Early promise soon fades away

Photo: PICTURES by ALAN HOWARTH.

THROUGH HIS LEGS . . . Dominic Poleon makes his presence felt.

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Athletic 0, Bolton 2

ATHLETIC suffered defeat in the first home pre-season friendly of the summer.

First-half goals from Liam Feeney and Gary Madine gave Neil Lennon’s side a two-goal cushion at the break, and it could easily have been a much bigger lead.

Athletic, who struggled to deal with the probing of Stephen Dobbie and the movement of Feeney in the opening period, appeared more solid in the second half with the introduction of Lee Croft and Mike Jones.

And manager Darren Kelly will have again been pleased with the form shown by rookie defender George Edmundson, while also knowing that as it stands Athletic are seriously short of experience in the middle of defence.

Gavin Gunning, who remains a trialist, certainly offers leadership, but he is clearly and visibly a long way from full match fitness.

Kelly started with two trialists in the line-up and a third, Alen Ploj, on the bench. In from the off was Gunning once again at centre-back and also getting a run-out was former Exeter midfield man Jimmy Keohane.

Athletic started brightly with Carl Winchester at the hub of some neat passing moves. Bolton grew into the game after a slow start though, and livewire forward Feeney opened the scoring after springing the offside trap beyond a static defence to smash home a bouncing ball beyond Joel Coleman after 21 minutes.

Gunning put in a couple of telling blocks to prevent Neil Lennon’s men from being as many as four up at the break, with Madine and Feeney wasteful on the counter attack.

As it was, they had a two-goal lead thanks to Athletic’s sloppiness in failing to clear and Madine’s poaching power in nodding in at the far post after Josh Vela’s shot had looped up to him from a Bolton corner.

With Croft on at the start of the second period, Athletic were tougher to break down and had a glimpse of an opening only for Rhys Turner to fail to land a cross in play after getting in behind down the left.

A host of substitutions ruined the game as a spectacle, though they did help Athletic’s cause and Danny Philliskirk at least warmed the palms of Wanderers goalkeeper Ben Amos with a low 35-yard drive towards the centre of goal.