Oldham Review

[fct]

City's Season that began so brightly in the sunshine of August against Notts County reached the depths of darkness with a totally inept and lacklustre performance against an Oldham side fully committed to the tackle and winning the ball.

Helped by having a confident and assured goalkeeper in Les Pogliacomi, the Oldham defence coped well with City's stuttering attacks and on the break caused as much confusion to city's reshuffled side as the wind did.

Swirling down the pitch towards the East End, the wind affected the ball on many occasions but it was lowly Oldham, seeking only their second away win in their 19th away match, who found it easier to deal with.

Lee Peacock, looking a shadow of himself, wasted a golden opportunity in the first attack of the game, once again ballooning the ball over the bar after Pogliacomi had parried Wilkshire's wickedly swerving free-kick. Peacock has wasted similar opportunities on at least two or three occasions already this season, so this was nothing new.

Apart from a rasping Roberts shot tipped over and a long range drive that the Oldham keeper comfortably saved, that was the sum of City's chances in a first half that saw them concede yet another goal from a free kick. Ernie Cooksey rose unchallenged in the penalty box to score with a header, a ludicrously easy goal to score.

Ten minutes later it was 2-0 as Paul Murray took a low pass into his stride and despite appeals for offside slotted the ball home low under Phillips. Oldham played with growing confidence and they were mostly first to the ball. Danny Wilson is desperation pulled off the out of sorts Peacock and Wilkshire and put on Miller and Bell, while Oldham's two substitutions were enforced with injuries to Gareth Owen and Kieran Westwood. However these changes made littel impact to Oldham's assured play and it was they who looke dpromotion material as City ran around cluelessly.

The other noteworthy incidents were booking to Burnell who lunged in with studs up and a disgraceful tackle on Matty Hill by John Eyre who could - and maybe should - have been given red.

The second half saw an early flurry and City pressure resulted in a penalty appeal

turned down by referee T.Kettle and although Oldham were subjected to more pressure, the final ball into the box was poor with either the goalkeeper catching with ease or a defender heading to safety. Hill was replaced by Goodfellow who blasted over following a left wing cross by Bell and Roberts sent another shot into the midriff of Pogliacomi.

Tinnion was booked for dissent, rather harshly, and Roberts also for a rather tame challenge as Kettle suddenly went mad and began whistling for the slightest nudge or contact and brandishing his yellow card like an auction ticket. Scott Vernon of Oldham went into the book for not retreating fast enough and Joe Burnell was scythed down by Cooksey who was also booked. Tony Butler's caution completed the lucky seven, with a crude trip on the theatrically diving Wes Wilkinson whose performance on the pitch offered more to Equity than the PFA.

Overall a windy day saw a poor City performance in the face of a determined and committed opponent and over refereed by a fussy and card happy official.

Phillips: 5. Beaten by two goals perhaps he might have stopped if on his game. Lacked the confidence to take the arial ball that was demonstrated by a competent keeper at the other end.

Carey: 6. Played reasonably well given the conditions. Didn't do much wrong.

Coles: 6. See Carey. Some good touches but over hit a few passes.

Butler: 6. Made some timely challenges but was caught out on a couple of occasions by pacey forwards.

Hill: 6. Played reasonably but his game went off the boil after being fouled badly.

Roberts: 6. Tried hard, showed some good touches but it was never going to work today.

Wilkshire: 5. Never stamped his authority on the middle of the pitch and was taken off in the first half.

Burnell: 6. Effective in breaking up Oldham's play but his passing was overall not of a midfielder's quality. Tommy needed back.

Tinnion: 6. Tried to get the team going but the windy conditions were always going to make it an uphill task and his legs are beginnning to go.

Peacock: 3. Totally wasted by turning up, missed a first minute sitter and thereafter looked disinterested. Taken off early and deservedly so.

Lita: 5. Ran and ran and battled but with little support he could do nothing.

Subs:

Miller: 7. Easily the best city player on the park, put some spark up front but Oldham were not going to be beaten.

Bell: 6. Sorted out the left side after he came on and sent a few crosses over to no end result.

Goodfellow: 5. Another anonymous appearance; threatened to run the defender ragged on a few occasions but ruined it with terrible crosses.

[England]

Once again, essentially agree with your view except for Lita who once again did b#gger all except sit on his a## in the penalty area when given a good chance to score.

Another very poor display by a very poor set of players and I have been saying that for weeks not just when the wheels have fallen off.

[bobby]

yup agree with your assessment - poor display no one stood out.

Miller and Burnell our best option.

Lita works better when coming on as a sub, so to all of you calling for him to start - shut up - start with Miller and Roberts against Tranmere!

[Spud55]

Have to say i agree with that.

Only problem with starting robbo up front, although he is probably our best striker, is what do you do with the midfield, we need robbo on the right, because freezer has to play on the left, if willson puts Tinman there again i might just have to batter him to death with a haddock.

But if we can get a loan signing or two in then that should leave a place for Robbo upfront.

[RedUn]

Lee Peacock, looking a shadow of himself, wasted a golden opportunity in the first attack of the game, once again ballooning the ball over the bar after Pogliacomi had parried Wilkshire's wickedly swerving free-kick.  Peacock has wasted similar opportunities on at least two or three occasions already this season, so this was nothing new.

Apart from a rasping Roberts shot tipped over and a long range drive that the Oldham keeper comfortably saved, that was the sum of City's chances in a first half that saw them concede yet another goal from a free kick.

Agree on Peacock's chance but you've overlooked Roberts being put through by Wilkshire and putting a lame effort wide when a simple square ball would have set Peacock up for a tap-in (Hopefully!).

So that was two golden opportunities to take the lead which might just have prevented the exhibition of incompetance we had to witness today. For me, it underlines the crying need for a proven striker to turn the hope of scoring into expectation. There are just 5 days left to find him (5 days left of our season?)

[ballwinningcentrehalf]

i think that is why Roberts isnt a brilliant right winger, as a natural striker he is always going to go for goal..would a winger with more experience or vision always look to set up the man in the middle??

but likewise is his 'hunger' and willingness to shoot the thing we need up front at the moment??

[Guest Red_Rat]

Ah well lets look at the table

Plymouth-76 pts i believe

QPR-70-pts

Us-68 pts

Swindon/Brighton -63pts

It could have been a lot worse if not for our run when we must've played the 11 worst teams in britain.

Sign of a good team is that they win when they don't play well, We haven't played well all season,so the signs are good.

[fct]

That's the problem with city this season. They haven't played well at all apart from the odd game. There hasn't been any consistent length of games where they have looked good or entertaining, even during that 11 match winning streak.

This season is easily the worst set of performances for 4 seasons, and I firmly believe the squad is going backwards, not forwards. Relying on a defence with a dodgy keeper behind them is not a recipe for success. City's attack is fast becoming sterile and any team... ANY TEAM... can come to AG and shut up shop and get a 0-0, 1-1 or even a 1-0. Wycombe got a 1-1, Rushden nearly did, as did Wrexham.

Unless City get decent forwards I'm afraid they might as well look up Wimbledon, Doncaster and Hull for next season. Its becoming a sad fact that this lot can't score in a brothel.