After 25 minutes or so Oldham began to run out of ideas and we came into the match and almost immediately scored. The ball was fed into loanee McGoldrick who slightly miscontrolled the ball but managed to swivel and hit it left footed on the volley from the edge of the box. Alan Blayney (a former AFCB loan signing), and now on loan to Oldham due to Pogliacomi's suspension, was caught out of position and flatfooted and the ball sneaked in by the post. Within two minutes we were two up as McGoldrick broke into the Oldham half and spotted Vidarsson in acres of space on the left. His pass was taken on by the Icelandic winger who slotted easily past Blayney. Both keepers made further saves, indeed Blayney's from Cummins blast from ten yards showed that does have some ability, before Oldham pulled one back in first half stoppage time. Broadhurst's dithering allowed Porter to break into the box causing Young to make a desperate challenge which brought him down for a stonewall penalty. Young joined Browning in Mr Laws' book and Moss also joined them seemingly for gamesmanship before the penalty was taken. Liddell, who was easily Oldham's best player, blasted the spot kick into the corner of the net despite Moss diving the right way. A disappointing way to end a good half.
Two substitutions at half time showed that Bond meant business. Off went Fletcher and Vidarsson to be replaced by Pitman (to add more mobility up front) and Purches (to do a man to man on Oldham playmaker Wellens). Oldham huffed and puffed in the second half but due to good defending only managed a few attempts on goal. Moss did have a few saves to make and Oldham did hit the bar with a header, I thought that Broadhurst was pushed just before he tried to jump for the ball but nothing was given. Gowling made some good blocks and we looked generally solid. Purches' man to man on Wellens did not really work as Oldham started to play around him instead of through him and so Bond made another good tactical change. He altered our formation to 4 5 1 and took off Young (possibly as Oldham are a big team and Young was our shortest centreback) and brought on Hollands to play in central midfield alongside Wilson and Browning with McGoldrick up front by himself. Purches moved to the left and Pitman to the right although he pushed forward as much as possible. As the match wore on we had a few breakaways and Wilson had a good fierce effort saved by Blayney. Browning and Hollands had been cautioned earlier in the half before the final twist deep in added on time. The industrious and tidy Wilson chased down a cleared ball into the Oldham half and dived in late on another Oldham loanee Turner. He reacted by pushing Wilson in the face and again shoved him in the chest as Wilson was correctly being booked. Mr Laws had no option but to send off Turner who should be taken aside (or even bollocked) by Oldham manager John Sheridan as they already have a centreback crisis and he will now have to serve a three match suspension. Despite an eventual six minutes of added on time we rather easily held on for a much needed if fairly surprising win. The players were ecstatic with the win which was great to see.
This was a match between two depleted teams due to injuries or suspensions and we coped the better. Oldham seem to have a good first team but not much else so if they do go up they will struggle. The spirit shown by the AFCB team was a pleasure to observe. The six bookings were an unfortunate testament to this as we were a bit over exuberant at times! If we can play like this for the rest of the season then we will stay up but we have had so many false dawns since Christmas that I wouldn't bank on it.
Blayney in the Oldham goal showed that what we thought about him during his loan period with us was correct. Whilst he is a good shot stopper he is too easily caught out of position and he could have done better for both of our goals. (I'm glad he didn't though of course!!)
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AFCB: Moss, Young, Gowling, Broadhurst, Cummings, Wilson, Cooper, Browning, McGoldrick, Vidarsson, Fletcher
Subs: Stewart, Purches (for Fletcher, HT), Hollands (for Young, 66), Hart, Pitman (for Vidarsson, HT)
Phil Nesbitt, Acocks Green