly again confounded logic with his latest stunning save. Faulconbridge’s header from only six yards looked certain to make the breakthrough until the ‘keeper flung himself to his right and palmed it away to safety.

Wrexham counterpart Dearden then pulled off a fine stop of his own when Holt met a corner at close range, while Duxbury flashed a far-post effort wide when he should have done better. Roberts squandered a great opening 17 minutes from time after McNiven missed a long ball and, when Wrexham were denied a penalty for handball against Shaun Garnett, frustration began to build in both camps. Athletic’s was summed up in a brief, but furious argument between Kelly and Duxbury. On the other side, Gibson was lucky to avoid a red card when he aimed a kick at Allott. It was one of those days — a point apiece maybe, but neither team can have gone home satisfied with the outcome. 

Players looked scared to make mistakes - Ritchie

ANDY RITCHIE looked back on the latest failure to win at Boundary Park and said: “There seems to be a jinx.” The Athletic manager always insists he would rather play at home than away, but he admitted that his players have a fear of failure at their own ground. “They seem to be apprehensive,” Ritchie said. “They don’t play with the same fluidity and they are nowhere near as relaxed. “They look scared to make mistakes because they don’t want the fans on their backs. “If we start to pass the ball like we do in away games we will get much better results here. “I thought we gave Wrexham a bit too much respect, which may be down to me because I told the lads they would be playing a good side who like to pass the ball quickly. “Wrexham always seem to play well here and the two they had up front (Neil Roberts and Craig Faulconbridge) gave us problems. “In the first half we stood off too much and let them play. It needed Andy Holt to impose himself on their winger more and when we moved him we got to grips with them better. “I thought we defended well in the second half, but we missed Craig Dudley up front. “At the end, it was probably a point gained rather than two dropped. “It wasn’t a classic and it wasn’t a great performance, but at least we’ve moved up a place. 

“I’m happy that we kept a clean sheet because it was important we didn’t lose. “We don’t profess to have got it right yet. Until we are playing well week in, week out we can’t give ourselves the luxury of saying we’re a good side.” Ritchie picked out defender Mark Hotte for special praise and thought Gary Kelly’s second-half save from Faulconbridge was “world-class”. But he was disappointed Athletic weren’t given a penalty when Lee Duxbury looked to be pushed just before the break. “The referee told me he almost booked Dux for diving,” Ritchie revealed, adding: “I’m afraid it’s all beyond me.” Wrexham boss Brian Flynn felt Athletic were lucky to take a point after having a number of close shaves. He said: “It’s a game we should have won. We had our chances but didn’t take them. “It isn’t often in away games that you get golden opportunities like we had in the second half. “The save Kelly made was of the highest quality, but our passing and movement were good and we played well collectively.”

Granted that this was just a point onto the league table but there are significant improvements in our play. We were more dominant than our performance at Millwall and we managed to take the game into the opponent's area, unlike against Cambridge in midweek.

Wrexham dominated almost all of the first half with the Latics only creating goal chances in the final few minutes. The second half was more even but still with Wrexham the better side with the better chances. Following the interval, Wrexham should have found the back of the net on at least three occasions. Disappointing finishing was the biggest cause of the lack of goals but also one fantastic save by Gary Kelly between the Oldham sticks.

Wrexham played 4-4-2 with all three midweek substitutes making the starting line-up this time. Losing their places from against Cambridge were Steve Roberts, Gareth Owen and Karl Connolly. The latter two were dropped to the substitutes bench, this despite Gareth having been MotM on Tuesday. Steve Roberts on the other hand was probably still suffering from a head clash in midweek.

