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We've always thought of you as our brick wall
- Arlene Finnigan
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Ahhhh. What a lovely end that was to what has been, overall, a lovely season.
I was a bit surprised to see Hudson in the starting line-up against Accrington, after his horrible-looking injury at Newport. I didn’t think it was worth risking it if there was any danger of him still being concussed, but he was understandably desperate to try to get the clean sheet record, the medical team must have cleared him, and Mellon was happy to give him the chance. Disappointed that Fondop was out injured, but good to see two youngsters on the bench.
We were on top pretty much from the start, although Walton had a shot just wide for them early on. It was entirely in-keeping with the run of play when we took the lead 26 minutes in. Woods’ free kick wasn’t cleared, Taylor hooked the ball back into the box, and Simeu made it two improbable goals in two games with a great header from the left of the 6-yard box. (Andy had gone for a slash and missed it. For one last time this season, you’re all welcome.)
Payne had a decent effort when Sutton headed a long goal kick onto him, but his shot hit the side netting. Accrington had a free kick late on in the first half after Coyle was apparently flattened by Kane Taylor, a 21-year-old winger who looks like he weighs about 8 stone. Taylor was excellent, maybe he’s also added strength completely disproportionate to his size to his game. Thankfully nothing came of it. Where on earth did 6 minutes of stoppage time come from? Payne, having a decent last game for us, had another shot just wide shortly before half-time.
I said last week that Mellon should throw Monthé up front, for the bantz. Credit where it’s due, he did something even funnier. Early on in the second half, he brought Ogle on for Garner (and, even at his age, I hope we’ve not seen the last of him) and sent Will Sutton up front. We really will play him absolutely anywhere except at centre-half, won’t we? I’m surprised we didn’t stick him in goal at Newport.
It turned out to be another example of Micky Mellon being a football genius. Sutton nicked the ball as their keeper tried to play it out, like a true poacher, Pett played a 1-2 with Payne before feeding it to Taylor, and he buried it into the top left corner. Beautiful. Total football.
Did Sutton round off his shift up front with a goal? It was him who won the corner that led to the third goal, and it might have been his header that put it away, or Leake might have got the final touch. They both deserved it, and either way, it was a tactical masterstroke.
📸 Oldham Athletic. Is Manny indicating that he's giving the goal to Sutton? Who knows.
At this point, the bloke behind us, one of the Finnish Latics who’d flown over for the game, tapped me on the shoulder and said “we need to stop scoring now, I’ve bet on 3-0!” With his bet and Matty Hudson’s record on the line, the priority had to be shutting up shop at the back. Which you should be able to do when your forward line consists of defenders. Sutton did have another couple of chances, linking up well with Hammond.
When Accrington brought on our old friend Paddy Madden (is he really only 36? would have guessed at him being older than Garner), I said that I’d be fuming if he stopped Hudson getting the clean sheet. Having had very little to do in the second half, Hudson made a brilliant double save from Grant, then at close range from Madden. It was a huge relief.
Where the FUCK did 10 minutes stoppage time come from? No-one wanted it. Not Accrington. Definitely not us. It was the perfect time to bring on 16-year-old schoolboy Isaac Anderson (with his amazing hair) for Taylor and 18-year-old Frankie McMahon-Brown for Robson.
📸 Oldham Athletic
Charlie Brown was lucky to only get a yellow card for whacking McMahon-Brown in the face. It was such a bizarre thing to do, in the 99th minute, at 3-0 in an end-of-season dead rubber.
We hung on, and it was a joy to see Hudson so delighted at the final whistle, especially after last week. All the players ran to celebrate with him, and Mellon looked so pleased for him when he presented him with the League Two Golden Glove award.
And, with Kane Drummond’s hands being full with his baby, Hudson joined Fondop for the fist pumps. Incredibly wholesome content. I hope he, and our Finnish friends, had a great night.
It was a great way to round off a very decent first season back in the Football League, and, most importantly, it secured 10th place in the league. Which is exactly where I predicted we’d finish. I wildly guessed for most of the rest of the league places, but I got ours spot on, and I fucking love being right. Congratulations to Dave Bradley’s son, Owen, for getting the nearest guess out of the boys, but the four of you were beaten by a woman (which the three of you were too embarrassed to acknowledge on the last podcast of the season). Matriarchy.
Mellon was “delighted that we got Mat that record”, which was plain for everyone to see after the game. Reflecting on how far we’ve come under his tenure, he said that “I think the progress started with David Unsworth”, which is remarkably generous of him. Like all of us, he wants “a different lap of honour at the end of next season”, but we have to look at what a difficult starting point we’ve travelled here from: “if you’d have showed somebody that 3, 4, 5 years ago, that we would get to this, then I think they would have bitten your hand off.”
If you’d offered me a top ten finish in League Two in the 2025-26 season three years ago, I certainly would have happily accepted that. If you’d offered me where we are now 4 or 5 years ago, I’d have been hugely relieved that we still have a club to support, playing at Boundary Park; I’d have been delighted that we’re back in the Football League; and yes, I would have bitten your hand off for a club not just holding its own, but competing to a good standard, achieving our highest points total in the Football League since 2003.
It's a bit of a shame that we didn’t make the play-offs, but there’s only so many teams that can, and only a few teams that can win anything in any one season, and, for most teams, you won’t be one of them all that often. God knows, for us, it’s not very often at all. I don’t think we’ll have a 34 year wait to have something to celebrate again, but, unless you want to set yourself up for a lifetime of disappointment, a good season won’t always mean lifting a trophy. It can mean an improvement on the previous season – which this season was. It can mean having some good memories and cracking days out to look back on. And we’ve definitely had plenty of that this season.
Young Michael’s overhead kick v Northampton. Sutton’s Cruyff turn v Bromley and Odie the ball boy making the Bromley keeper’s head fall off. Fondop shinies. Young Michael’s perfect hat-trick v Tranmere. The club opening the bar and showing the play-off final on Christmas Day. Harratt’s injury time winner at Walsall. Drummond breaking his duck v Chesterfield, then scoring against Bristol Rovers after 36 seconds. “You want your money back.” Tequila. Battering Notts County when they were still challenging for the league. Robbing Colchester blind. Ten more years, ten more years, Micky Mellon. Ryan Woods’ overhead kick v Milton Keynes. Matty Hudson.
It's been quite the ride.
Congratulations to our women's team on their emphatic 5-0 win over what looked like quite a young AFC Oldham side at Boundary Park last Sunday. Honestly, I felt bad for their keeper by the time the 4th went in. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of them at Little Wembley and Boundary Park next season.
📸 Oldham Athletic
Have a brilliant summer. Get down to see the Roughyeds at Boundary Park if you can. Mad how they moved back the second Bill Quinn left, innit? I guess the Oldham Athletic board weren’t the problem. I’m looking forward to what could be an utterly batshit World Cup. I did think about writing blogs for that, but let’s be honest, there’ll be saturation coverage by much better writers than me. I’ll keep my powder dry for the pissboils about the new turquoise leopard-print away shirt and Mellon replacing Hudson by spending a million quid on Ross Doohan. All the best, everyone. Oldham are back. KTMFF.
Written by Arlene Finnigan
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