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Easter here again, a time for the blind to see
- Arlene Finnigan
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
Well, what a lovely long weekend that was. Still not getting carried away?
If you made the trek to Colchester on Good Friday, well done, I’m glad you got the result your journey deserved. If, possibly, not quite the performance.
I am once again asking: what the fuck was that mascot? Why, when I google ‘Colchester mascot’, am I being shown pictures of heavy machinery?
Chaddy could deffo take him.
Chaddy probably wouldn't know what to do with this. I certainly don't. Frank would, though.
It was a bit windy, with Storm Dave on the way, but we should be used to that, and it looked early on like we were going to adapt better to the conditions. Jamie Robson played a great free kick into the box, and Donervon Daniels toe-poked it in to open the scoring and get his first goal for us. I don’t know about you, but I expected his first goal to be a header. A very pleasant surprise.
The positive start raised hopes that we might steamroller Colchester the way we did Chesterfield and Notts County, but it became somewhat harder work. Lisbie hit his shot into the side netting after beating Monthe and Robson. Drummond did brilliantly to take the ball past Terry just before half-time; his shot drew a good save, and Hawkes’ effort went over the bar.
It became considerably harder work in the second half. If we’re being pedantic, the corner that led to the equaliser should have been retaken because the ball was moving, but we should have defended it better. Monthe got the wrong side of Lisbie, and there wasn’t much Hudson could do about his header from a yard out.
There was a bit of silliness when Mellon had to tell Danny Cowley to get back in his own technical area, and Cowley got a bit gobby. That’s not a fight you’re going to win, son, especially with Brabin backing him up. I’m still hoping that Wadmin will make the bench cam footage of that available.
Colchester were definitely getting on top as the game went on, and Lisbie almost gave the home side the lead with 10 minutes to go, but Hudson made a superb save from close range. I’d have happily settled for a draw at this point. Thankfully, our players didn’t.
With less than 5 minutes of normal time left, Pett got the ball out to Drummond, who couldn’t get his shot away, but Colchester failed to clear it. Robson played a good ball into the box, Garner pulled two defenders away to create space for Kane Taylor to run into, and he gave us the lead with a perfectly placed deft header. It was all the more beautiful for being so against the run of play.
We made the three points safe in stoppage time with a move started and finished by Drummond. He played a long ball forward, Fondop chased the ball down as their keeper came sprinting out of his box and squared it back to Drummond, who put the game beyond doubt. Get in lad, made up for you.
It could have been a hilariously unjust 4-1 hammering, with Drummond again hitting Colchester on the break, but he hit it wide with only the keeper to beat. Ah well, just the 5 goals in 5 games for him then.
We watched the game in the Railway in Royton, where we’ve often gone on previous Good Fridays to watch St Helens v Wigan. After the start to the season Saints have had, I wasn’t at all confident that we’d get a result this year. Sure enough, when I checked how it was going on the screen behind the bar with about 10 minutes to go, we were 10-24 down. Imagine my delight, then, when the Sky coverage of the football was over and the screens were switched back to the rugby, and I learned that Saints had scored 4 tries in 8 minutes to win 34-24. Happy birthday to me. A perfect day was rounded off by Boundary Park looking even more beautiful than usual.
Micky Mellon acknowledged that it had been a difficult second half and we had to dig in, and claimed that “we played a lot better on Saturday” [at Crewe], which I wouldn’t disagree with. He praised the brilliant delivery for the first goal, Taylor’s “great little header” for the second, and, ever the tough taskmaster, congratulated ‘maverick’ Drummond on his goal but added: “If we’re being harsh, he should have had another one”. As always, his most fulsome praise was for the support: “unbelievable support considering how far we are away from home… Incredible support, incredible support, can’t speak highly enough of them”. Aw. We love you too, gaffer.
Was it me or were all the empties in the world being tipped out while Daniels was being interviewed? Bit disrespectful, that. He was unfazed, naturally. He’s just so cool, isn’t he? He rightly said that “it weren’t vintage Oldham” and spoke about how the players had to have a little chat after they conceded. He also paid tribute to “the best support in the league”. What a delightful love-in the end of the season is turning out to be.
