After the game I felt more deflated than I have done after leaving a game since the 3-0 humbling against Bury, which is strange considering the circumstances. Oldham were clearly a reasonable side but we played them off the park for the first half an hour, at which point Johnson made a switch and the change seemed to baffle our defence. Putting Parry on at left-back is clearly understandable given the circumstances, and if Turner doesn't think McQuade is ready yet then so be it. D. Mac offered nothing offensively (I would have stuck him at LB rather than Parry once we went behind) and nothing defensively after he was booked, albeit harshly.
All through the second half we were crying out for a tactical change, as we didn't threaten Oldham's goal at all and both the forwards looked drained (I still maintain that McAlinden isn't physically ready to start games at this level) and I was fuming that it took so long to bring on Bradshaw, who for all his faults is our top scorer by some distance, and always looks to get into goalscoring positions which neither of the centre forwards who started did - ironic considering their greed on the weekend. About a minute after Bradshaw's introduction, we saw why the change was necessary as he actually made an intelligent run behind the defence (showing his [relative] experience) and got a snapshot away which - I think - forced their keeper into his first save of the half. He gave the midfielders someone to pick out, and McAlinden clearly has excellent technique but doesn't have anything like as good movement as Bradshaw without the ball despite being a far better natural footballer. Ugwu does bits and pieces when he looks excellent, but then others when he looks like Heskey in League One. For the last ten minutes, the chants for Marsden's introduction grew, but Turner was annoyingly unmoved - even a gamble, taking off a centre half for the last ten minutes or something like that, would have given us a shout.
What annoyed me most was the lack of passion showed by everyone bar Goldson, Jones and Bradshaw (for his little cameo). No urgency to get the ball back in quickly or take a chance at the end. However, we weren't anywhere near as bad as people are making out on B and A and, in all honesty, Oldham couldn't have complained if it was a draw. We certainly missed Wildig and Taylor, although I thought Goldson actually played fairly well at RB. Looking at it with a bit more perspective, I'm slightly less annoyed but have slipped one notch closer to thinking that GT's time may be up come the end of the season - I certainly don't think a sacking, with the compensation fee that would incur almost certain to be deducted from any potential transfer budget, would be advisable mid-season. I also still think we'll stay up.
