Play-offs Still On After Tough Spell

Firstly I would like to appologise for the length of time between this and my last blog. As I mentioned last time I went away on holiday, this was followed by visists to live football and just been generally busy, but I am back now.

Leeds 1 - 1 Oldham

I was actually very pleased with this result as I consider Leeds to be one of the two toughest sides in the division. I went into the game far from hopeful due to injuries keeping strikers Lee Hughes, Lewis Allesandra and Ariel Lopez out of the game. Without a strikeforce pulling a shock off against a big club will always be difficult. Leeds took the lead in the 18th minute through Beckford, but apart from that my team put on a very good defensive display. The players who impressed me most with their defensive contributions were Man Of the Match Zambernardi, Babayaro and defensive midfielder Maher. Around the 75th minute I instructed the team to attack much more forcefully than before, this could have resulted in a second goal for Leeds, but luckily it paid off and second half sub Whitaker scored a long range beauty along the floor (in the 86th minute) to give us the point we deserved and in my opinion a good result, especially as they were the better team with more shots and possession.

Oldham 0 - 1 Stockport

This has to be the most dissapointing result of the season for me, as clearly we are a better side than them and we were on the night, we just couldn't put the ball in the net. I didn't play my strongest line-up and you could say that is a sign I did not take this competition seriously. Luckily my board do not care about this competition but it is a shame as this is a competition we relaistically could have won. They scored early through Baker and from then onwards we dominated. This is made clear in the match stats, which show that my team had 12 shots whilst Stockport had 5. The problem was I had to play a tired Kabba and 16 year-old Timmons up front, due to my injury crisis of sorts. Luckily this was a cup, we are out but it is not the end of the world.

Leicester 2 - 1 Oldham

This scoreline suggests we are going through a bad patch of form, but this is the club I consider to be the best in the league and clearly Championship standard. We put on a brave struggle but eventually we lost, away, to a better side. It all began so well when Steven Kabba scored first, in the 18th minute and on the 22nd minute we were given the opportunity to almost settle the match. After a foul in the penalty area, we were given a penalty, Bilos stepped up, hit it down the middle, easy save, morale crushed. As if the cruelty wasn't enough, we stupidly gave them a penalty and Howard showed us how to score them. The winner was in the 68th minute and was by Matt Oakley. Apart from Kabba all the players didn't have great games, specificaly bad were Taylor and Lomax. Although this was a loss, our first in the league out of 10 games, and I was slightly dissapointed as I thought we might get a draw I can say this has not upset me or doubted our credibility for promotion. If you can beat all the other teams and scrape some draws with the best then play-offs is very possible.

Oldham 2 - 0 Leyton Orient

Today we were back on track, as was our play-offs push, and this was thanks to a brace from Steven Kabba. Still with limited options up front, the return of Alessandra seemed to bring the best out of Kabba as it once did Hughes before he strained his knee ligaments. The two goals came in the 13th and 28th minutes and he was the clear winner of MOM. And Liddell and Danny Whitaker made the first team today and both performed very well, giving the midfield a bit of energy as well as industry. This was a good win for the home fans against a tough side.

Oldham 1 - 0 Millwall

Another tight clash, against a side a considered to be play-off contenders. Ariel Lopez managed to be fit so he could take his place alongside Kabba in the ever-changing and always interesting frontline saga. The defence of Lomax, Hazell, Gregan and Babayaro did a good job today. I was also impressed with a second clean-sheet in a row from 'keeper Fleming who is doing well to keep onto the highly contested goalkeeping jersey. Another important goal from Danny Whitaker settled the close affair, he seems to be in good form and really challenging Sastre and Maher for the CM places.

That is my latest and toughest run so far completed. I am feeling very positive now. We are 3rd place in the table and are only three points off 1st which is Peterborough (looking for a second promotion in a row). The next five fixtures, which are all in the league, are: Carlisle (A), Colchester (H), Peterborough (H), Scunthorpe (A), Northampton (A). Hopefully I will consider to find success and maybe some of my strikers will be fit, we shall see !

Sorry about the wait. Up and Onwards !