Credit to the lads for putting the chances away and getting us three points but for some reason i can't get over excited about it. It could be because Oldham put up a defensive display that was worse than Torquays last season when we stuck 4 past them before sacking Hart. They gave us so much space we were allowed to play the ball around easily. We attacked straight from the off and everything we hit seemed to go in and the ref appeared to be a Reds fan. Good effort from Howard. Shuker was awesome. I havent changed my mind about Devaney. He still cant cross a ball but he is a grafter but also a bit greedy (like Nads). I dont think it was the strikers that made the difference it was the midfield. All four midfielders worked their knackers off and we hustled Oldham into panicking and it worked. We did however look vulnerable in the air at the back particularly with Carbon off the field. A stronger more physical opposition might have produced a different game. Its nice to get three points but im not convinced we are going to follow it up with another two wins to put us up with the leaders. Lets hope they prove me wrong.
We can only beat what's in front of us And to say Ronnie Moore's teams are reknowned for being hard working and hard to beat, well, they must've had an off day. The only concern for me was 1st half they dominated down our left flank and the crosses/corners coming in from there caused us problems. Because we let them. I thought Devaney was outstanding. As well as notching he gave their full back 90 minutes of grief, hassling him and chasing down right into injury time. The end product from him can be better admittedly, but he's finding his feet in a new team let's not forget. Also, I'm intrigued to see how Howard fares once he's fit. Him & Burns looked comfortable together. Wether that was partly due to a poor Oldham showing i dunno. I don't think it means automatic promotion, but lets hope we can take the good points forward and keep on erradicating the bad.
RE: We can only beat what's in front of us I have read most of the post match reaction and agree that we can only play what is in front of us. However Oldham stood of us by 5 to 10 yards most of the time and allowed to play and excellent passing game which is our normal style. Less generous teams will be in our faces and chasing every ball allowing us no time on the ball to make good telling passes. Nardiello was guilty of not making best use of his team mates in better positions on several occasions, opting to shoot himself when Shuker was better placed, this also goes for Devaney, twice he should have laid the ball to Hayes or Nardiello who would have scored easy 'tap in' goals. Ritchie must address this as we will only move up the league by every member of the working hard for each other and sacrificing individual glory of the WHOLE team. I thought Brian Howard had a very good bome debut, him and Burns worked well to compliment Shuker and Devaney completing a good mid field quartet. This will provide the service for Hayes and Nardiello to score regularily. Ritchie must also play a system that maximises the teams strength. Long ball to Hayes and Nardiello is a useless tactic, neither is very adept at holding off the opposing C/H's, Colgan must use long throws to our full backs or wide mid fielders, with their pace they can quickly counter attack and get opposing defenders facing their own goal. Anyway decent performance Saturday, more of the same please!!!
And the defense was **** Ours that is - as well as theirs. Only the grace of god kept a clean sheet. Oldham strikers want a kick up the @rse if they can't put one (or six) past that shower we put out in defense on Setdi. Looking at the league table and how close it all is it just goes to show what an organised defense and a little consistency could bring to any team within this division. When Bristol near the bottom spank us three nil, then we go and beat play off contenders Oldham 4 nil the league table means nothing. Form is none existent in this division at the minute.