And for your next trick, Mr Corney . . .

STEPHEN ROBINSON...not afraid to make brave calls

IT is 12 months to the day since John Sheridan was spotted sitting on a red faux-leather chair in a coffee shop not far from Athletic's ground.

Deal done over a cappuccino, back came the legend to save the club from its perilous position.

Then off he went to Notts County.

Athletic stressed the need for a swift appointment. Instead, the process dragged on. In came Steve Evans - or so they thought, before an abrupt U-turn.

Another hunt ended with Stephen Robinson stepping in, with a whirl of 22 players following in his wake.

As it turns out, changing the entire squad from one season to the next is not a recipe for success.

Plenty has happened in the last year. But the surge of optimism under Sheridan, which brought with it some rare hope among supporters, is long gone.

Lacking any stability on the playing front, the club are very much back to square one, hunkered down in survival mode and searching for another saviour.

ENTHUSIASTIC
Where did it go wrong for Robinson - a bright, enthusiastic character and well thought-of coach who was not afraid to make brave calls (such as banning directors from taking seats on the team coach)?

The feeling at board level is that at this stage of the season, the man they brought in on Sean O'Driscoll's recommendation had not lived up to the hopes invested in him.

The former Northern Ireland first-team coach could not get his side scoring goals. Only 12 have come so far in the league in 24 matches, with not one in the last five in all competitions.

Form at home, such a problem for a host of recent managers bar Sheridan, was again a massive issue. One win in the league all term in front of the club's season-ticket holders is a poor return.

Four goals at SportsDirect.com Park in the league is not acceptable. Robinson knew that as much as anybody.

An FA Cup second-round defeat at non-league Lincoln City a month ago particularly irked chairman Simon Corney.

Then, with the league campaign ailing badly and money so tight that a registration embargo was imposed by the Football League due to unpaid bills, came this week's Checkatrade Trophy loss at League Two club Mansfield.

It was another £40,000 in prize money lost.

FROSTY

Relations between chairman and manager have been frosty for quite some time. Yet despite the on-field results, supporters have generally been sympathetic to Robinson.

It wasn't quite the impossible job, but with Athletic the last club in the division to make any new signings ahead of 2016-17, picking out diamonds wasn't exactly easy.

A solid defence, marshalled by Peter Clarke and with a highly-talented goalkeeper in Connor Ripley behind him, was not matched by a potent attack.

The outstanding Ripley has been playing through a severe hand injury of late, but one or two of the loans brought in at the other end of the field have been found wanting in terms of grit and desire to put their bodies on the line.

Still, the margins between success and failure are so slight in League One that had even a handful more chances found the net then Athletic would be sitting in lower mid-table right now.

If and when the embargo was lifted, Robinson wanted to use this month to find a way to solve the scoring woes and the addition of three new players - a centre-back, an attack-minded midfielder and a target man - could have helped to turn things back his way.

After all, the gap to safety is still only three points and Athletic have two games in hand over their near-rivals.

But like David Dunn before him, the weight of results pressured the board into denying him that opportunity.

Now the goal for Corney is to repeat last year's pulling of a rabbit out of the hat.