March 13th, 2000    

Graham injured yet again!!!!

ATHLETIC'S Richard Graham is struggling with yet another injury . . . picked up while playing in the garden with his son. The jinxed defender, who has already missed more than half of the season through injury, suffered a groin strain when he slipped during a gentle kick-about. Graham had a fitness test on Saturday morning but was ruled out of the goalless draw at Wycombe Wanderers. Although the problem could ease up over the next few days, he is already rated as doubtful for next weekend's home match with Bristol City. Graham spent nine months on the sidelines last year after undergoing major surgery on his knee. His comeback lasted only 10 games before he was hit by a back problem which forced him out for another two months. 

The unlucky 25-year-old was beginning to recover his form and fitness until suffering the freak injury at the end of last week. His place in the team was already under threat as —unusually at this stage of the season — Athletic are almost totally free of injuries and suspensions. Their only absentees at the moment are Neil Adams and striker Mark Allott, who is close to returning from a pulled hamstring. Shaun Garnett and Matthew Tipton have seen out their bans and will be fighting for recalls on Saturday when manager Andy Ritchie tries to juggle a very competitive squad. Ritchie is hoping for some action on the transfer front this week as eight of his players remain up for sale. Three can go for free, Tipton, Paul Beavers and Mark Innes are also on the list and contract rebels Allott and Scott McNiven have made no moves to accept the terms on offer. There have been no firm enquiries about any of the players as yet, although a handful of clubs have contacted Athletic about their asking prices. Ritchie's chances of making a signing before next week's transfer deadline depend heavily on whether he can offload someone beforehand.

ATHLETIC heeded their manager’s warning on Saturday to earn a creditable draw thanks to 90 minutes of cool, composed defending. Andy Ritchie ordered his troops to tighten up at the back after an error-strewn run which had seen them drop too many points to rate as dark horses in the race for the play-offs. They followed his instructions to the letter in a low-key affair with 0-0 written all over it long before the final whistle blew. Wycombe, however, fielded a team decimated by injuries to vital players. Athletic were the better side throughout and, had they found a sharper edge in their opponents’ third of the field, could have seized a morale-boosting away win to launch them on the final lap of the second division season. On a day borrowed from summer, Adams Park made a lovely setting for football. A trim little stadium surrounded on three sides by natural greenery, it provided a wholly appropriate stage for ‘The Beautiful Game’. And the game was, for the most part, perfectly pleasant. It was open, played in good spirit and had an agreeable, consistent rhythm. In short, it made for a nice day out. But football hardly sets the pulse racing if it is merely ‘nice’, no matter that both teams seem happy to settle for what they have.

Even when it is a mid-table filler with, realistically, no bearing on promotion or relegation, it needs something extra. The missing ingredient here was the burning intensity which, whatever the standard of play, gives hope that something dramatic is about to happen. It wasn’t a fault in attitude as all the players fought hard for their point and showed plenty of commitment. Maybe it was just the situation but, of the 40 matches Athletic have played this season, this must go down as the most forgettable of them all. Credit, of course, should go to the respective defences. Although Wycombe were stretched more frequently, they stayed solid against a front two of Steve Whitehall and Craig Dudley. Both strikers used their heads to seek out the few openings available but usually had to forage strictly as a pair, rather than finding support from midfield. Athletic’s backline, despite lacking Richard Graham and Shaun Garnett, was highly organised, with Paul Jones showing great confidence as the spare man of the three. Athletic also had the upper hand in midfield, where John Sheridan ran the show and both Mark Innes and the purposeful Lee Duxbury dug in well. The day’s potential for goals lay mostly with the fastest men on the pitch, Dudley for Athletic and Jermaine McSporran for Wycombe. The longer the match wore on, the clearer it became that the jet-heeled duo would be prime movers in any ending of the stalemate. It was instructive to compare the two and, despite McSporran’s high reputation, Dudley came out on top. His running had greater direction and more realistic intention. McSporran may be a yard quicker, but he spent more time down blind alleys than beating a clear path to goal.

