Fair play to Barry

LATICS chairman Simon Corney has praised Barry Owen for identifying how poor discipline cost Athletic last season.

Athletic have the best disciplinary record in League One — and chairman Simon Corney says director Barry Owen has had a large part to play.

The FA’s ‘Fair Play’ table shows that in 19 fixtures, Athletic have racked up 17 yellow cards and no reds — which compares well to last season’s 91 yellows and five dismissals and is currently the joint best record in the whole of the Football League.

Corney says Owen identified slack discipline as a big problem last term. Corney believes the new-look Athletic have had better results since the overhaul, which has allowed manager Lee Johnson to keep a settled side.

“Our disciplinary record is fantastic,” Corney told the Chronicle. “It is something Barry took it on himself to look into. He sat down with the manager and the players and stressed the importance of cleaning up our act.

“He showed that teams that traditionally do well have better records on yellow and red cards - it could well have given us an extra three or four points already.”

With another low turnout predicted for the FA Cup first-round home tie against Leyton Orient on Saturday, Corney stressed that until crowds improve Athletic’s commitment to plugging the funding gaps will have to include selling players.

This season Athletic has made a profit on paying out a fee for Dominic Poleon while selling Jonson Clarke-Harris. It is that sort of cycle which will need to be repeated with attendances so far below the break-even barrier of 6,500 and 7,000.

Corney said: “It is what it is. People try to find reasons why crowds are low and in reality there are a multitude of factors.”



ATHLETIC forward Jonathan Forte has picked up the PFA Fans’ Player of the Month award for October.

Forte is also up for the Football League monthly prize, along with his manager Lee Johnson.