The most significant influence on this match was Robin Gibson and I suspect that few Wrexham supporters will be surprised by that. Robin was definitely my MotM in what was his first full league match this season. I could not imagine any of Wrexham's other right wingers contributing to the match at the same level. On two occasions Robin ran half the length of the field to thwart potentially dangerous Oldham attacks - he reminded me of what they used to say about Ian Rush (pre-Wrexham days!) in that he was Liverpool's first defender. On the attacking front, Robin gave the Oldham left back a torrid time and Andrew Holt was lucky only to have seen the one yellow card. Both of Oldham's bookings were for fouls on Gibson - Shaun Garnett's "studs up to injure" policy should also have seen red instead of yellow.

Towards the end of the game, Robin Gibson began to show signs of tiring which may justify Brian Flynn's reluctance to have played him earlier following an eight month lay-off. Mind you it won't be long before Robin is back again receiving treatment if players are given such a lack of protection as shown by the tosh refereeing of Mr Kirkby. Krikby wasn't biased, he was just plain poor although the bookings ratio of two against the home side compared to our three shows an unjustified imbalance.

Wrexham's chances in the first half consisted of a couple of long shots from Rooster and a couple of headers, one of which from Faulconbridge was a great chance but fired over. These chances did not reflect Wrexham's control of the match as we should have been able to penetrate the penalty area more often.

Towards the end of the first half, Oldham started to push forward - maybe their tactic was to lull Wrexham into a false sense of superiority. Although it seemd to work for five minutes, most of the second half proved this it wasn't the case. Oldham had what seemed like a valid penalty appeal when a Latic was felled by Rooster as a far post cross beyond Dearden looked a potential goal-maker. Right at the end of the first half John Sheridan fired a low hard shot that looked in to me and I wasn't being all that pessimistic.

At half time Gareth Owen came on for Dave Ridler, presumably because of an injury since the swap involved the influencial Danny Williams filling the gap at centre back.

In the second half, Oldham picked it up a bit and went close on a couple of occasions - a near post corner on the right caused a bit of a panic and a low cross from the left also looked dangerous.

However the real quality chances were at our end of the field with some periods of intense pressure hinting that it wasn't a matter of would we score but when. A free-kick from the left, level with the penalty area, was met on the head by Craig Faulconbridge with a thundering contact. Celebrations had already started when 'keeper Kelly punched the ball away - an absolutely fantastic save.

As someone walked in front of me with their newly purchased meat pie, Neil Roberts was played clear on goal through the left channel - I missed how this was done but it was probably very neat. Anyway, Neil went for the "break the back of the net" option but didn't have the pre-requisite accuracy to achieve his goal.

Although Kelly gave an impressive performance in terms of saving chances, he did have a bit of a barmy with one of his defenders following a half-chance for Gareth Owen in a goal mouth scramble.

Had Neil Roberts managed to score following a great long ball from Gareth Owen it would have been a certain contender for Wrexham's goal of the season. Neil received the ball just outside the area and cut inside right back McNiven to set himself up. His curling shot, aimed towards the bottom right hand corner took the slightest of deflections off the goalkeeper to skim past the right hand upright. Mr Kirkby, probably still deep in Wrexham's half of the pitch, gave a goal-kick.

It it wasn't Kelly to save Oldham it was Mr Kirkby as the official failed to penalise for a foul on Robin Gibson that would otherwise have seen the winger clear through on goal. It was blatant for us but Mr Kirkby was again poorly positioned (being very kind here) and didn't see an offence. There wasn't much hope either of the official seeing a handball incident inside the penalty area when the Latics were starting to flag. Mr Yellow Flag was ideally positioned for that one but his level of concentration was on a par with his boss.

Final Wrexham attempt was a Craig Faulconbridge curler from about 20 yards that may well have been dipping underneath the Oldham crossbar before Gary Kelly, yet again came to the rescue. The Latics official MotM was their number 8 - Oldham supporters' denial of their dependence on an excellent goalkeeping display is bemusing.

So Wrexham have now gone an amazing 11 matches without victory. The streak deserved to be beaten today as it did at Millwall. Lowly Blackpool at home is next, it would be nice to think that increases our chances but I doubt it.