Graham’s 150th league appearance was delayed when he failed a fitness test on a groin injury. As the suspended Garnett was also missing from what would have been the first-choice defence, Jones kept his place, Scott McNiven moved back into the centre and Paul Rickers played on the right. But Athletic’s selection problems were nothing in contrast to Wycombe’s. The hosts were without six players, most tellingly Sean Devine, the division’s joint-leading scorer, who was a late withdrawal with a groin strain. Dudley’s pace was evident after only five minutes, with the forward beating Mark Rogers to a loose ball before having his shot blocked at the near post. Wycombe replied with McSporran’s deflected drive and a header from Rogers which sailed over Gary Kelly’s crossbar. Athletic almost took the lead after 19 minutes when some typical scrapping from Duxbury set up Sheridan, whose 20-yard snapshot was superbly saved by Martin Taylor. Another Dudley burst then led to an Athletic corner, which Jones met with power but inaccuracy at the far post. It had all the makings of a decent contest, particularly as both sides were playing through midfield and getting the ball out wide.

And that impression was confirmed when home midfielder Mo Harkin skipped inside and crashed in a long-distance drive which Kelly did well to turn away with his fingertips. Athletic’s biggest scare came when McSporran streaked away down the left and hit the deck under a challenge from Jones. It did seem a genuine attempt to win the ball, but Wycombe were certain it should have been a penalty — and, as manager Lawrie Sanchez said afterwards: “It’s hard to trip yourself up when you’re travelling at a hundred miles per hour.” Just before the break, it was Athletic’s turn to go close, again through Dudley. The striker cleverly flicked the ball up at the near post, only for his audacious over-the-shoulder volley to loop a few inches too high. With 55 minutes gone, Athletic were back on the attack as Whitehall fired over when he might have done better. They kept the initiative with neat possession football and, as Wycombe’s front pairing struggled to make any impact, switched into cruise control for most of the second half. Whitehall was again in the thick of the action when his header from a Rickers cross had Taylor flinging himself across goal. The next opening fell to Wycombe, but it was self-inflicted by Athletic after Mark Hotte’s back header had ’keeper Kelly scrambling to clear his lines. Wycombe’s best moment arrived in the 82nd minute when McSporran accelerated away from two tackles before screwing his shot a couple of feet wide.Athletic, though, remained much more likely winners and headed home frustrated that their command of the game had brought only a single-point reward.

TEAMS

WYCOMBE: Taylor, Carroll, Vinnicombe, Rogers, Cousins, Harkin (Bulman 68), Holsgrove, Simpson, Brown, Thompson, (Senda 68), McSporran. Subs (not used): Beeton, Brady, Westhead.

ATHLETIC: Kelly, Hotte, Jones, S McNiven, Rickers, Holt, Duxbury (Boshell 88), Sheridan, Innes, Whitehall, Dudley. Subs (not used): Futcher, Thom, Beavers, Miskelly.

AFTER Athletic had taken their first point in three visits to Adams Park, playmaker John Sheridan revealed there was a hint of disappointment in the dressing room. It was the second time this season that Sheridan and his side had dominated a game against Wycombe, and the second time they had been held to a draw. “We played some good stuff and probably deserved to win,” Sheridan said. “There weren’t a lot of chances, but we definitely created the better ones. “We’ve played Wycombe off the park twice now. We must have created about 28 chances when they came to our place, so it’s safe to say we had the better of that one. “But we’ve shown a bit of character by not getting beaten and the important thing is to stay away from the bottom of the league — we aren’t quite safe yet. “Personally, I enjoyed the game very much. I had a bit of space, which made things easier, and it was good to be able to play a bit.” 

Manager Andy Ritchie echoed Sheridan’s thoughts and also heaped praise on the display of his veteran midfielder. He said: “John will always cause problems if you give him time and space, which Wycombe probably made the mistake of doing. “The problem is that people don’t want to commit themselves and try to tackle him, just in case he makes them look stupid. “He helped us knock the ball around pretty well and, as always, we did our best to play football. “If I have one criticism, it’s that we sometimes try to knock it around too much. There are times when we need to get the ball in the box a bit more. “We had virtually all the possession and, if we had been a bit more ruthless, we would have got the win. “But this is another point in the right direction and we have to keep picking them  up because the games will come thick and fast now. “We’re still two or three players away from being a really good side, but the only problems Wycombe caused us were brought on by ourselves. “I’m pleased with the progress we’re making, although it does seem a bit strange that we’re playing better away than we are at home.”

Wycombe boss Lawrie Sanchez was content with the draw after seeing his squad hit by a succession of injuries. He said: “We had to cobble a team together today. People must have looked at the team sheet and thought ‘Who’s he?’, Who’s he?’, ‘Who’s he?’. “We didn’t create enough up front, but we stayed strong at the back and did well considering the side we had to put out.”