Oldham Athletic (A) League 1 Tuesday 14/2/12.

[Fray Bentos is God!]

fudge off

[Welsh_Saddler]

A "placed" penalty according to the BBC. I knew we should have kept Zigor :mrgreen:

Summary - Exeter, Wycombe and Rochdale lost. Chesterfield drew. Scunthorpe and Yeovil won. Ominous gap opening up somewhere above us.

[euro gaz]

Eff off

[DanWalsallFC]

Typical Alex Nicholls.
What has this club come to when he's joint top goal scorer and penalty taker.

[Asps]

WHY THE HELL IS NICHOLLS TAKING THE PENALTY FOR?????????????????

He feebly tried to curl it around an imaginery wall again. Keeper just pushed it round the post.

We'em doomed

[1933]

Sigh

[Casual D]

Got one more option to add to my earlier post which was a multiple choice about the post match thoughts from Deano

e) "We came so close to getting something from the game and probably deserved to"

[euro gaz]

Smith should resign tonight, and give Chris Nicholl a chance of keeping us up.

[Bernie]

I thought that. Didn't he miss in both cup shoot outs?

He scored at Rochdale, but put his penalty against Dagenham wide. He has a 50% success rate at penalties, which is far far higher than the rate at which he converts chances in open play.

[priestley_saddler]

I thought that. Didn't he miss in both cup shoot outs?

He scored at Rochdale, but put his penalty against Dagenham wide. He has a 50% success rate at penalties, which is far far higher than the rate at which he converts chances in open play.

He scored the equalising penalty at Carlisle too.

Speaking to someone at the game and apparently escaping there with a draw would have been daylight robbery.

[Sadders]

Why didn't Flo take it? Butler, Walker, Manny, Sadler and Culuvier are the only players in the whole squad that are League one standard. Bet Butler regrets the second he showed some much criticised 'loyalty in football' in the summer and signed that dotted line. I watched Gillingham v Southend last night and both would wipe the floor with us - there's not 1 worse team in this division, never mind 4. We'm doomed.

[DanWalsallFC]

[bellybutton]

Percie,Tinned, I've been saying it now for nearly ten years...It kills me to see what he is doing to our club... Organise a boycott please guys otherwise we are double diamond DOOMED.

Shut up about boycotts you boring fool.

It's never gonna happen, unless we get a good 1,500+ to sign up and promise to do so, which they won't.

Get a grip Darfth stop getting mugged off, wake up BOYCOTT.

[Cannock Saddler]

I reckon he wont be sacked tomorrow but he will get until Saturday.Then after we have lost to Wycombe and are even more in it then he will be gone.

[SaigonSaddler]

Typical.

Lady luck offers a wink and more than a fleeting glimpse of a shapely inner thigh, pops out a breast and starts licking an ice-cream very slowly....

Up steps our hero and apologises - he is not sure mother would approve and anyway he's forgotten the Viagra.

Everyone laughs and our hero walks out humiliated.

PILLOCK!

[Darth Vader]

Percie,Tinned, I've been saying it now for nearly ten years...It kills me to see what he is doing to our club... Organise a boycott please guys otherwise we are double diamond DOOMED.

Shut up about boycotts you boring fool.

It's never gonna happen, unless we get a good 1,500+ to sign up and promise to do so, which they won't.

Get a grip Darfth stop getting mugged off, wake up BOYCOTT.

Like I said, unless we get a massive % of supports to take part then there's absolutely no point.

reading through this thread with the swear filter off is very amusing btw. :D

[Lone Striker]

The reason we will get relegated is because we have a Manager who believes he has players good enough to play at this level. At least 5 of the starting line up tonight would not get into a Division 2 team and arguably not be good enough for most Conference teams. He continues to pick the same players in the vain hope that they will get lucky and pick up a few undeserved points such as at Carlisle and at home to Sheff Wed. I see that Taundry again started on the right of midfield even though everybody who watches our games can see he is like a fish out of water in that position, simple, if he is a central midfielder and is third choice in a 4-4-2 formation he starts on the bench, that is what would happen if the Manager had some tactical nous rather than just picking the same players irrespective of results and performances.

We have scored 27 goals in 29 league games and have a main striker who misses 2 golden chances in the last 2 minutes of the game but will be guaranteed a start on Saturday because he is unfortunately the best of a really poor bunch and if he was at any other team in our league or most Division 2 teams would not be starting games. Give Bowerman a start now, I am sick of hearing about Nicholls as a striker, he runs around a lot, is quick, but has never and never will be a striker with a strikers instinct, if he was he would have converted one of the chances tonight and we come away with an undeserved point, something that other teams do throughout the season. Having Bowerman sitting on the bench for a team with our scoring record is laughable, I would like the manager to explain his thinking as not many who watch the games understand the reason.

