I can honestly say that I’ve never wanted Sunderland to lose a game, but I can also honestly say that I’ve never been less upset by a defeat - although I’d still much rather we'd won. A much changed and inexperienced side lost out to a managerless Oldham side second bottom of the league structure by a single goal, which isn’t clever, but it does remove a distraction to the main purpose of getting up the league and out of this division. As a point of interest, Barry Dunn’s lad Davis was in the visiting line-up.
On a dampish, windy, and damned cold evening, Oldham were aiming to progress a stage further than they did in last season’s Papa John’s campaign, while we, in case you’ve forgotten, were actually defending the trophy. We expected wholesale changes, and we got them.
Burge
Alves Xhemalji Younger
Dajaku Embleton O’Brien Wilding Dunne
Kimpioka Harris
A fairly straightforward 3-5-2 in terms of shape, but not personnel – and with over 100 visiting Oldham fans in the North Stand, we kicked off towards the Roker End. Within a minute, we had the visitors on the back foot when we won the ball and set captain Embo away down the left in front of the home fans, and he found Kimpioka in the box, but Benji found too many defenders in attendance to get a clean shot, and the attack fizzled out. Embo was then at it again, this time ont eh right, this time going for goal himself but seeing his effort hit a defender. Xhemalji, a welcome return to the squad, was looking like a fairly efficient mixture of Wright and Flan, and was on hand to deal with a spell of Oldham pressure, twice getting in the way of things. Twelve minutes in, and Harris held the ball up well in the middle, waiting for Kimpioka to find space before giving him the ball. Leaving his marker on his backside, Benji looked set to score, but slashed his shot into the side netting to the keeper’s right rather than into the net.
Oldham’s 17 was booked for a silly push on Wilder on halfway, then Dajaku was fouled way over on the right, but we made nothing of it. Oldham then went close after Alves, then Burge, conceded corners, but Burge ended the pressure with a low save. Dajaku gave away a free near the box as the half hour approached, but Younger got up highest to clear the danger. Embo then found himself in enough space to find Harris on the edge of the box, but when he worked the space to shoot, it didn’t curl enough and went wide. He had a chance a few minutes later when Kimpioka helped get the ball to him as he raced goal wards, and he sprinted past the keeper but went wide to the left and when his low cross went in, a defender was able to slide in at the front post to put it behind for a corner. Once Oldham cleared the corner, they raced upfield and had the best chance of the half, only to shoot from the right side of the box – and win a corner when the shot clearly skidded wide of Burge’s right-hand post rather than be touched beyond it by our keeper.
A single added minute was played out with no change to the scoreline before folks hurried to the relative warmth of the concourse.
Wearne replaced Embo for the second half, with eh captain’s armband going to Burge, while Kachosa replaced Dajaku, who’d had a fairly frustrating 45 minutes. After an Oldham break and shot that went wide, Harris did well to win the ball back in the edge of their box, stretching out a long leg to nick it then turning to shoot, only for his effort to strike a leg and go for a corner. Oldham cleared it, and hit a long one forward. Twenty-off yards from our goal, Dunne, who’d had a more than decent game, didn’t quite get it under control as it dropped from height, and their man hustled it away from him to bear down on Burge’s goal. He then slotted it past our keeper for the opening goal and it was no more than Oldham’s general play deserved. Dunne did force a decent save from a narrow angle after nipping through a series of challenges and into the box but was replaced by Dyce before we could take the corner. Presumably LJ didn’t want Dunne to have to deal with another one dropping out of the sky. The new man took up the right wingback position, with Kachosa going to the left, but they soon swapped back. Kachosa was seeing plenty of the ball, but there was far too much passing across the back line when there needed to be more of that in midfield. A consequence was that Harris spent most of the half pointing to where he wanted the ball playing – over his shoulder for a run on goal, but that ball never came. Kimpioka was doing all that weird stuff that he does, dragging the ball back from impossible places but not quite causing any real bother, but he still managed to draw a foul near the left corner of the box – and a yellow for the perpetrator. When we slung it in, Alves rose the highest, but nutted it harmlessly over the bar.
Oldham brought on three subs at this point, presumably to give them a chance to play in a big stadium before they drop out of the league, as their fans sang: “we all play in the North West Counties League”. As the minutes ticked away, we won a corner and Burge charged up the field – and would have got his head to it had not a team-mate got their first to head wide. Dyce whacked in a cross from the left that beat everybody, but that was as close as we got in the four added minutes. Lee stayed up for the subsequent flurry of attacking play, then we almost got caught out with no keeper when Oldham hoofed it up the field. Thankfully, Kachosa somehow managed to rob his opponent after he’d been rounded thirty yards out, and we kept the score at just the one.
Just the league and the league cup, then. Man of the Match? You can discount the midfield as a whole, as they rarely looked like a unit, and O’Brien is certainly not a central midfielder. I liked most of what Younger did, and it was really nice to see Xhemalji back playing football, and generally doing OK. For 90 minutes of effort, getting several shots away, and generally taking up good positions which his marras failed to see, I’ll give it to Wee Wille Harris. He’ll be handful for defences before too long.
