Oldham January 2011 — Marching On In a New Year

Hello everyone, welcome back to my Oldham story! We were doing really well, we had climbed to the top of the table in December, although that was mainly due to the poor form of the other challengers. The transfer window was also opening, and with our rich owners we had money to spend.

I immediately started to look for players, and two were brought in on just the first day of the window.

The first is young regen Jason Stevenson. This deal was actually done back in October, I am delighted to get him for such a cheap price, just $200k. He has very high potential, and is a natural at centre back and left back, but I think I’m going to use him at full back. Hopefully he can be a good player for many years to come.

The other signing, and I’m very pleased about this, is wonderkid defender Nicolas Otamendi. I blew most of my transfer budget on him ($9.5m), but I’m confident that he’ll be worth it, he has become a world class defender on my Liverpool save, hopefully he can do the same for us.

Obviously with players coming in some had to make way for them. Both John Kennedy and Rueben Hazell were sold, they aren’t good enough. Also let go were Dale Stephens, he never got a game, Alan Sheehan and Pawel Abbott. With Abbott gone I needed to bring in another striker, but more about that later.

With the two new signings in our ranks we faced Premier League side West Brom, in the FA Cup 3rd Round. They are a good side, in mid table in the Premier League, so I knew we were in for a tough game. Despite that we played quite well, until the 25th minute it was very even. The deadlock was broken in the 27th minute, Chris Wood stabbed in from close range. It was 2-0 before half time, Simon Cox smashed one in. We kept our heads up and just after the break Febian Brandy slid one in to give us hope. West Brom have a solid defence though, and we couldn’t break through. We were out but I was satisfied with our performance, we made a good effort.

After that it was time to start the league campaign of the year, we had a busy time coming up, we had six league games to play this month.

The first was against Sheff Wed, they were struggling near the bottom of the table, I expected a win. We got off to a great start, it was 2-0 inside ten minutes, a counter attack goal from Tomas Pekhart and a placed shot from Deane Smalley put us in a commanding position. We didn’t look back from there, we hammered Sheffield Wednesday and goals from Brandy, another from Pekhart, and one from Chris Taylor made it and emphatic 5-0 victory.

Next up was our first away game of the year, it was going to be a tough one, we were travelling to 4th placed Coventry. We got off to a bad start, after just six minutes we were one down due to a long range free kick. We reacted well though, and we were playing well and pressing for an equaliser. It finally came, in the 80th minute Tomas Pekhart smashed in from a tight angle to rescue a point for us.

After the game another signing was made. I had Luca Tremolada on loan earlier in the season, and due to our link with Man City they planned a loan deal for him to come to us. He is a good player and can play on both wings, he could be useful for us.

We were away again for the next game, this time we travelled to Doncaster. We looked lively going forward in the opening stages, and we were ahead through Febian Brandy in the 17th minute. We weren’t in the lead for long, it was level in the 27th minute. We went into the break level, but after the interval we looked a different side, and Brandy was the main man. He got his second just after half time and completed a fabulous hat trick in the 53rd minute, sliding in to finish a good move. We dominated the rest of the game, but we had to wait until the last minute to add to our total, Martyn Waghorn slotted home our fourth. It was a good win, we were playing freely going forward, I was pleased about that.

The next game was surely going to be more difficult, we were facing third placed Bristol City,they had only conceded 19 goals all season. We had a great chance to add to that total just before half time, but Marco Verratti made a rare error, he missed his penalty. The game was quite boring, Bristol City offered nothing in attack, they had just two shots all game. Finally the breakthrough came, in the 84th minute Ruben glanced in a corner to give us a deserved victory.

We now had a break before the next game, and I used it to look for another striker after selling Pawel Abbott. I am pleased to say I managed to get one, it is Brazilian target man Adeilson. He is a bit like Abbott but much quicker, I spent the rest of my remaining budget of $2.4m on the striker. I hope he can be a good player for us, he has all the attributes to do well.

With all the transfers done, we had two games left to play in the month, the first of these was an away trip to mid table Scunthorpe. We started really badly, we looked sluggish and rusty and we were behind in the 32nd minute. That seemed to wake the players up and we hit back just two minutes later, new boy Adeilson got his first for the club with a powerful effort. It wasn’t level for long after the break, Chris Taylor rounded the keeper in the 47th minute to make it 2-1. I was pleased with Taylor’s performance, he was offered a contract from Burnley after the chairman accepted an $8m offer for him. Thankfully he rejected it and signed a new deal with us, I was very happy about that, he has been fantastic this season. We killed the game off in the 75th minute when Julian Gray slid in from ten yards. There was time for Taylor to get his second, he headed in from the edge of the area after the keeper had come out and been beaten to it by Waghorn.

The final game of the month saw us back at home for the visit of Crystal Palace. I wanted to keep up our winning run and we got off to a great start, we were ahead in the 2nd minute when Smalley hammered in. The players seemed to have huge confidence and it was 2-0 on the half hour mark when Marco Verratti smashed a free kick in off the underside of the bar. We were still playing well after half time but Palace got a lifeline with half an hour still to play. Fortunately they couldn’t muster another meaningful attack and we held on quite comfortably to complete an excellent month.

That concludes a great month for us, we have opened up a huge lead at the top. If we don’t gain promotion now it will be a disaster, I am really pleased with how the players have played so far this season, if they keep it up for a little longer we will be assured of promotion.

Next month will see us play just four games, the first three are against struggling sides, but the Reading game will be very difficult.

That’s all for now then folks, thanks for reading!