The game on Easter Monday was always likely to be a stern test of both our players and of the best support in the league. Our record against one of the world’s most hated sporting franchises isn’t great, they were second in the table, and, while we were still celebrating our play-off victory last summer, they were spending millions on their squad.
You wouldn’t necessarily have known that from how the game started. When Monthe and Daniels linked up in the opposition box – “what are THEY doing THERE?!?” – they forced our second corner of the first 4 minutes. We couldn’t sustain our frenetic opening, unfortunately, and both players and fans seemed to deflate a little as the game progressed.
Milton Keynes were constantly fouling and time-wasting, and the referee seemed to be pretty wise to it, so it was all the more galling that their goal came from a free kick for offside well into their half. MacGillivray played it long, we didn’t deal with it, and Nelson played the ball into the box for Ekpiteta to head in at the far post. Their massive centre halves are a big threat for them, and it’s probably fitting that one of them set up the other for the goal, but given who we’ve got at the back and how solid they’ve been, it was disappointing that we didn’t deal with it better.
We had chances in the last 10 minutes of the first half, but it all got a bit scrappy. Andy did his best to help by going early to the bar – a necessary move, with the crowd of 8920 being the biggest of the season – but it was hard to see where an equaliser was coming from. Monthe made one of his marauding runs forward, but his shot was well wide. The highlight of the opening 45 minutes for us was Woods’ spectacular overhead kick to hoof the ball into the Joe Royle stand for a Milton Keynes throw in. It was a privilege to be there to witness it live.
I was a bit surprised to see Kavanagh come back out in the second half, as he looked well off the pace. Much needed changes were made ten minutes in, with Garner and Hawkes coming on for Taylor and Kavanagh.
Hawkes in particular visibly improved us, and he was unlucky to not get the equaliser 70 minutes in. After good work from Drummond and Fondop to win a corner, Woods swung the ball out to the edge of the box, and McGillivray had to make a brilliant save from Hawkes’ shot.
It looked like our poor form against a club who aren’t as old as the shirt I was wearing was destined to continue, but it was appropriate, on the Monday of the Angel, that God’s number 9 should raise our play-off hopes from the dead. Having struggled all afternoon, it was such a simple goal in the end. Hawkes played in a great cross (no pun intended, for once) from the right, and Fondop ascended as if borne up on wings to bury his header past the keeper. He is risen!
Mikey was unlucky to not get a late winner, having shrugged off their defenders on the edge of the box, but McGillivray tipped his shot over. I’d have taken 4 points from Easter weekend; I’d definitely have taken that if you’d offered me it 80 minutes into either of the two games.
Mellon was relieved to get a hard-earned point and felt that we were in the ascendancy in the second half. He had a wee dig at the officials’ failure to address our opponents’ time-wasting: “miraculously, Oldham only get 6 minutes overtime!” I wonder what his thoughts were on how the officials, rather than booking their keeper for timewasting or doing something about players taking it in turns to go down injured, instead chose to make a fuss about one of the ball boys. Seriously, whichever lino reported one of them to the 4th official for alleged ‘bias’, you are a bad grass, and you should be embarrassed.
I did feel sorry for Media Guy after he asked Mellon ‘are the team still fighting?’, but honestly, if you ask a Glaswegian with a sharp tongue and a bone-dry sense of humour a stupid question, you should expect a stupid answer: “no, we’re dead, aren’t we? Come on!”
There was never any doubt as to who Fondop would give the credit for the comeback, on this, the holiest of weekends: “all glory to God for that”. Oh Lord, thou hast always worked in mysterious ways, but, with that overhead kick, thou hast outdone thyself. No-one was quite brave enough to ask Woods about that, but his sly pop at Milton Keynes’, ahem, ‘physicality’ was amusing: “I thought MK Dons would have played a lot more football than they actually did, but that’s credit to us.” To us, and to God, Ryan.
When asked last summer by When Saturday Comes magazine to predict how the League Two table would finish, I guessed that we’d finish 10th. A couple of months ago, that looked optimistic. I’d still be relatively happy with that, but I’d be delighted to be proved wrong.
Hope to see some of you in Shropshire today. I was pleasantly surprised at how short a journey it is. Isn’t Shrewsbury basically Wales? Might keep that opinion to meself in the pub. Remember, the manager of the month curse isn’t real, and, as always, KTMFF.
Written by Arlene Finnigan
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