Yee. And then as custom goes, hah! Back from the wild, wild west hinterlands of Cheltenham, Boro’ return to the Lamex with a much-needed haul of three points and the feeling of a job well done. Y’know, the one after you’ve absolutely nailed the sorting of your sock drawer, the sending of a beautiful, passive aggressive email to custo mer services or surviving another working week having done almost nothing of note. Like us. Again.
‘Old up, ‘old fire and ‘old yer ‘orses; Oldham Athletic is and are up next – depending on if you think a football team is a singular or collective. For the first time since ’74 though, the Latics are down here in the fourth tier. You’d have to be a person of a certain vintage to remember ’em as a Premier League side. That rules out a lot of our first team squad, if that helps your existential crisis about feeling mighty old these days. No? Oh well…
Stevenage v Oldham Athletic: The Lowdown
The Referee
P11 W3 D2 L6 F17 A23; last result: Southend United 3-1 Stevenage, 14/05/2015
Great Scott! No, it’s Graham Scott; this week’s man in the middle isn’t too much of a stranger to Boro’, but he has been mixing it up in the top flight of late. Our first meeting was George Boyd’s barnstorming finale; a 3-2 win indoors over Aldershot on New Year’s Day 2007. The last time we met? The League Two playoff semi-final second leg at Southend in 2015. And you can see that we could do with sharpening up when this ref’s around…
The Opposition
P6 W2 D1 L3 F7 A8; last result: Oldham Athletic 1-0 Stevenage, 11/01/2014
It’s not far off being five years since we last met; that season in which we flounced from League One and gave Oldham six points in doing so. After an unbeaten first three games against them, it’s now three without a win. Last time we beat ’em was at their place early in the 2012-3 campaign; a time we were high flying at the top of the division above. And now look. Both of us, down here, and ready to renew our acquaintance dontcha know?
The Form
Oldham ain’t doing much special right now. Nor do they look in much rush to get back to League One either. It ain’t painting the whole picture, though. The Latics may be five points behind us in 15th and leaving their fans wanting a fair bit more over the past eight games, but this doesn’t have home banker grafitti’d over it like one of our town’s marvellous underpasses. And we’ll tell you for why, even though you didn’t ask.
The Latics have 19 goals to their name this season, and 15 against. That’s one more and, er, one more than us. This from one less game too, for some reason we can’t be arsed to look up. On the road, their five shutouts in seven looks daunting for a Boro’ side who drew a blank in both of our last two indoors. It may well be a tough nut for us to crack after all that. Stay awake too Boro’; Oldham don’t half like bagging a late goal or two either.
Here’s the kickoff.co.uk gang painting by numbers…
• MORE ABOUT ‘EM: Oldham Athletic club profile
