Typical us, we started something and now we're not too sure

So there was no ‘Typical Latics’ away bounce then? We don’t win our away games either now, is it? That’s just what Oldham do. They just collapse after Christmas.

Firstly, this bears repeating: Dagenham and Redbridge is NOT a Southern leisure centre. It’s a real ground with stands. We played there in League One. Save the term for the quaint tree-lined pitches that it actually applies to.

We had chances early on, Waters’ shot forced a decent save from their keeper, who was making his debut. As Mellon would admit after the game, though, the system wasn’t working, and we conceded the cliched proverbial sucker punch just before half time.

The defending was a bit sloppy – Leake has been impressive, but his clearance wasn’t great, and he gave Loupalo-Bi (fair play, great name) too much time and space to shoot. It was a good finish, but the ball should have been cleared before then.

Not a great first half performance, and the supporters let the team know. Someone shouted something at Mellon, Mellon shouted something back, it was all pretty silly and pretty hilarious. With a predictability that was as depressing as it was funny, Men On The Internet, on both sides of the squabble (I will not glorify it with the word ‘debate’) got all shouty and testerical about it in the following days. Entertaining, but utterly undignified.

We changed things up at half-time, bringing Kay on for Sutton and Rossiter on for Waters, and it worked. If just before half time is a bad time to concede, then early in the second half is a great time to equalise. (Yes this week’s blog is going to be entirely written in cliches, I’ve got a lot on and I’m tired.) Pritchard put a lovely cross into the box, and Fondop timed his run perfectly to tap it in.

And obviously then we hit the self-destruct button. Raglan fannied about trying to take a touch to control the ball on the edge of our box when he should have just hoofed it (there is no shame in doing this, lads, we’re a non-league team, sometimes you have to play like one), gave the ball away and fouled Eastman to give away a penalty, which they buried. Sigh.

There is a very good argument for saying we should have had a penalty ourselves when Fondop got wiped out in the penalty area, but God’s number 9 appears to be fair game. Come on, God, back him up here.

He works in mysterious ways, and in injury time, Mikey headed the ball on for Lundstram, who threaded a superb pass through their defenders to Pritchard, who put it past the keeper to salvage a point. And yes, that is worth celebrating. Maybe more with relief than in triumph, but if you can’t celebrate a 95th minute equaliser – even if it is against Dagenham and Redbridge rather than Everton – then what is the fucking point?

Mellon, in surprisingly reflective mode after the game, admitted that the game had given him a lot to think about and he may have got the team selection and formation wrong: “have I been trying to force a system?....that’s on me.” He was as pissed off as we all were with the penalty we gave away, and he was definitely thinking ‘we shouldn’t have been fannying about’ when he said “We can’t try to control the ball on the edge of our own 18 yard box, in a busy 18 yard box, you’ve just got to clear your lines.” And once again, he was pissed off about Fondop getting fouled in the penalty area with nothing given. He’s right to be, we’re all sick of it.

It's not ideal that we’ve got so many injuries. It’s not really ideal that the manager doesn’t seem quite sure what formation works with the players we’ve got available. It’s not ideal that we’ve only got two fit strikers available, although, as Mellon said yesterday, “It’s not as easy as going to the recruitment tree and plucking off somebody that you need”. It’s definitely not ideal that we’re going into March having not won a game at home this year. But, despite our new year ‘collapse’, we’re still 5th in the league. Things could be better, but they could be worse.

While there’s an argument for saying it’d be Typical Latics to get our first home win of 2025 against the team 6 points clear at the top of the league, experience tells me that it would also be Typical Latics to not win another home game all season and miss out on the play offs. Let’s hope it’s the former rather than the latter.

I’m off work this week, so I get to go to the midweek game at Boston. I’ve always wanted to go to Boston. Not the one in Lincolnshire, admittedly. Trips to Boston AND Tamworth. What a fucking shit holiday.

Some happy news in the Latics family. Huge congratulations to Kadie Siddle and her partner, Push The Boundary rebel Danny Taylor, who welcomed their son Theo to the world last Sunday. Everyone at Oldham Fan Media is delighted for them, and little Theo’s in the best possible hands.

Today might be the day, y’know. Especially if Shelton is injured, cos let’s face it, if he plays, he’ll have the game of his life and score. We’ve got a decent record against Barnet, though. It’d be nice for us to be their bogey team. And a win against them would cut the gap between us to just 13 points! HMS Piss the League hasn’t abandoned her mission just yet. KTMFF.

Written by Arlene Finnigan. Photos © Thomas Lee Stacey.