Oldham Athletic (H) League 1 Saturday 2/2/13.

[Surrey Saddler]

Baxendale 1-1

[Welsh_Saddler]

That's us back up to 12th :D

A minute after Baxendale's goal, a shot from Brandy hit the post :D

[Welsh_Saddler]

A day of potential upsets....... (so far):-

Bury 2 Doncaster 0
Tranmere (10 men) 0 Carlisle 1
Everton 1 Villa 3 :shock:

At the Banks's's', with 20 minutes to go perhaps a substitution might be in order? Dare I suggest Bowerman for our super-international star......

69th and 72nd minutes, Oldham players booked (Brown and Baxter)

[Welsh_Saddler]

PATERSON 2-1 :D :D :D :D "A brilliant shot from outside the area to the bottom left corner of the goal"

75 minutes Westcarr on for Baxendale.

As things stand we're 9th in the table on 44 points, 4 points from the play-offs.

85 minutes, Chambers on for Febian Brandy.

[SaigonSaddler]

Yay!

[SaigonSaddler]

Everton back from 1-3 down to draw 3-3 :D

SOTVile

[Welsh_Saddler]

Yay!

That made me think we'd scored again.........(as if!!) :mrgreen:

[Welsh_Saddler]

WE DID!!!!!!! Paterson on 90min. 3-1 :D :D

[SaigonSaddler]

SlooOOOOoosh!

Goals!

:D

[traymondo]

Unflippinbelievable. All the way to Colchester last week for nothing. And missing this.
It's hard not to feel a wee bit annoyed... :lol:

[Welsh_Saddler]

Getting dizzy.... 9th in the table, 18 points clear of the relegation zone, 4 points from play-offs.

Villa scraped the 3-3 draw but they are now 2 points below safety (call it 3 because of their stupendously bad goal difference)

[Aldridge_saddler]

Chambers was my MOTM I would seriously start considering giving him another year.

[BathSaddler]

Just got in from work to see this scoreline and chuffed to bits :D .

A crowd of 4,672 too - is there a 'Kelly Effect' going on?

[SaddlerCraig]

Just got in from work to see this scoreline and chuffed to bits :D .

A crowd of 4,672 too - is there a 'Kelly Effect' going on?

I believe it's much more likely it was a 1,000 less it certainly didn't look that busy minus oldhams following.

Overall the first 35 or so minutes was as bad as we have played all season, Baxo seemed to take it round the keeper outside the box from what we could see and how his shot trickled in I'm not sure but thank god it did as it gave us the energy and creative spark we missed.

Pattos goals were both neatly taken his first from just outside the box and his second a one on one but special mention has to be the build up for the second between him and chambers which was brilliant, once patto had that confidence from his first goal he looked very dangerous.

Shame for Grigg to who hit a free header into the keeper and 2 one on ones straight into the keeper was hoping he'd get a goal just for his confidence for missing the sitters.

[bangsection]

Looks like a fight between Dean Smith, Gary Johnson, Eddie Howe and Di Canio for League One manager of the month for January.

[bangsection]

A crowd of 4,672 too - is there a 'Kelly Effect' going on?

Smith thinks so:

http://audioboo.fm/boos/1189722-dean-sm ... ver-oldham

[Worsul]

Looks like a fight between Dean Smith, Gary Johnson, Eddie Howe and Di Canio for League One manager of the month for January.

But we're in February now :?: Surely this result doesn't count

[SWS1]

Lovely. Lovely. Lovely. :D :D :D
That'll do me.
Well done lads. Now, another winning run and...
:D
Excelsior!

[DYSaddler]

Not long back from a bitterly cold day at the Banks's but a result that warmed up the near 5,000 fans! Started very slow and Oldham deserved their lead which Mcloughlin couldn't really do much about - very well placed header from Barnard. Grigg should have equalised with a free header from 6 yards but couldn't convert. The equaliser came and really sparked us back into life, I thought Baxendale had done too much but finished it beautifully under Bouzanis. After a poor first 35 minutes the second half we completley dominated and never looked back. Hats off to Pato - he was on a different level 2nd half topped half with 2 top quality goals to take his tally to 9 for the season. Player ratings:

McLoughlin 7 - Couldn't do much at all with the goal, kicking was generally good and dealt with balls into the box very well I thought.

