A Difficult Afternoon at Boundary Park

​Reality Check: Oldham 0-3 

Cambridge have the best defensive record in the league, on a run of 13 games unbeaten, and came down from League 1 this season – so this was always going to be a tough one. But we had our two new signings, Taylor and Jalo. Could they get a true Boundary Park welcome?

Early Frustrations

I think we got to about 6 minutes before the Oldham faithful started the chant against the ref.

A stop-start game. Their game plan seemed to be just to stop us playing. Really frustrating first half.

Lost Joe Garner 35 minutes in, holding his shoulder. I hope it’s nothing serious. But on comes Quigley – let’s see what he can do.

Poorest Half in Ages

Half time and it’s 0-0. Poorest half I’ve seen in a long time.

Second Half Collapse

Second half and Tom Pett doesn’t come back out – it’s Luke Hannant on instead. Let’s see what this half holds.

Drummond brought down in the box – nothing given.

Then they break, and Monthe collects the ball on the right but doesn’t clear it. He tries to play out, and they nick the ball back and break through. I think it’s Woods who does the tackle, though Monthe was there too.

And oh, the ref sees that one. Penalty awarded on the 55th minute.

Up they step. Hudson dives to his left, the ball is Panenka’d into the right-hand side. 1-0.

“1-0 to the ref!” rings out from the crowd.

Down but not out. Come on boys.

Falling Apart

We just can’t seem to string a few passes together. Nothing is clicking.

They break again, past the defence, and slot home the second. Hudson looking for the offside flag, but it’s not there. 2-0 and only 60 minutes have passed.

Come on boys, can we break down this defence?

Triple Change

Micky Mellon makes more changes, this time 3 coming on at 64 minutes.

The two new signings Taylor and Jalo come on for Stevens and Drummond, along with God’s No.9 Fondop on for Quigley – so the sub is subbed. 😳

Three Nil

Didn’t help. They break forward again and it’s 3-0.

🎶 Who gives a shit, we’ll win 4-3! 🎶 rings out around the ground in sheer delusion, I feel.

Twenty minutes left, but it doesn’t feel like we’re even going to get a goal back.

Small Positives

Hudson pulled off a great save in the first half and a couple in the second.

Highlight of the second half was Taylor. He looks a handful – great movement and good with his feet. Just needs to link up with the team, but he looked good. Really good.

Jalo didn’t really get a chance to get into the game.

The Exodus

Over 7,000 fans saw the start of the game, but not many heard the final whistle.

The Harsh Truth

Not a good game at all.

Cambridge came with a plan – and that plan was to stop us playing. They didn’t need to play better football or good football, they just needed to disrupt our game. And it worked.

Our inability to string passes together, the stop-start nature they created, losing Garner early, the penalty decision – it all contributed to a thoroughly disappointing afternoon.

We couldn’t break them down, and when we lost our composure, they punished us on the counter.

Come on you Blues. We need to regroup quickly.

💙🔵⚪️ #OAFC

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