Re tactics it was said tonight that we switched to a 4-3-1-2 formation during the game, that must have meant Paterson as one of the three in Midfield, a bit like the Taundry situation square pegs in round holes, or just a panic measures having been completely outplayed for most of the game.

Sorry to say it but I think the writing is on the wall for the current Manager, not good enough and a change is the only hope we have of avoiding relegation. As a side issue look at the attendance tonight and for anybody using budget as an excuse it shows what can be achieved, low budget or not Oldham have 10 more points than us and Stevanage 23 more points, give somebody else a chance to save us from what is currently inevitable relegation.

[stig231]

After missing a rebound a few mins earlier and then the penalty,how many more chances does he have to miss before some people realise Nicholls will never , ever , be a striker. He doesn't move , make runs , think or react like a striker .At best for me he's a 4th division wide player that can chip in with a few goals , although that might come in handy next season.

Please don't start him on Saturday Smith , if a keeper or defender made as many mistakes that ended up with us conceding goals as Nicholls makes in not scoring chances then you would soon be shot of them , so what's the difference? Either way it ends up costing us points.

I don't care if they are young , Bowerman and/or Grigg should start - I'm absolutely convinced if we could create chances those two could score a better percentage than we are scoring now with Macken , Nicholls , Jarvis and occasionally Paterson up front.

As for Jarvis , what exactly does he contribute? and does he ever finish a game , because amazingly we always seem to improve when he goes off, now why could that be.......

[Lone Striker]

After missing a rebound a few mins earlier and then the penalty,how many more chances does he have to miss before some people realise Nicholls will never , ever , be a striker. He doesn't move , make runs , think or react like a striker .At best for me he's a 4th division wide player that can chip in with a few goals , although that might come in handy next season.

Please don't start him on Saturday Smith , if a keeper or defender made as many mistakes that ended up with us conceding goals as Nicholls makes in not scoring chances then you would soon be shot of them , so what's the difference? Either way it ends up costing us points.

I don't care if they are young , Bowerman and/or Grigg should start - I'm absolutely convinced if we could create chances those two could score a better percentage than we are scoring now with Macken , Nicholls , Jarvis and occasionally Paterson up front.

As for Jarvis , what exactly does he contribute? and does he ever finish a game , because amazingly we always seem to improve when he goes off, now why could that be.......

Spot on

[tinned]

Smith staked a lot on the Jarvis signing. Another sign that he just has to go.

[latviancheese]

The fact is, we dont create proper chances very often. Any striker would look abysmal with our "creative" force.

You need to make the cake before you can put it in the oven. :P

[Lone Striker]

The fact is, we dont create proper chances very often. Any striker would look abysmal with our "creative" force.

You need to make the cake before you can put it in the oven. :P

Well by the sounds of it we made the cake a couple of times late on in tonights match but as usual Nicholls missed the oven!!

[boringteacher]

sorry deano, you've gorra gew!

I could forgive you, just about, for signing Jarvis, not for playing him while we had an alternative fit adult at the club. Time for yet another change.

[Exile]

The fact is, we dont create proper chances very often. Any striker would look abysmal with our "creative" force.

You need to make the cake before you can put it in the oven. :P

Well by the sounds of it we made the cake a couple of times late on in tonights match but as usual Nicholls missed the oven!!

Smith forgot to light it too. Then again, he couldn't find it as Bonser sold it. :mrgreen:

[Jolly Johnny]

That was a bitterly disappointing night, for a number of reasons but mainly, how poor we were, the lack of spark anywhere on the pitch for the majority of the time, and the fact that we had a chance to grab something we simply didn't deserve, and when it really mattered, completely bottled it. Sums us up really.

First half started really poorly (sound familiar?!?) Jarvis and Nicholls up front in a 442 initially. Oldham were straight at us and we just didn't look awake, organised or ready. Pace and guile down the wings did Beevers and we afforded them loads of time to get a ball into the box and a player tucked it in from 12 yards with hardly any pressure. We were looking dodgy at the back under attack, but then had a chance ourselves, on 7 minutes, getting to the edge of the box, pulled back and Cuverlier's shot came back off the inside of the post, unlucky. But that was it for us first half. Couldn't move, link up, pass more than 2 passes at a time before the ball was given back to Oldham to run at our defence and scare them. A second goal came with us standing off again. Triangle played out wide, ball swung into the box and simpson had all the time to chest down and smash in on the volley. Poor defending again. Too many players were miles off the game - Patterson, Jarvis, Chambers, Butler. Even Cuverlier was a little anonymous. After 20 mins we went 451 with jarvis out right and nicholls up top alone. We just lack quality and nous of what to do with the ball and how to hurt a team. 2 examples spring to mind in the 1st half. We attack and Chambers picks up the ball outside their area and turns. He has a simple ball out right to keep it going, but dithers, doesn't know what to do, coupled with no movement, so it comes back to the keeper. On another occasion, a ball is played out to Cuverlier wdie right. He brings it down and plays it inside to someone who has no idea what to do so it ends up...? You've guessed it - going backwards and ending up at the keeper.

