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Barnsley vs oldham


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A strange performance from pretty much the same side that took Notts County apart in the second half on Saturday.

 

First half seemed to start as normal, with Latics slowly getting their possession football together and dominating the game albeit not as convincing as we are sometimes - but I felt that it looked like a game we would get control of and hopefully win.

 

A goal out of nothing as Barnsley had not been down our end, and being critical Keane got a hand to it and on a first look it didn't look that hard.

 

For the next 5 minutes we seemed to continue with the ball on the floor and pass it around and it looked as though we would carry on and hopefully let our obvious superiority pay dividends.....and then it all went wrong.

 

 

We seemed to get dragged down to Barnsley's level and revert to much more long balls and it degenerated into one of the worst displays of the season (I missed Yeovil and MK). Plenty of throw-ins down the right hand side that resulted from the clearances from the long ball and a few corners never seemed to generate any threat and the first half came to a close.

 

Second half was a similar story - a period of good possession (backed by some good noise from the fans) failed to create any chances, on the face of it sensible substitutions at the time, and the team seemed to revert to version that we have not seen for a while. Lack of confidence on the ball, some mistakes in possession / simple passes (although credit to Barnsley they closed us down well), resulted in the last 20-25 minutes of long balls forward from the back to Wilkinson - who whilst doing an OK job of leading the line didn't create any chances.

 

Walking back to the car heard some Barnsley fans saying that Oldham had a lot of possession tonight but didn't recall Turnbull making a save. A quick check of the BBC website shows that despite 55% possession we only managed 7 shots (to Barnsley's 6) and only got one on target (don't recall it). Barnsley only registered one shot on target as well.

 

 

I am not doom and gloom and fearing a relegation battle - I know that we have a good team and a good manager that will pick up more good results than bad ones - but I think that the old football challenge of consistency is the one that will in the end stop us genuinely challenging for the Top 6. I think 65 points and 8-10th spot is where we will finish. Progress over the last 5+ seasons, and room for hope for the next with SC continuing to back the best manager / squad we have had in a longtime.

I think that is a realistic assessment.

 

I think we need more options when things are not working. I would like to see Mellis on from the start as it seems he has a bit of creativity.

 

Usually the problems with poor results after lots of possession are that we are not moving the ball quickly enough but that also requires the running into space of the front men.

 

I think/hope we can respond at Scunny- and we will need to as they are sharp and on a good run.

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The more I reflect on the game, the more it is frustrating that we didn't do the one thing we have been doing most of the season.

 

That one thing, is the ability to pass and retain the ball for long periods.

 

This may not always be the most attack minded posession at times, and we are more than willing to go sideways and backwards before trying to go on the attack again which gives teams time to get men behind the ball. But it creates pressure and gets the other team chasing the ball and makes it difficult for them to create pressue on us.

 

A rather grand comparison of this approach is that it is similar to the Chelsea / Barca / Spain approach. The difference with us is that it can lead to frustrating games that show up that we do not have the most creative bunch of footballers in the world and that we can not break down teams (whereas Fabrigas, Messi et al can).

 

You could argue that there are more goals to be had at this level from quick moves and the mistakes that occur than the slow and patient approach (and in fact we do score a lot on the counter) but it is still generally pleasant to watch and you feel like you can see chances coming from somewhere.

 

 

Last night we got back to the days of Penny, Dickov, Moore et al where by it was a challenge to see us retain the ball for more than 3 or 4 passes - mainly becuase the pass would be a long high ball up front to players under pressure. I was screaming to the players to 'get the ball on the deck' for a good propostion of the last 30 minutes - but we rarely did so.

 

 

But we are not world beaters, we will get sucked into bad performances, and we will lose games. As stated by others, we have the quality to compete and do well in this division - but I doubt we have the conistency to do it over 46 games.

 

The liklehood is that we will be able to flirt with the edges of the Play-offs for another month or so - and be able to look at games coming up and say 'if we can win the next two we can be 6th' - but in the end matches like Barnsley, Crewe, Doncaster, Gillingham need to generate more than 1 point to be seriously in with a shout.

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Oldham manager Lee Johnson told BBC Radio Manchester:


"It's fair to say it was a narrow defeat, the pitch wasn't conducive to playing any sort of football.


