Hello and welcome to the official Not606 Match Thread for Friday's FA Cup third round encounter between Liverpool & Oldham Athletic. Season So Far/Preview. I'll begin this preview with a look at the home side, Liverpool. After a disappointing 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Tuesday, Liverpool & Kenny Dalglish will be looking to get back to winning ways when they face League One Oldham at Anfield. Liverpool's league form has been indifferent this season. We currently sit 6th in the Barclays Premier League table with 34 points from 20 games. This leaves us just 3 points off 4th place and a Champions League spot. There have been some excellent results this season with wins at Arsenal (The first time in 11 years) and two wins at Chelsea. Add to this a win in the Merseyside derby and three points picked up against a strong Newcastle side and Liverpool have improved massively since last season. However, Liverpool's achilles heel has been their home form. With 4 wins and 6 draws at home, you can see that teams don't come to Anfield and dominate Liverpool and then take the three points but the draws show that Liverpool struggle to break teams down. Draws against Sunderland, Manchester United, Norwich City, Swansea City, Manchester City and Blackburn are all results in which you could say that Liverpool had the chances to win most of these games. Liverpool will need to take their chances in this FA Cup game to make sure that we aren't on the end of a 'Cupset' How will Kenny Dalglish take this game? Will he put out a strong side like he has in the other domestic cup competition, the Carling Cup and boost the confidence of the players after Tuesday's result or will he play some of the fringe players to let them stake a claim for more first-team action? It's a big decision to make. And now a word about the League One side, Oldham Athletic. Oldham Athletic currently sit 14th in the nPower League One table with 31 points from 24 games. Under the guidance of Paul Dickov, the club has been stabilised and they are playing some good football. They have picked up some good results this season with a point picked up against promotion favourites Huddersfield Town and Charlton and a big 5-2 win over Chesterfield. A bit like Liverpool, Oldham's season has been consistently inconsistent! Having a look through their results, they seem to pick up a couple of good results but then have some poor results. A case of 1 step forward, 1 step back me thinks... Despite this, I think Oldham fans will be happy with their season so far. 10 points above the bottom four and just 7 points off a play-off place. If they could string a few results together, Oldham could be right up there at the end of the season. With players like Dean Furman, Tom Adeyemi, Luca Scapuzzi, Andrea Mancini (The son of City manager Roberto Mancini) and Shefki Kuqi, they will be a threat to many a team and Liverpool will need to play well to not be on the end of a 'Cupset'. Injury News. Liverpool. Lucas Leiva- ACL Knee Injury. Oldham Athletic. No injury news noted. Liverpool 5 - 1 Oldham Athletic Goalscorers: Oldham Athletic... Robbie Simpson: 28th minute. Liverpool... Craig Bellamy: 30th minute. Liverpool... Steven Gerrard: 45th minute. (Penalty) Liverpool... Jonjo Shelvey: 68th minute. Liverpool... Andy Carroll: 89th minute. Liverpool... Stewart Downing: 95th minute. Liverpool: Reina Kelly Carragher Coates Flanagan Maxi Spearing Gerrard Downing Shelvey Carroll SUBS: Doni Aurelio Skrtel Adam Henderson Bellamy Kuyt Jon Flanagan comes on in place of Fabio Aurelio. Stewart Downing comes on in place of Craig Bellamy. Andy Carroll on for Dirk Kuyt. Oldham Athletic: Cisak Mvoto Diamond Furman Morais Adeyemi Taylor Lee Smith Parker Kuqi SUBS: Bouzanis Black Tarkowski Wesolowski Scapuzzi Simpson Mancini Luca Scapuzzi leaves the field to be replaced by Josh Parker. Matt Smith joins the action as a substitute, replacing Robbie Simpson. Filipe Morais is brought on as a substitute for James Wesolowski. YNWA.
We need to back off the Suarez threads on hop on this. Those are getting quite stale. Good job again Chris, wonder if any Oldham boys will pop on this?
Forgot this is on Friday night. Is it on TV then? Leaves the rest of the weekend for Rival watch...everyone's a rival in the cup!
Yes, which means if we win this game he will return against Spurs. Considering our rivals and pundits are saying we will struggle without him, it wont affect our league run much at all really.
Team ideas: -------------------Doni------------------- -Flanagan-Carragher-Coates-Aurelio- -Kuyt-Spearing-Henderson-Downing- -------------Shelvey-------------------- ---------------Carroll-------------------- Maybe Bellamy for Downing, but a goal would do Downing some good. Kelly hasn't played in a while either, so maybe he could come in for Flanagan, but this could be great experience for Flanagan.
As it stands it looks that way. But a win tomorrow night will put us into the 4th round which is due to be played on the weekend of Jan 28-29 according to the BBC website, which would mean he returns for Spurs. We must win this game for the sake of a godd FA cup run and to get Saurez back to help try close down on Spuds. Come on you reds!!!
I think I would like to see Kelly play, he deserves a run out considering he hasn't had a look in since Jonno hasn't been injured lately.
My 11 Reina Kelly Carra Coates Aurelio ( he's fit would you believe) Maxi Spearing Shelvey Sterling Kuyt Carroll Id have Morgan on the bench too Kennys 11 Reina Kelly Carra Coates Aurelio Shelvey Spearing Gerrard Maxi Carroll Kuyt Kennys 11
Had a look at the Oldham board and it's pretty quiet. However, this is the only F.A Cup game on Friday so we should get a few visitors from other teams visiting our board and this thread. It isn't on T.V. BBC Radio Five Live have radio commentary of the game though. I guess we will be looking for streams for this game...
Think it's to do with the fact Everton play at home on Saturday. So we can't play on Saturday as well.
Looks like I'm the only Oldham fan on here !! Tomorrow is our cup final of which we have nothing to lose, you have to remember what Everton did when we played them - they also played some fringe and some 1st teamers and we walked away with a 1-0 win! As for our loanees Scapuzzi, Manchini, Adeyemi - nothing has been mentioned about there deals -all expired on 2/1/12. Hopefully they have re-signed and play a part. Would love a win, hopefully we could try for a draw, but depends on which team up for you ? Don't want a cricket score though. Players to watch : Taylor -right winger on left, if you play a reserve there I guarantee he will have a torrid time against Taylor. Diamond - CB. - wont give anything to Carroll Wesoloski - pocket rocket midfielder never say die attitude. Good luck to both teams. Keep the faith
It's the FA Cup I expect a very strong team. Teams who play weak teams get knocked out of this comp very often. Reina Kelly Carra Skrtel Enrique Kuyt Spearing Adam Downing Maxi Carroll