Second half we started better with some enthusiasm, pace and moving the ball quicker (again, sound familiar?!?) This lasted all of about 5 mins before we ran out of puff and Oldham started to suss us out. The following 25 mins followed with them in control and us not looking threatening, or likely to create a chance. To be fair to Nicholls, he looked more lively and was making more runs to pick up balls. The only problem was, he'd pick them up wide of the penalty area, look up, and have no options to pass to! Best outcome was a corner off a defenders legs. On 75 mins, a nice break from Cuverlier down the right lead to a goal! Looked like he should play it across the box, the keeper thought so too, so got done at his near post. probably sgould have done better. Rather than us carry on the pressure, we flopped again. Until the 4th minute of injury time. Grigg (oh yeah, he came on at some point!) chased a ball into the area and under challenge got a penalty. Unfortunately Nicholls took it (surely Cuverlier was a better choice?!) and telegraphed where he was going to place it, as well as hit it appalingly. A massive opportunity and a massive let down. To be honest though we deserved nothing from the game. Oldham were better in all departments really and would have been mortified not to get the 3 points.

Tonight summed up where we are as a team - simply not good enough, even to compete against the likes of Oldham. That is why we are heading down.

[Jolly Johnny]

Smith staked a lot on the Jarvis signing. Another sign that he just has to go.

I turned to PT during the second half and said, "how the hell did Jarvis play for Norwich in the Premiership?!" There isn't any indication of anything that he has to see how that could have been possible - touch, pace, nous, tricks, muscle - simply nothing there!

[PT]

As others have said, it would be dead easy to suggest that we deserved something from tonight's game and the last minute pen might be seen as some validation of that point of view. But that view would be wrong. For those at the Notts County game a few weeks ago, just think of that first half except with the opposition getting a deserved second and perhaps being a bit unlucky not to get a third.

So the first half was rank and at two-nil down we give it a real go in the second half which was a far more even affair, but it was no better than being an even half with them therefore deserving the win over the ninety minutes.

I don't understand the "where's the passion gone" chant because effort is the one thing these players give. Unfortunately the vast majority of them are just not good enough. It's quality and mental strength we need. At times the quality was laughable. Ten yard passes going wildly astray and first touches that would embarrass a Sunday League Player, a level that some of our squad are barely above.

Their goals were simple affairs, folk popping up in our area in yards of space - keeps happening - it's not bad luck it's bad defending. Our goal was a mistake by their keeper and then we barely touched the ball until the excitement of the final seconds. In a way it was a fitting climax because Alex Nicholls sums up our current squad. Lovely lad, bags of effort but he's not quite good enough. Ditto for the likes of Butler and Taundry - great fellas but not up to the job of being third division footballers, whilst others like Jarvis are nowhere near and others aren't quite ready.

Well done to the other 100 especially those travelling further than myself, what a way to spend Valentine's Day. It was like a really bad date that seemed to pick up towards the end with the invite of coffee, but all it was, was an invite for coffee and the coffee was awful leaving quite a bad taste in the mouth. But I'll go out with her again, cos i love her and have done for 40 years.xxxx

[Jolly Johnny]

It was like a really bad date that seemed to pick up towards the end with the invite of coffee, but all it was, was an invite for coffee and the coffee was awful leaving quite a bad taste in the mouth. But I'll go out with her again, cos i love her and have done for 40 years.xxxx

:lol:

Is that what you were drinking before the game mate?!! :D

[PT]

It was like a really bad date that seemed to pick up towards the end with the invite of coffee, but all it was, was an invite for coffee and the coffee was awful leaving quite a bad taste in the mouth. But I'll go out with her again, cos i love her and have done for 40 years.xxxx

:lol:

Is that what you were drinking before the game mate?!! :D

whatever it was it needed to be much much stronger.

[Exile]

Match report and poll on the front page. Thanks, JJ.

http://upthesaddlers.com/wp/archives/20 ... -the-pace/