The Latics were encouraged in the first half by a flat Charlton display. Pawell Abbott saw and won plenty of long balls but he was ploughing as lonely a furrow as Deon Burton in the opposing half. Our back four included the rumoured-to-be-injured Richardson as well as Llera, Dailly and Youga and we looked pretty comfortable throughout, even if they had to contend with Abbott.
Our problems started in midfield where we didn't really get going until a formation switch after the hour mark. Racon looked tired and neither Bailey or Sam were making much headway on the flanks. Perhaps Sam was still feeling his tight groin, but he lacked the pace and fluidity of recent weeks. Shelvey was going through the motions and poor Deon was fed on scraps in the opening first half as we failed to get an effort on target.
Things changed after Shelvey rightly made way for McLeod as we moved to 4-4-2 and the urgency button was pressed. Kelly Youga started to press forward and seemed on a one-man mission to score. Lloyd Sam was replaced by Wagstaff as we began to turn the screw and the chance of the game was presented to McLeod by Racon after he broke free on the left and delivered the perfect centre but McLeod miscued terribly and the ball went right. Leon McKenzie was introduced for Burton as we upped the ante and Miguel Llera flashed a header from a Bailey free-kick onto the top of the bar with the keeper stranded on his line.
There was time for Youga to ping an overhead effort off the bar before added time but it wasn't to be. Oldham had long since resigned themselves to battling for the point and they had two players booked for time-wasting by the end by ref Horwood, who I thought had a great game.
Disappointing though this was - only two wins in seven league games - it won't look as bad if we beat Huddersfield next week and return to the top of the table. The pressure's on as the pack close in behind us and I expect us to respond. We need three points next week and a table-topping performance at Gillingham if we are to continue to vie for top spot.
seriously mate, you thought the ref had a great game.
ReplyDeleteLukas - seriously, I did. He tried to let the game flowed. He played good advantage when it was there and he over-ruled his linesmen on two occasions when I thought they had called it wrong. He was quick to book Lomax for time-wasting from a throw-in and he followed up, quite rightly, by booking Brill who had been delaying goal-kicks over a fifteen minute period towards the end. He also called Dailly over to him to remind him who was reffing the game after Dailly's blatant third strop after having a reasonable decision given against him. It wasn't a dirty game but he only had toissue those two yellows to control the game.
ReplyDeletei thought our manager left it to late to change it
ReplyDeleteI thought the ref had a good game too - let us off the Richardson trip in the first half, but evened it up by ignoring Burton being pushed tugged in the second.
ReplyDeletePembury Addick