Hello everyone, welcome to another post on my Oldham story. We didn’t get off to a great start, we had to play a lot of very good teams, and as a result we were a bit behind. So, we had some catching up to do this month, let’s see how we got on.
The first game of the month was at home, in the Champions League, against Sporting CP. The game was very tight, just as I expected it to be. A draw would have been a fair result, and I was just thinking it was going to end level when Nicolas Otamendi popped up and thumped home a header from a corner. Sporting really began to press in the final minutes, but we were lucky, they missed a huge chance in the last minute, and we nicked a valuable 3 points, our first ever win in the Champions League!
We stayed at Boundary Park for the next match, the visitors were 9th placed Newcastle. We started the game on the front foot, we dominated the first half be we couldn’t break through. We had to wait until the 54th minute to get in front, but a fine goal it was, Marco Verratti hammered the ball home. We got a second just 3 minutes later, and it was that man Verratti again. If you saw Andres Iniesta’s goal for Spain against Chile, then it was very similar to that, Guilherme played David Villa’s roll with the lay off, and Verratti applied the cool finish. 2-0 would probably have been a fair result, but we added an extra goal, Ikechukwu Uche was the man who did that.
We travelled away for the next match, and it was sure to be tough, we had to go to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea. The match wasn’t a very good one, Chelsea had a lot of pressure, they pushed us back and back, but we held firm. In the 65th minute we delivered the knockout blow, a corner wasn’t cleared and Guilherme was first to the ball to poke home 1-0! The pressure increased on our goal as the match entered it’s final stages, Chelsea were easily on top, but to our immense credit they never managed to create a clear cut chance. They couldn’t produce anything special, and we nicked all three points!
It was back to Boundary Park for the next game, and it was back to the Champions League, Villarreal were the visitors for a crucial tie. They are a good team, and in the opening stages they proved that, they made some good chances, but fortunately they didn’t take them. In the 24th minute we changed the game, Andrew Driver with a clinical finish from a good move. After that our confidence was restored, we began to really dominate and I was hoping we could press home our advantage. We did just that, Driver popped up again and it was 2-0! The match continued in the same way for much of the second half, and we got a 3rd when Guiseppe Rossi put into his own net from a corner. That seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Spanish side, the match sort of fizzled out but it was a really good victory for us.
As a result of that victory the group table now looks quite good, I’d say we have a decent chance of progressing now.
It was back to the Premier League after that game, this time we travelled to struggling Sunderland. They were in 17th place despite winning their last game 6-0, which seemed a bit strange. They still didn’t look very confident, but I think the final scoreline of 3-0 was a little harsh on them. It was still a comfortable victory though, after Guilherme opened the scoring in just the 2nd minute their wasn’t much of a challenge from Sunderland. We extended the lead when Micah Richards headed in from a corner, and it was all over when Martin Caceres also nodded in from a dead ball situation.
That was our last league game of the month, a very successful one for us, that run of victories has pushed us up into 4th, and we have a game in hand over Arsenal.
We still had one more game to play, this time it was the League Cup that drew our attentions. I fielded a weakened side against League One outfit Gillingham. I was rewarded with a fine performance, we looked fluid going forward, a particularly fine display from Jo easily won the match for us.
That concludes my activity with Oldham for October. We had a really good run this month, but we have a tough schedule in November, especially towards the end of the month were we will have to play 4 games in 10 days.
I also had one game with Nigeria in October. It was against Chad, the team that was bottom of the group. I expected a good win and that’s just what I got, another good performance from the Super Eagles resulted in a 6-0 win.
That means that we finish the group as clear winners, we picked up the maximum of 18 points, with a goal difference of +18 to go with it.
We are through to the next round then, and we will battle it out with Burkina Faso, Egypt and Gabon for top spot and qualification for the world cup. I am confident that we will go through, hopefully we will be at the World Cup 2014!
That’s all for October folks, thanks for reading!
Johnny Karp
1 июля, 2010 at 20:14
Well done Laxeyman, that was a perfect month! The players surely got a confidence boost so I’m sure they’ll keep performing well. You did very well with Nigeria too but the next group round is much more difficult, Egypt are a very tough nut to crack. Good luck!
Laxeyman
1 июля, 2010 at 20:33
@Johnny, thanks, yeah, the month was absolutely perfect! I agree that Egypt are a good side, but we beat them 3-1 away in a recent friendly, so I’m quite confident that we can do well against them.
ravenie
1 июля, 2010 at 21:47
Sood results there Laxeyman, your team is starting to build up momentum and mount a title challenge.
Callum
1 июля, 2010 at 22:03
I think you could win the title and with a bit of luck world cup to as Egypt will battle hard to get qualification this time. Good luck !!!
Sears
1 июля, 2010 at 22:04
Laxeyman, told you so! You might have had a difficult schedule at the biginning of the season, but know you are playing the teams that you can be picking points off, and you’ve got off to a fantastic start. Your team put in some wonderful performances over the past month and I hope that that will continue for you. Well done on getting through to the next group with Nigeria, however, that game versus Egypt will be very challenging, home and away. It’s only one team that goes through I’m guessing? Again well done and goodluck!
Laxeyman
1 июля, 2010 at 22:34
@ravenie, thanks, hopefully we can mount a serious challenge this year.
@Callum, I’m not sure about winning the World Cup! But I suppose we can dream…
@Sears, you were exactly right! And yes, only one team will go through the qualifying group, it’ll be between us and Egypt I’m sure.
Sears
3 июля, 2010 at 00:29
Laxeyman, in my Ledds United save, (See my blog story is there if you wish) I brought striker Guilherme, and I’ve noticed he scores quite a few goals for you, what role did you give him?
Lye
3 июля, 2010 at 05:27
Great month there Laxeyman, after a difficult start your team had started to grind out some wonderful results and start mounting a serious challenge to the title. Well done with Nigeria too, i believe you will have no problem going to World Cup 2014.
Laxeyman
3 июля, 2010 at 12:13
@Sears, I use Guilherme as a poacher, alongside either an advanced forward, a complete forward, or a target man, I’m not sure which one he plays best with yet.
@Lye, thanks mate.
Ana Garcia
3 июля, 2010 at 14:20
Great going!
Caceres a good player? Never thought of getting him, just wondering how he is doing for your team.
Good luck this season!
Laxeyman
3 июля, 2010 at 17:32
@Ana, Caceres is ok, he plays quite well every match, averaging around 7.0 every game. He is good enough at the moment, but I might need to think about finding a better DC in the next couple of seasons.
Kevin Mayo
4 июля, 2010 at 09:19
Hello Laxeyman
Good month for you there and I hope that contiunes on for you. Everton though have such a big lead already? I bet you are not too hapy about seeing that!
Laxeyman
4 июля, 2010 at 12:15
@Kevin, yeah I know, it’s a bit strange as they didn’t do that well last year, and they haven’t made any major signings. Hopefully they’ll start to slip later on in the season.