Game Fifty One - Oldham Athletic home

7 February 2009

With another two wins on the road putting our promotion bid back on track, it was back to the Walkers Stadium for what we believed would be a competitive match against fellow promotion hopefuls Oldham Athletic. After heavy snow fall across the midlands once more, the undersoil heating had been working overtime to ensure that this fixture would go ahead.... even more so as the Sky Cameras were descending upon the Walkers Stadium once more resulting in the annoying kick off time of 5:20pm. Always good that loyal fans can be put out for the TV cameras!

So after an extra long lie in and the chance to watch Jeff Stelling on Sky Sports News for the first time in over a year, we headed off on our usual treck to Filbert Way for the fun and games awaiting. As is becoming custom what with me dashing off to Nottingham after the games, we parked on the train station car park and made our way across the City, including the snow covered Nelson Mandela park with the Tiger's new ground rapidly taking shape on the horizon. I've a feeling it's going to be annoyingly impressive!

Met up with Jodie pre game to sort out what was happening with regards to the tickets for future games - there are so many games coming up that it's hard to keep track with where we're heading week on week. Bristol... Hartlepool... Merseyside...? Just got to go with the flow! I left Jodie just before kick off and went over to meet the old man in our usual seats. The pre-game entertainment mainly consisted of Filbert Fox pretending he was stuck in the snow on the side of the pitch. Childish fun but it kept us amused watching him perform his act in front of the frozen Kop.

It was clear from the off that Oldham were up for the game and hadn't arrived at the Walkers Stadium happy to sit back and play for the point like so many teams had over the course of the season. With Lee Hughes and Dean Windass up front, they had the experience to unlock any defence in this league so it was vital that the back four were on their guard throughout.

There were no real chances in the first 20 minutes as long range shots and near miss throughballs seemed to be the order of the day until a long punt forward by Martin was flicked on by Howard, only for the ball to fall off a defender back into the big strikers path. He took one touch to get it out from under his feet and then struck the ball against the inside of the post from 20 yards with the ball rebounding across the goal and out for a goal kick.

Fryatt came close to opening the scoring when a long ball over the top found him in some space. He tried to play with the defenders and then curled his shot narrowly high and wide when he probably should have crossed the ball in.

Minutes later, Fryatt came close again when Howard flicked a ball on to him, but his shot was lashed high over the bar from a tight angle. Cleverly was next to come close when he lifted the ball over the advancing keeper after a poor back pass, but he came a close second in the race to the ball and couldnt quite force it across the line.

And that was all for the first 45 minutes. Oldham caused us problems without ever really testing Martin in the goal and the few chances that we created were also wasted. I made my way down to the concourse to meet up with a rather drunk Katy. Swaying back and forth and getting her hair caught in the advertising board was rather amusing and she's now been re-christened Kateeth due to how much she smiles when she's had a few!

Leicester's resident alcoholic fan Bernie also made an appearance, walking through the concourse grunting and squeaking in his own unique fashion. He's a strange bloke that's for sure but always generates a laugh when he's spotted (usually without him realising that it's at his expense!)

The second half started in a very dramatic way when Fryatt latched onto an awful back pass, prodded the ball past the keeper and was clattered by Fleming when all he had to do was roll the ball into the empty net. Clear penalty and a straight red card for the guilty keeper. Oddly, Oldham didn't have a sub keeper on the bench so it fell to Dean Windass to put himself between the sticks and face the penalty.

After a bit of gamesmanship with Windass taking an age to get ready and chatting to Fryatt throughout, it seemed inevitable that he would miss having far too long to think about what to do with the penalty. We all know that instinct plays a major part in scoring goals so give a striker to much time and it goes to pot...

... and so it seemed as Fryatt fired his penalty a mile and a half wide. It was almost as if he was scared of Windass saving it so tried to hard to place it right into the corner.

With no real goalkeeper inbetween the sticks, we were willing shots to come in but the players refused to shoot from any distance and instead tried to walk it into the net. A free kick on the edge of the box creating the first major chance to test Windass and to be fair to him, he pulled off a decent save from King's effort and even better to smother the rebound from Fryatt.

As longer passed, and we became more and more frustrated, Oldham came back into the game and looked threatening once more. Long balls over the top were being chased by Hughes and he was winning everything and proving to be a real hand full. Forget the hit and run incident which makes him hated by all football fans, the way he plays is enough to wind up any opposition fans.

Time and time again, they breached our back line but didn't make us pay for our errors and meanwhile, Windass was having an easy time at the back - hardly having to move for any ball and was never put under any real pressure. The one time we did force the ball into the net, Fryatt was given offside. You just knew things weren't going to go our way with that.

It really was disappointing to not take advantage of the situation and it was clearly two points dropped rather than a point gained. Still, with other games being called off due to the bad weather, we moved further clear of the chasing pack. 11 points now ahead now and 17 games unbeaten.... it's hard to complain much when you see things written down like that... and yet this result left me feeling rather nervous as it was a game we should have won. Three points in the next game though and it will all be forgotten!! What a difference a season makes.... there were times that we'd kill for any point and a clean sheet - 8 months on and it just leaves you feeling flat. Roll on next season if we go up eh?