Purkiss 7 - A standard Purkiss performance, vital blocks, got forward well and put some decent balls into the box. First choice RB and should be for some time - would like to see an 18 month deal offered to him.
Downing 6.5 - Very shaky first half but a much better second - dealt with Iwelumo very well during the 2nd period and didn't do much wrong from 45-90mins.
Butler 7 - A standard Butler performance - solid in the air, can't really say much else.
Taylor 7 - Impressive yet again, can only assume Benning was injured to not be named in the 18man squad. Taylor looked assured, got forward when he needed to and I'm glad he is commited to the club until the end of next season.

Paterson 9 - MOTM for me, he has that added bit of skill and quality that create something special. His first goal was a great attacking run with a lethal finish, his 2nd was sheer quality from start to finish, stunning first touch and clinical finish yet again. Very glad we kept hold of him as I have said all along the lad has so much potential and showed that today.
Chambers 8 - Another brilliant, battling, passionate perfomance from him - whoever spoke to him about 3 months ago seriously needs a good pat on the back because he has been outstanding ever since - another player who I would like to see have his contract extended.
Mantom 7 - Him and Chambers completed dominated things in the 2nd half after a very quiet first half - distribution was good and another solid performance.
Baxendale 7 - Worked hard and can often create something out of nothing - took his goal very well after I thought he had done too much. A good, solid game.
Brandy 7 - Not as effective as in previous games but still shows why we missed him last week, looked lively, willing to run at a poor Oldham defence and probably should have got himself a goal.

Grigg 8 - Not on the scoresheet but more than deserved to be. Put in another shift and looks a player transformed - fully expect him to get 15 or more goals by the end of the season.

Subs:

Westcarr 6 - Held the ball up a bit, still think he is lazy and we could have done better.
J Chambers 6 - Not much time to make an impact, tactical and correct substitution mae though.

Must say I feared the worst after going a goal down - but Baxendale's goal really sparked off a very clinical and assured performance. Their main threat before the game would have been Iwelumo but he didn't really cause any major problems apart from winning the majority of the balls in the air. Oldham were generally very poor and the type of teams we should be expecting to beat and that's exactly what we did.

Just a note on today's attendance - really good to see probably an increase of 800-1000 home fans at the game today, i'd say they brought around 500 fans which left 4,200 saddlers which is impressive (whether the return of Kelly influenced that I don't know - but i'd like to hope it was mainly down to impressive recent displays). I genuinely think if we maintain the level of performance/results we have been witnessing really we could start getting over 5,000 at the bescot again which is the least that the lads deserve at the minute! UTS

[DYSaddler]

Just got in from work to see this scoreline and chuffed to bits :D .

A crowd of 4,672 too - is there a 'Kelly Effect' going on?

I believe it's much more likely it was a 1,000 less it certainly didn't look that busy minus oldhams following.

quote]

I think it looked busier than usual - seemed to be more behind the goal than normal, they probably brought 5-600 and there were a lot of fresh faces by me in the OAP - so don't think the figure will be far off.

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Just shows you how you can see things differently, as I thought that was an immense 10 minutes from Westcarr, including an incredible pass to set Paterson up for a one and one that he missed. Chambers was MOM fir me - incredible second half

[SaddlerCraig]

Was hard to tell in the Tile choice to be honest but I do hope the figures about right it would be great for us to have that extra few hundred in as it could be the difference between tying someone down to a contract now or having to be their last resort in the summer.

[DYSaddler]

Just shows you how you can see things differently, as I thought that was an immense 10 minutes from Westcarr, including an incredible pass to set Paterson up for a one and one that he missed. Chambers was MOM fir me - incredible second half

It's a game of opinions mate, I respect anyone's opinion on a player, I personally don't rate Westcarr that's all.

