It was another case of Athletic not finishing their chances off yet again which led to a 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield Town. The visitors had their fair share of possession and chances but, and this is getting repetitious, they couldn't find the net. They outplayed the hosts and to an impartial observer, the Latics looked like the team vying for a play-off spot.
Manager Dave Penney could not believe how his team could play so well and still come away from the Galpharm Stadium empty handed. In his after game sum up he said, "Our performance was excellent, the possession we had was excellent and we made chances, but it can be a cruel game. The second goal was irrelevant as we were gambling with 10 men to get something out of the game. We had three or four decent chances and, I am afraid, that has been the story of our season, a failure to take them. We then made a mistake and conceded our first goal, and that sums us up."
Goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan was given a recall along with Dean Furman and Danny Whitaker. In the opening minutes Lewis Guy missed a good chance from six yards after a Chris Taylor left wing cross left him with an open net. Pawel Abbott was dreadfully unlucky on two occasions and Whitaker saw his shot land on the roof of the net. This all happened before the Terriers took the lead in the 39th minute after Reuben Hazell made a hash of a headed clearance and Robinson made the most of it. Town moved to a 4-5-1 formation to help stem the attacking play from Athletic but the Latics suffered a major blow when the were reduced to ten men after Kieran Lee was sent off for a second bookable offence with a quarter of an hour still to play.
Tom Eaves and Joe Colbeck made their regular cameo appearances with 10 minutes to go and Eaves almost made the most of his chance but he sliced a volley wide of the goal instead of becoming the hero of the night. Huddersfield managed to hang on and Robinson scored again in injury time to make certain of the points, much to the relieve of their own fans who were biting their nails for the final whistle.
Athletic are still not out of the woods and it will need another performance to emulate the success over Gillingham when Bristol Rovers visit Boundary Park on Saturday. It's going to be a tense run-in to the end of the season.