Oldham Story — March 2010

Hello folks, welcome back, the season is nearing it’s end now! At the end of February we were doing well, top with a fourteen point gap over second placed Leeds, and fifteen points separated us from third. If we could have another good month here then we would be all but promoted.

The first month was away at Exeter, they were struggling in 22nd. They still put up a good fight though, but when Febian Brandy put us ahead in the 20th minute with a point blank header I expected the floodgates to open. That didn’t happen, we missed a few good chances, but once Scott Golbourne was sent off the fight went out of them and we held on for the win.

Next up for us was a home game against mid table Wycombe, they were coming of two consectutive wins so they were quite confident. They showed that they were no pushovers and we had to wait until the second half before Brandy, he cut inside and his strike struck the post before going in. Soon after and the game was as good as over, Pawel Abbott smashed in a second goal to seal the win.

After the Wycombe game another player joined the squad, it is ex international and former Real Madrid player Ivan Campo. He is getting old now and will be used as a backup player, his experience could be very useful.

With a new player in our ranks we welcomed the visit of play off hopefuls Brighton. I watched this game in real life a couple of weeks ago and it wasn’t very good, hopefully this virtual one would be better. It wasn’t great but it was a decent game, we were on top and we deservedly took the lead through Brandy, he scored yet another goal. We were still dominating in the second half but we couldn’t get a killer second, and it was against the run of play that Brighton snatched an equaliser. the players seemed to be angered by that, they deserved to be ahead and were determined to score a winner. That’s exactly what they did, we had to wait until the last minute, Kieran Lee poked in a dramatic winner deep in injury time.

We had one more game left to play in March, this one was sure to be much more difficult, we were travelling to Southampton, who would be in the automatic promotion places without their ten point deduction. We were lucky in that they were missing Lallana and Schneiderlin through injury. They had also just been thrashed 5-1 by MK Dons, so we were confident going to St Mary’s. Southampton looked like a team with problems in the opening stages and we went ahead when Brandy (who else?) slotted in after a mistake from Jody Craddock. Southampton began to dominate possession after the goal, but we had more chances, and on the stroke of half time it was 0-2, Dean Furman in his first start since a broken ankle in December, placed a second in after a fine ball from Marco Verratti. Southampton really began to dominate the game after the break, we held firm though, and finished the game when Brandy twisted and turned in the box to slide in yet another goal in a remarkable season for him. There was still time for them to get a consolation goal, but it was too little, too late, for them. I was delighted with the victory, although I admit it was fortunate for us that they were missing key players.

After a fantastic month when we won all four games, we now have a huge lead at the top of the table. We are now certain of a play off spot, but what’s more pleasing is that we have reached the 90 point target that I set in the last post, but we probably need another two wins to secure promotion, three at the most.

Next month sees us play six games, the league should be all over by then, if it isn’t then we will have had a very poor month.

That’s all then friends, we should wrap up promotion soon, and thanks for reading!