"Our players need to learn that you can't just play the beautiful game on a beautiful pitch.


"It had draw all over it and in fairness to Barnsley, they shut up shop after scoring and we had no answers.


"It looked like a mediocre, mid-table clash and that's disappointing when we were going for fifth."



About right...



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30983053



more possession, more shots, more corners.....



had we played well we would have pissed it. what a shame.....


Edited by HarryBosch
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LJ interview on Latics Player - very honest appraisal.

 

Mediocre, not enough going on, Kelly's desire needs to be replicated, quality lacking.

 

"just one of those days" but we cannot afford to have too many of these. "Regroup and go again the weekend?" "Nothing else we can do".

 

 

 

Got the sense that he is as furstrated and dissappointed with the performance as the fans - put out the same team that played well and created chances on Saturday and got diddly squat from them.

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On the goal:

 

To be fair to Keane, it flashes in much quicker than I recall and not sure I'd blame him but it would be a great save if he'd kept it out.

Not sure Conor did that much wrong either, it was a well placed pass that tempted you, and then was in a decent position after that.

 

The lob and last minute efforts from Forte were good chances - and that you'd hope most days a forward with his record this season would have taken one of them. Perhaps the cross for the first would have been a better option and the second he does the harder bit with a first touch that drops the ball well but then loses his balance preventing a simple slot into the corner.

 

On very small margins that game becomes a scrappy, horrid and ugly 1-0 away win and we are in 5th and all happy - despite having watched probably the exact same performance.

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Apparently, the club received a letter this morning addressed to Connor Brown.

 

It was sent anonymously but did have a Poulton-le-Fylde postmark........ :mmm:

 

06a2318af7a9a5b2fdffa8adfc3fdffc_zps1204

 

LOL Fantastic!

 

If you can put it to a tune, it could be sung at the whole team some weeks.

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You can't put between me solely on Brown....he wasn't responsible for the forward getting in front of Elokobi or Kean having a weak hand on a soft header.

I'm not putting the blame solely on Brown. All I'm saying is that in a game between two poor sides one mistake was the ultimate difference.

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LJ interview on Latics Player - very honest appraisal.

 

Mediocre, not enough going on, Kelly's desire needs to be replicated, quality lacking.

 

"just one of those days" but we cannot afford to have too many of these. "Regroup and go again the weekend?" "Nothing else we can do".

 

 

 

Got the sense that he is as furstrated and dissappointed with the performance as the fans - put out the same team that played well and created chances on Saturday and got diddly squat from them.

 

Interesting first line when Gordon said disappointing result, he said "disappointing day really". Might be reading too much into that but maybe the general attitude wasn't right going into the game?

 

I do always feel when I'm listening to him that he is giving his honest opinion rather than a carefully constructed media savvy soundbite response.

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I'm not putting the blame solely on Brown. All I'm saying is that in a game between two poor sides one mistake was the ultimate difference.

Going off the highlights, I don't think it's fair to put blame on any one person really. It's just a well worked goal.

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I dont hate him by the way, I just want better for the team.

 

I hate the way some Oldham fans accept mediocrity on one hand and slam talent becuase its not performing to the level they expect n the other and so want rid.

 

The fact that he now seems to have his own song above so many better players who never have pisses me off a little bit :crackpot:

 

The reason we are outside the playoffs and not in it is due to the mediocrity of players like Connor Brown. He has improved to a point but people are falling over themselves it seems to point out what he does ok and ignore the fact that he makes mistakes and is not comfortable on the ball (its never out of his feet after his first touch, its why he stands on the bloody thing when he first gains possession) he allows crosses from which ever side he plays and his positioning is very suspect. At the moment the Cons far outweigh the pros for me, Contrary to popular belief I do hope that changes......

 

I will try my very best form now on not to comment on him again.....unles someone states something ridiculous about him of course, should be a few days at least :surrender:

Edited by palmer1
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If we dont score at all in a game, I tend to put the blame more on the attacking players

Like I said, I'm not pointing the blame, I'm comparing the two sides. Barnsley did very little and came away with the points, if we played to our capabilities we would have won.

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