Bolton are now in the play-off places abut if they are to stay there, they need to continue winning, especially with teams having games in hand over us. Tomorrow’s trip sees us make a short journey over to Boundary Park, to play an Oldham side who do blow hot and cold.
IAN EVATT | Manager ahead of Oldham Athletic away fixture – YouTube
It’s sort of understandable where Evatt’s coming from with dealing with criticism of Saturday’s performance. We were alright, even if we were a bit lacking in the final third at times. But if a radio co-commentator is analysing a game and has an opinion, then he needs to give. It’s the same with pieces like this, Saturday was good enough and I was certainly happy with how it went, but you can’t expect people to point out that maybe you can do something better if that’s what they think. Evatt is right though, he’s going to play in a certain style and we’re not a team that’s going to smash it downfield for the sake of it. People do have to accept that and it isn’t something that will change.
Team news
Shaun Miller seems tipped to start ahead of Eoin Doyle, while I get the logic I’d rather us stick with Doyle for now unless it’s a genuine need to rest him. There don’t seem to be any new injury problems, but there’s no news on whether Marcus Maddison has recovered from his non-COVID illness.
Previously
Our last trip to Boundary Park was in April 2017, when Lee Erwin scored the only goal of the game as we lost 1-0 to a ten man Latics side. That was during our mini-wobble which meant promotion from League One had to wait until the final day, and that result ended any slim hopes we had of winning the league. Back in October Nathan Delfouneso had equalised but Zak Dearnley scored an injury time winner as we lost 2-1 at the UniBol.
The opposition
Oldham have improved since we last played them, bottom when we lost to them, they have moved up to 15th, and are nine points behind us. They still have David Wheater but he hasn’t featured this season, their most dangerous player is wide player Dylan Bahamboula, who can be exciting but inconsistent, and probably won’t be Oldham next season…
Prediction
Tough one to call. Oldham are a funny team, anything could genuinely happen. I’m going to play it down the middle and go for a draw. 1-1