Step too far for wasteful Latics

Heads I win . . . Athletic striker Jonathan Forte goes close.

BOXER David Haye was on the pitch for a series of pre-match presentations, but here Athletic looked like the fading fighter seeking the final bell.

Promoting his latest comeback fight, Lions fan Haye handed out a player-of-the-season award to goalkeeper Jordan Archer.

His 20 clean sheets over the campaign have helped Millwall seal a play-off place, but the former Tottenham man can hardly have had an easier afternoon.

John Sheridan’s side are immune from a level of criticism due to the superb effort to secure safety with two games left. It is small wonder that difficult trip to a side buzzing with energy and intent proved a step too far.

However, even though they conceded twice to set pieces — centre-back Byron Webster capitalised on slack marking in the box in both halves — and to a slick raid down the right flank, the visitors had plenty of the game themselves.

FLUFFED

The problem was, every time an opportunity to score presented itself it was fluffed.

Jonathan Forte was a danger with his pace and willingness to make assertive runs, but a player who netted so clinically against Crewe a week earlier could not beat Archer with a volley while unmarked and six yards out.

In two minds whether to opt for placement or power as Curtis Main flicked a Liam Kelly cross into his path, a weak side-footed attempt found only the goalkeeper’s legs.

At that stage in the 48th minute, Athletic were two goals down and with a change to a 3-5-2 formation causing a few jitters for the home team, a halving of the deficit could have shaped the remainder of the contest very differently.

Sheridan’s made one change to his line-up — George Edmundson was mysteriously dropped from the 18, despite helping to keep consecutive clean sheets and being fit enough to travel and warm up beforehand — and James Wilson returned after an ankle injury.

With no centre-back cover on the bench, Athletic went with a 4-4-2 formation which saw Brian Wilson play at left-back, with Tareiq Holmes-Dennis in front of him and Lee Croft on the right of midfield.

The start was a poor one. Webster netted after only five minutes, heading down a Chris Taylor corner and through bodies in front of him in Athletic’s penalty area.

Athletic responded well, but almost conceded again when hard-running Steve Morison landed a 45-yard chip on the roof of Coleman’s goal as Millwall broke, before Joe Martin’s free-kick flicked the crossbar on its way over.

Sheridan’s side were two-down five minutes before the interval when Morison was freed down the right flank. His low centre was flicked on by Aiden O’Brien and Shane Ferguson was not tracked at the far post, firing in from close range.

Athletic’s counter-attacks lacked some of the pace and movement that had caused Southend problems and with Taylor lively on the right flank, the Lions were the more potent side.

Taylor spoke in the match day programme of his relief that there was little riding on this game for the club he grew up at and in his first appearance up against Athletic, he went close with a snap-shot that fizzed a couple of feet wide of Joel Coleman’s goal in the 63rd minute, having earlier warmed the goalkeeper’s palms before half-time with an effort directed too close to him.

Webster’s second, a close-range header which came after O’Brien had won the initial header from a free-kick swung into the area by Ferguson — a winger who had caused plenty of problems in the previous meeting, a game that marked David Dunn’s final game in charge.

Dominic Poleon has rarely been used in Sheridan’s subsequent tenure due to injury and later, the good form of Curtis Main and Forte. Presented with a golden chance to put his name on the score board, a bobbling ball in the area fell kindly for the striker in the closing stages. Four yards out on the half-volley and with nobody near him, the ex-Leeds man fired well over the top.

If anything had been riding on it, it was the sort of miss that can be harrowing. As it was, it merely summed up a rare poor afternoon for Athletic under Sheridan.

All that was left was for Millwall’s idiotic element to race onto the field at the final whistle to bravely taunt Athletic’s travelling fans stationed in the upper tier of the away end, as one fool decided it would be clever to slap Anthony Gerrard in the face before running away to hide.

It was a pathetic sight and a proud club deserves better.