Oldham Story — March 2012

Hello all, welcome back to another installment of my Oldham story! At the end of February we were still in third place and edging ever nearer to a Champions League place, but with Tottenham and Everton just 1 point behind us we had to maintain our form to stay there. Let’s see how we got on.

We started the month with what was bound to be a difficult game, away at Manchester City. They have been poor for most of the season but have some quality players and are the holders of the English Premier League. However they looked short of confidence, and the game was even throughout. City probably had the better chances but we created a few openings, I was disappointed that we couldn’t take one of our chances. The defence was strong all game though, City couldn’t break us down and the game drifted to a bore draw. It was still a pleasing point against a strong team, we looked solid and that was most notable and pleasing thing.

Next up we were back at home for the visit of 19th placed Reading, I expected a win. We produced a very disappointing display, we struggled to create chances and the game certainly wasn’t a good one. The only goal came in the 76th minute when Jeffrey Bruma poked in from a corner, we slumped to a very disappointing defeat, the performance was shocking.

We needed to get back to winning ways in the next game, against Burnley at Boundary Park. I was getting concerned with the form of Guilherme, he hadn’t scored in 6 games and needed to find the back of the net in this game. I was worried when he missed a couple of good chances early on, but it was pleasing that we were creating goalscoring opportunities. Guilherme was bound to put one of the chances away some time and he finally did in the 30th minute to put us ahead. That boosted the playeres confidence and the floodgates opened, Guilherme got another goal and gloss was added to the scoreline through Marco Verratti and a 1st goal of the season from Chris Taylor. It was a satisfying win for us and hopefully the players confidence would be restored after that victory.

Andrew Driver got injured again, he will be out for 10 days this time, which isn’t too bad.

We stayed at home for the next game — our third home game in a row — and Hull were the visitors. They have been very good this season and travelled to us sitting in 8th place, despite not having any star players. It was a tough game for us, if anything Hull were probably the better side. We nicked a goal early on through Guilherme, and after that we didn’t really create anything. Fortunately for us Hull missed a couple of good chances and we held on for three more valuable points.

We took a short break after the Hull game for a round of international friendlies, as manager of Nigeria I now had to prepare my team for a friendly against Burundi. They are in our World Cup Qualifying Group and are ranked 171st in the world, so I expected it to be a good runout for us. We had the big Nigerian stars back like John Obi Mikel, Yakubu and Joseph Yobo. Chinedu Obasi was missing through injury but that didn’t seem to affect us as we easily dispatched Burundi. Goals from Yakubu, Yobo and Obafemi Martins, to go with a brace from Michael Eneramo sealed a good victory for us, we looked quite impressive in this game.

It was back to the Premier League after that, we finally played away from home, we travelled to Bolton for the next match. Confidence was high after a couple of good wins, especially for Guilherme, who looked in fine form. He opened the scoring in the 29th minute, before solving the game for us with a couple more, a great hat trick and another good win.

It was back to Boundary Park for the final game of the month, mid table West Ham were coming to us. Unfortunately we were missing the injured Verratti, Guilherme and Driver, all of whom were injured in training. That seemed to show in the rest of the teams performance, Alessandro Diamantigave the visitors the lead with a free kick, and without Guilherme and Verratti we struggled in attack. We had a golden chance to rescue a point in the 81st minute when Matias Suarez was tripped in the box. For some reason I’m not sure of Neill Collins (who had come on as a substitute when Martin Caceres picked up a knock) stepped up to take the penalty and…. missed. I was disappointed as it was another home defeat, when our home form has been our real strength this season.

We are still 3rd after all that, I believe we have a great chance of getting a Champions League place now, with just 4 games left. The problem is that Man Utd have a game in hand and are 3 points behind, and would have a better goal difference if they won. Liverpool look nailed on winners after Arsenal’s shocking run of form, I guess we could finish anywhere between 2nd and 6th now.

We have 4 difficult games to finish the season, we have to face both Arsenal and Liverpool, as well as Newcastle and Aston Villa, who are good sides.

Well then, we have just 4 games left to fight for a place in Europe’s top competition. I am confident we can do it, what do you think?

Thanks for reading everyone, and enjoy the World Cup!