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Filipe Morais: influence of experience

Morais: Older heads must have impact on young guns
IF the football universe was a just one, Athletic reckon they would be poised for a final push towards the top six.

Nine points gained from the last three matches would have left the team joint-eighth in npower League One, five points adrift of Notts County in the last play-off spot with two games in hand.

Instead, the fates have conspired to snatch three quick-fire defeats against Scunthorpe, Yeovil and most recently Stevenage.

Tales of what may have been are one thing.

Quite another is the hard-nosed reality that Athletic have shot themselves in the foot more than once this season — particularly over the last eight days.

For winger Filipe Morais, the most unforgiving lessons — such as the melting of the defence which allowed Lawrie Wilson to head home a stoppage-time winner on Tuesday night — must be heeded quickly by Dickov’s youngest charges.

“You look at the table and if we had picked up three wins, we would be right up there,” said Morais, contributor of the team’s sole shot on target in a battling, but

unsuccessful effort at the Lamex Stadium two nights ago.

“It is about fine lines in football. And that is why we are playing League One and not Championship or Premier League – because in the 90th minute, Patrice Evra (the Manchester United defender) is not going to let his man go.

“We try to say it on the pitch because we know those mistakes have been coming. I just hope the young players are learning.

“We have a lot of young players and while that is good in some ways, it can mean you are lacking experience.

“We need to help them.”

Strident verbal exchanges that took place between the players at Stevenage provided evidence not of a team going through the motions, clutch down and coasting towards the end of the campaign, but one with plenty still to prove.

Never more so than at bottom-of-the-table Rochdale on Saturday.

That is a game likely to be equally as demanding on the body as the Boro test, but Morais dismisses suggestions that Athletic may feel the physical pinch of a nine-match month of March.

“Everyone has to recover properly and if you do that, you will be fine,” he said.

“I felt fine and I have played Saturday and Tuesday for three weeks now.

“There are a lot of players younger than me and they should be fresh. Shefki Kuqi (35) runs more than anyone. There are no excuses.

“Recover, be men and get on with it with a massive game on Saturday to look forward to.”

Fired-up Morais, at least, is certainly itching to get back out into the action at Spotland in order to arrest the three-game losing run and gain local pride.

He added: “To battle away so hard against a physical team like Stevenage, to take the knocks and put your body on the line, and then concede in the 91st minute is just so annoying. You just want to smash something.

“Everyone is annoyed. But we have a big derby game to look forward to. We pick ourselves up and will be buzzing for it.

“The hunger is there for me to put it right in the next game and I just hope everyone else feels the same.”