Southend again last week I felt like crying

That was not what good looks like, Micky. That was not what building momentum going into the playoffs looks like. That was definitely not what trying to make third place looks like.

I like Dan Gardner, really, I do. He’s a good player and he’s been a great servant to the club. But, if we’re serious about going for promotion, is starting an injury-plagued 34 year old in midfield really our best option? Is Yoganathan really not ready to start? What the hell has happened to Hammond? I assume Lundstram must be injured?

The first half started terribly and went downhill from there. Neither Hobson nor Caprice could track back quickly enough to stop the run that led to their goal, Rossiter’s attempt at a last-ditch tackle was farcically mistimed and he missed completely, Donaghy made a decent save from the initial shot but Appiah-Forson headed in the rebound.

📸 Southend United

Southend were well on top and had pretty much all the chances in the first half, with Donaghy making several good saves to keep us in it. We created fuck all and our cause wasn’t helped by Norwood tweaking his hamstring and having to go off less than half an hour in. It’s almost like making an injury-prone player in his thirties who missed the whole of pre-season play the full 90+ minutes against Halifax wasn’t great management.

Mellon thankfully recognised the glaring lack of creativity and pace and brought Uchegbulam on for Gardner at half time. It was better. It could hardly have been fucking worse.

Once again, we were on the wrong end of a terrible refereeing decision; once again, it wasn’t the reason we lost. Both the ref and the lino missed a blatant handball in the box; from the resulting corner, Fondop handballed twice (LOL fair play top bantz) then got booked for dissent.

It was awful, but we get awful referees every week and people don’t feel the need to call them a ‘broken dishwasher’ or make snide comments about them having been ‘fast-tracked’. If you really think it’s an insurmountable leap to make from officiating WSL games to officiating National League games, I can only assume you haven’t watched many games in this league, because if you had, you couldn’t help but notice that this league is, largely, utter dogshit.

We eventually brought Yoganathan and Evans on for Rossiter and Conlon in the 74th minute. Why leave it so late, especially in Yoganathan’s case? The game was crying out for a young player who’d get forward and attack the opposition. The two subs combined pretty much immediately, and Yogi had a shot blocked.

We brought Garner on for Leake in the 88th minute. Bringing on a striker for a defender makes sense when you’re 1-0 down. It does not make sense to wait until the 88th minute. You make a sub in the 88th minute to waste time when you’re winning and trying to see the game out.

We sent Donaghy up for a corner in injury time, nothing came of it, it was a shit evening and thoughts and prayers if you made the trip to Essex to watch that crock of shite.

📸 Oldham Athletic

Mellon spoke after the game about how we should have been more aggressive first half. Yeah it’s almost like it might have been an idea to start our younger, more attacking players in a game where we needed to get at the opposition and be on the front foot. He bemoaned the lack to stoppage time, but if you haven’t managed to score in 94 minutes, I’m not sure why you’d think you would have scored in the 96th.

Mellon also confirmed that Pett didn’t miss the game through injury. Huge congratulations to FA Cup winner and England international Hannah Blundell and her husband on the birth of their daughter.

As ever, the club does us proud off the pitch if not on it. This Friday, OACT have organised a sleep out at Boundary Park to raise money for EGG, Oldham Foodbank, NorthCare Charity (the charity for our local hospitals) and OACT. It’s a brilliant effort and four great causes, you can donate here.

No match today to ruin our weekend, which I’m quite pleased about, as Woking are playing in the FA Trophy semi final so our game against them’s been moved to Tuesday. If you need a football fix, get down to Chapel Road at 2pm tomorrow, where our women’s team are taking on Mancunian Unity B, who we’re currently level on points with in the league.

Have a great Saturday. I’ll be continuing my birthday bender and watching the Grand National. I’m generally better at betting on that than on the football so fingers crossed. Enjoy your weekend and fingers crossed we right some wrongs next Tuesday. KTMFF.

📸 Oldham Athletic

Written by Arlene Finnigan