On the road again

A great week for the OASIS faction, an.... OK week on the pitch? Two tough trips to the southeast in four days isn’t ideal, but that’s the league we’re in, we’re in a better position as a club to manage that than most, and both Sutton and Maidenhead haven’t had the start to the season they would have wanted.

We got off to a great start at (sigh) Gander Green Lane. Firstly, why have they got a weird mutant giraffe as their mascot? Shouldn’t it be a weird mutant goose?

Anyway, on the pitch, we were well on top, and took the lead, after several missed chances, in the 18th minute. After a great team passing move, Kitching put yet another superb cross into the box, and Fondop rose like the ascension of Christ into heaven to head the ball in.

It wasn’t great defending when Sutton got a free kick in the opening minutes of the second half, and Davies equalised when the ball ricocheted back to him off the post. It was disappointing, but it was another opportunity to show how our mentality has improved from last season, and we don’t throw the towel in as soon as we concede any more.

Less than 10 minutes later, Fondop was cynically scythed down making a run down the left. Conlon’s delivery from the free kick was excellent, and Raglan headed us back into the lead.

Having dominated the game, we finally put it to bed in injury time. Fondop played the ball back to Caprice when he could have had a shot, and he played a lovely pass into the box for Norwood to head it home. He didn’t celebrate, and he shot wide when he should have scored just after. Shite. Get rid. Delighted that he’s found his shooting boots just before we play Tranmere, though, obv. Bet he’ll celebrate if he scores there.

Mikey giving Norwood a hug he clearly didn't want.

‘Attitude’ was the word of the day in the post match interviews, with Conlon and Payne both talking about the gaffer being big on attitude, and Mellon talking about needing to show the right attitude, and what a difficult place Sutton is to come to. The boss was keen to praise the subs who came on for keeping the performance going, saying “you’re only as good as your squad”. He also singled out new boy Kai Payne, saying he covered every blade of grass and did what he was brought in to do.

For his part, Payne was clearly pleased to finally be playing for a club with a decent crowd: “the fans are class, I didn’t expect there to be so many to be honest”. Wait til you play at Boundary Park, son.

We celebrated the result, and Lancashire beating Yorkshire 20-12 in the women’s rugby league Roses match at Boundary Park, in a cafe in the Spanish Quarter in Naples, not far from the big mural of Maradona. Maybe one day Oldham will be a shrine to Mike Fondop in the same way that Naples is a shrine to Diego.

On Sunday, we took a trip out 19 miles southeast of Naples to watch Juve Stabia play Cremonese. Their ground sits in the shadow of Vesuvius, and the view reminds me of when we knocked the old Lookers stand down and we had a lovely view of Tandle Hill.

The game was pretty feisty, with both teams fully going for it, and the young woman who was refereeing was kept busy. After conceding in the third minute, Juve Stabia equalised from the spot. The penalty was won by their number 29, an impressive tricky left winger, like a young Rick Holden.

I don’t know what the history was with the bloke taking Cremonese’s corners, but the Juve Stabia fans seemed to really hate him. Maybe he used to play for them, I don’t know. Which made it inevitable that the winner for Cremonese came from a corner, with the shot seeming to go right through the keeper. There was a bit of handbags at the end, people were going mental, it was exactly what you’d want from a Serie B game.

(This is exactly the kind of hipster groundhopper stuff I should be selling to Mundial magazine. I’m giving away the corn here. You’re welcome.)

With the correct amount of respect due, Maidenhead are terrible, and we really should have made it 6 points from Southern Leisure Centres in 4 days on Tuesday. After conceding from an admittedly cracking curling shot from Golding  (maybe we could have closed him down quicker, but it was a good goal), then Monthe knocking in a horribly unlucky own goal after the ball came back off the post and hit him, it felt like it wasn’t our night.

Thankfully Manny quickly made amends. Fondop hooked the ball into the box over his head, and Monthe took it on his chest, Mikey-style, and volleyed it in. It was a great bit of skill that Maidenhead probably weren’t expecting from a man mountain centre half.

Boarding our connecting flight home in Munich with the score 2-1 at half time, I was hopeful of news of a glorious comeback in landing. I was tempted to leave roaming on to listen to Uncle Roy, but it wasn’t worth risking bringing the plane down when the stream kept cutting out anyway. (Please release an app to replace the EFL app, lads, the commentary doesn’t work on phone browsers.) It wasn’t quite to be, but I’d probably have taken a draw at 2-0 down.

We had plenty of chances, again, and couldn’t quite put them away, again. Drummond was unlucky to hit the post, and we were well on top. The equaliser came from another Raglan header (our defenders are kind of putting our attacking players to shame in front of goal, aren’t they?), this time from a Kitching corner. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but it’s another game we definitely would have lost last season.

Mellon was rightly critical of the defending for both goals, and the one-on-one mistakes (without naming names and throwing anyone under the bus), and pointed out that you’re giving yourself a lot to do if you have to score 3 goals to win away from home. He highlighted the quality that Kitching and Caprice showed, and was as sanguine as could be expected: “you take what you get sometimes....every credit to them, they battled on”.

Two difficult games, two long journeys, two southern leisure centres, 4 points. Of course we’d have liked more. We’re Oldham fucking Athletic. We expect to beat everyone in this league. But you take what you get sometimes, and we go again.

Aperol spritzes in the Neapolitan sunshine are very nice, but I’m looking forward to pies and vodka in the Rocky today. Dagenham and Redbridge are 5 places and 6 points behind us. Let’s make that gap a bit wider this afternoon. KTMFF. 

Written by Arlene Finnigan. Photos © Oldham Athletic, except the ones that are quite clearly my holiday photos.