hollinwood_pass

well as the people I am currently amongst keep insisting on saying to me, awesome! anyone else thinking like me that this result means we are just seven points from the magic 50 point mark that should guarantee our safety - although we probably need eight given the goal difference - and we have 17 matches from which to get them? awesome! two games coming up against sides in the relegation zone, one of them currently propping up the table. now there is a recipe for disaster ... but let us not focus on the negative when Latics are fifth at this stage of the season, awesome!

thanks for the link, an excellent goal. at last a player with the brains to pass the ball into the net! away support sounding in good form too. thanks to the others for the pics & clips. would you believe that bbc America wasted their time showing a Star Trek NG omnibus last night rather than using their money to get special rights to show the FLS over here for once! it is moments of brilliance, especially in front of goal, that I keep reading on here are what the team is most short off. providing one to win a match excuses any lack of overlapping or tracking back. plus you have to remember that in the second half he was badly affected by ShireBlue's HT pie calamity!

great win and always good to get one over local guy Robins after all the hurt he caused us in the early 90s. stats look good too, 4-0 to Latics on shots on target plus 54% possession. am I right in thinking that they managed to close the game out without presenting our opponents with a clear chance to grab an equaliser? would make a nice change to cut a long story short I was at Las Vegas airport whilst the game was being played, waiting on standby to see if they would let me on a flight to Portland, OR (PDX). sitting in the coffee shop I finally got to take a look at the Beeb website, saw it was 0-0 and then clicked on the match to then see that Winchester had just scored. my exclamation of "YES!" attracted a few odd looks, followed by a few more after I repeated the act complete with fist pump when it showed up as the first league one full time score of the day. happily I also made it to PDX, where it is suitably grey, wet, cold and windy making me feel right at home. damn fine local beer too Swindon winning bodes well for Tuesday night too. have them visiting BP feeling overconfident ...

he just impressed me in the second half: seemed to be key in stopping their heads from dropping, which I've seen too many times with Latics especially on this current run. he won the ball back on numerous occasions and tried to play it out effectively. he also gives Latics a genuine threat from corners, if only the takers could improve their delivery to try and take more advantage of it. I recall in the Crewe match he had just equalised from a corner and the Crewe defence looked completely rattled by his presence ... and we took the next one short! certainly applauding after the game has no influence me - and I thought the whole team and LJ did that anyway yesterday - and I stay well clear of Twitter.

on Chubs perhaps more worrying for the winner than using the wrong hand is that he appeared to get quite a firm hand to the ball but it still ended up in the net. but still I would say it was a great shot, keepers struggle with well hit first time shots, especially when they are going into the top corner. sometimes you can just applaud what the opposition do. perhaps adding to the frustration is that he had made an excellent save towards the end of the first half from another lofted long range shot, I think with the "correct" hand that time although it may have been two-handed. having now seen LJ's response on the Beeb website I would raise a third concern about his approach, he does have a tendency to be too willing to criticise individual players in public. may be fair but is it wise?

I had the pleasure of attendng what is now yesterday's encounter, which extended my run of witnessing Latics defeats to nine league matches, ten if you include the loss to liverpool in the cup. the combined goal aggregate from these matches now stands at F 5 A 25. it is still quite poor even if you exclude the MK abomination - anyone else notice that yesterday we were two down at a point in the game where we had not even conceded at MK? it had me expecting my worse loss to be extended even further. still today I did at least see the team score two goals for the first time since the Matt Smith last minute heroics versus everton two years ago. reading the comments above I think the opinion here does seem to be a bit harsh on the team. Imho I thought the only really bad miss was when Jones managed to somehow find the goalkeeper with his shot from the pullback in the first half when it was 2-2. Poleon (?) should probably have done better with a second half header at 2-3 from a right wing cross on which for once he beat the keeper to it. some further observations: - 1. the two opening Gills' goals both came from giving the ball away but they both also initially stemmed from a thrown-in routine where B. Wilson threw it BACK to J. Wilson in the right back position, putting the latter under considerable pressure. to make it worse they had already done it before the first goal and been lucky to get away with it and repeated the move at least one more time in the second. when will they learn? playing as a full-back in junior school football many years ago I was told that a throw-in must go forward and must go down the line, it was sound advice! 2. a bit unfair to criticise the defending for the Gills' two first half goals once the ball was lost, they were very well taken. somehow I do not think Latics would have been as clinical if gifted a similar position, especially as I thought that Poleon came close to messing up the finish for the equaliser! 3. a clear foul on Brown for the pen but he should also have been booked for the dive that preceded it 4. I like Kelly, my impression is that he had a poor game today by his standards but he still impressed me. I will also give him the benefit of doubt on the pen follow up and say it was clinical rather than lucky that he got it though the 'keeper. 5. shocking pen from Philliskirk BTW. who takes our next one? 6. I'm impressed by LJ, what he is doing at the club and the football the team now plays but two aspects of today's match worry me: - a ) after the interval the team lost the momentum that they had clearly established towards the end of the first, a common pattern b ) his subs never seem to make much of an impact. I thought that Dayton played well when he came on but by comparison the Gill #11 really made an impact and I thought had a good shout for a pen off Brown shortly after coming on. does that just reflect a lack of quality in depth in the Latics squad or is LJ not not making the right choices at the right time? 7. for the corner that Gills got the winner from they had won the ball via a clear foul on Brown in front of us visiting fans. other decision, or non-decisions left me thinking the ref had a poor game 8. the team badly needs a left footed player on the left wing, they never went outside the Gill right back when he was there for the taking. 9. when all is said and done the winning goal was cracker and deserved to win the match. my thoughts at the time and having watched it on the FLS highlights was that it was not deflected 10. Big George, what a star even if his a little immobile at times e.g. the first goal 11. the (young) teanage lad getting thrown out was very amusing, he should perhaps have just been given a stern warning and then thrown out if he still failed to calm down but he needs to also learn not to wear jeans that drop below his arse if he wants to look after himself when involved in a fracas well that is it from me, it is getting late! I should also point out that I did make the effort to be in oldham for the match with the Mighty Dale last Tuesday and hope to attend the match on the next rearranged date. given my impact on the club's results if anyone would like to offer me a financial incentive to stay well away from either this or any other game this season then I am open to offers ;-)

unfortunate defeat, cracking winner.

I have invited my cousin to the match as my guest. he is a Dale fan. before this provokes any panic on the forum the offer has been made on the condition that he behaves himself. in return I shall also be attending the Dale - Fleetwood match with him on Sunday although oddly enough I also get the pleasure of paying for my ticket for that match too. Still latics get £7 more income from the deal even if I lose out. owing to me being a southern based exile it will be my first home game of the season. in fact it is my first BP game since last season's 2-0 drubbing by Rotherham, the club's low point of last season. I broke my duck for attending latics matches this season by visiting the Denbigh stadium last Saturday, sorry about that! Still latics at home to the bottom of the table team who arrive with a record of just one win in ten away matches, what could possibly go wrong?