OLDHAM4ALWAYS

He might go straight in.

You could be right, but let's all get behind the team and get off to another good start. Hopefully we will be a fitter side that plays for 90mins now that the proper season begins.

Come on you blues.

Can we expect another signing - this time a centre back, or is that it ?

The lad signed from Blackburn can play at centre back,midfield or right back according to other reports.

Roll on Saturday especially now we have another goalie to put pressure on Brill.

A suprisingly keenly fought contest ended all square at BP, Latics were by far the better side in the first-half with Neal Eardley putting in a superb display (obviously the scouts were there). Chris Taylor's sublime finish was the difference at the break with Darren Byfield catching the eye too in a display of effort and endeavour.

 

Second-half we fell asleep at two corners and if i'm honest Dean Brill's fumble which led to the corner and the fact the header was straight at him again raised a question mark over his reliability. He did manage to finally make a save and a very good one too. Keigan Parker replaced Byfield and within a minute of us going 2-1 down the Scot crashed in a cracking dipping and curling free-kick in off the underside of the cross-bar. Latics could have won it with two pile drivers blocked from Kelvin Lomax and early in the second-half Pav should have made it 2-0 but could not keep his drive down. All in all a very good display and a marked improvement from Saturday's showing.

 

Brill - One good save, two dodgy goals from corners - especially the second one, a bullet maybe but straight at him

Eards - Best performance from him in a long time

Jacobson - steady, but went off injured in the second-half

Rubes - mUch better than Saturday, but lack of concentration cost goals again

Greegs - See Rubes

Holdsworth - Average

Furman - Again full of hardwork keeps the ball and put his foot in several times. Went off with cramp I hope

Worthy - Full of running and tackling, distrubution was ok

Taylor - Good finish and did well against higher opposition

Abbott - Should have scored with the chance at the Chaddy, some neat touches and was decent in the air

Byfield - Different player to the one we had on loan, put himself about and was a real thorn in the side of Boro's defenders

 

Subs:

Whits - Did ok on the right, but obsessed with short-corners!

Parker - Great goal, but all round impact was minimal, to be fair he was a sub in a friendly!

Rowney - On for 2 minutes

O'Grady - huffed and puffed

Lomax - Played as well as Eards did in the first-half and played on both flanks, looked to push forward much more than I have seen in the past.

 

All in all a decent workout, the Keeper still concerns me and I hope the knocks we've picked up are not serious. Boro put out a decent team including Aliadiere and Arca.

 

As for Byfield? I'd give him a deal looks fit and hungry.

Sounds like we are progressing but like you I feel Fleming should have been given a chance as Brill appears to be taking some time to settle. Maybe we will sign a reserve goalie from a Premiership / Championship team before the season starts.

Can't wait !!

FT 2-2

Sounds as if it was a good game. Roll on the new season.

Taylor and Parker on the score sheet. I reckon we could be seeing a lot of that in next few months....

I certainly hope so. Nice to see us fighting back.

1-1 Scorer: Rhys Williams

How is Byfield doing ?

Hello everybody from a new member.

Has anyone heard the latest rumour that Michael Duberry has been seen at the club in the last 2 days. ?