[DYSaddler]

Was hard to tell in the Tile choice to be honest but I do hope the figures about right it would be great for us to have that extra few hundred in as it could be the difference between tying someone down to a contract now or having to be their last resort in the summer.

Absolutely mate and hopefully it may start to sneak over 5,000 if performances continue to impress people. Definitely more in both lower and upper though.

[bangsection]

Looks like a fight between Dean Smith, Gary Johnson, Eddie Howe and Di Canio for League One manager of the month for January.

But we're in February now :?: Surely this result doesn't count

Good point! They'll still be the managers on the shortlist though.

[boringteacher]

So good to beat a deeply unpleasant side managed by one of the biggest cheats who has "graced" football over the past couple of decades. Let's hope that the "sacked in the morning" chant was accurate.

We were elbowed, pushed and kicked off the park by their monsters for the first 25 minutes, abetted by a retard of a ref who didn't manage to see a deliberate flying elbow from Barnard(?) which laid one of our boys out. Cynical, nasty and a few months ago it would have been successful for Oldham. Now, we were level by half time, despite Grigg missing a free header my dead granny may have put away (and he missed a sitter in the 2nd despite having another good game linking up play) and Brandy hitting the post with an outrageous flick, and should have been in front.

Second half, I couldn't see anyone but us winning, though we were struggling to make many chances. Then, Paterson bangs in a nice goal, a few wobbles that were generally well defended, and a nice break to kill it off. Jamie was as frustrating as hell as usual - fantastic cross for the sitter Grigg missed, scored two and chose the wrong option on too many occasions to count. If he is going to be a championship player, he really needs to start using his head a bit more - I'll be gutted when we cash in on him though as he's a genuinely exciting player. Bemused how anyone could overlook Chambers for MoM - truly outstanding (have we kept his brother on to keep him happy?). Honorable mentions for the defence who dealt well with the mound that is Iwelumo, Butler keeping going through it all and Downing who recovered from a highly dodgy first 20 minutes to play superbly in the 2nd half and to put in a block with his head that looked like it was going in the top corner at 2-1.

Good day to be a saddler, improved further on the drive home listening to whining seals. SOTV.

[WFC_Rob]

Really satisfying win against a horrible side.

We didn't turn up for the first half an hour or so and probably deserved to go a goal down. They hacked and elbowed us all over the park, which the ref let them get away with at will. Thankfully, Mantom and Chambers seemed to up things towards the end of the first half, which meant we saw more of the ball and got ourselves back into the game. Baxendale has a really useful habit of sparking into life around the edge of the box and it as a really well taken goal from him.

The second half saw us move up a gear and we were by far he better side. Grigg did his usual and ran their centre halves ragged and Paterson looked really dangerous every time he ran at them. His two goals showed what he's all about - one precise finish from the edge of the box and an inspired Gazza-esque turn and finish. Had he picked his options better in the final third, we could have scored a couple more, but he wouldn't be playing for us if he picked the right pass every time, so I can live with that.

What impressed me was the way we really dug in to get back into the game. The back four defended really well for the vast majority of the game, and I think Downing in particular deserves praise for winning the majority of his headers against Iwelumo, which is no mean feat.

The pleasing thing at the moment is the consistency of the players' performances. The likes of Purkiss, Taylor, Chambers & Mantom can be relied upon to offer 7/10 performances most weeks, which puts our front three under less pressure to rescue points for us. Grigg, Paterson and Brandy don't half give defenders nightmares at this level.

[Fray Bentos is God!]

I honestly thought we had brought James on at one point, he was covering that much ground.

[King Crimson]

Excellent report, boringteacher.

That's pretty much how I saw the game, but I would add a mention as Neil did, for Westcarr whose introduction just helped get us home without the old jitters.

[IHTC.]

A thoroughly professional performance on a bog of a pitch. My only gripe was the poor vocal support from our fans (congrats to the dozen that tried) the players deserved better, I was sat in line with the halfway line in the wheelchair area and if it wasnt for the Oldham fans im sure I would have heard a pin drop, is it the way the stands built or was it just a guano effort by the majority including the corpestand (the grave yard stand)?