Food fright!

Photo: Alan Howarth

ATHLETIC boss Stephen Robinson gives out instructions during a break in play.

ATHLETIC'S players have been hit with a FOOD embargo, it was revealed, as the club sunk to the foot of the Sky Bet League One table.

A 2-0 home defeat to Southend meant that a rotten 2016 at SportsDirect.com Park, featuring only four home league wins on Saturdays in the calendar year, ended on a low point.

Manager Stephen Robinson has put in place plans to strengthen his side if and when the club's transfer embargo is lifted. It is anticipated that will happen once the window re-opens on January 1.

But with the current players' planned Christmas outing to Newcastle cancelled at their own behest, it was revealed that a new sanction was imposed by chairman Simon Corney following the FA Cup defeat at Lincoln City earlier this month.

Athletic's squad no longer have free breakfasts and lunches at the club laid on in the new North Stand, and the players now have to provide their own food.

SHOULDERS

And for Robinson, it is now on the shoulders of his charges to find the mental and physical strength to cope with the challenges ahead.

"The chairman took away the food (after Lincoln) and there had to be a consequence," Robinson said. "The boys were fed and watered and treated very well.

"They haven't had that for two weeks and rightly so - there had to be a punishment.

"We stopped the Christmas parties and everything we couldand the boys wanted that as well, as they knew there had to be a consequence to that performance.

"We can't blame that. They are professional footballers and everyone who goes into an office doesn't get their food made for them.

"They have to take it on board themselves, so if they can't play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, we can only control so much of it. They have to live their lives right and I'm not saying they don't, but there is certainly something missing when it comes to the third game in a week."

After the latest loss saw Athletic go bottom of the division ahead of the Boxing Day test at Sheffield United, Robinson lamented the way his side flopped following a battling point at Oxford and a midweek victory in the Checkatrade Trophy at Walsall.

"The table doesn't look pretty and it doesn't lie. We are where we are because we have not been consistent enough and we have not scored goals," the manager added,

"You put in a brilliant performance on Tuesday night, a brilliant performance at Oxford with 10 men and then you get that. It's inexplicable.

"It seems to be that when players play on Tuesday nights, we really struggle with three games in a week.

'MIRROR'

"They have to look in the mirror at how they live their lives. We can only control them for four hours of the day in terms of fitness and what they do.

"The players were in a privileged position where a lot of things were done for them and that's been taken away, so they have to deal with that."