Oldham were one of the best teams I've seen at The Lane all season. They had a lot of pace and sharp one-touch passing in the first half, and our back 4 found it difficult to deal with that. The through lob for the goal was fucking mental, and they created a lot with (shock) 2 actual strikers up top. They won the 1st half, and fully deserved to lead at half time. They dropped off in the 2nd half, as you'd have to have an ultra-fit squad to keep up that pace and sharpness for 90 minutes, but they still defended well and frustrated us on the edge of the box. Blades had more of the ball and more energy after the break, but Oldham were patient and forced a lot of errors. They were intelligent and knew that if they pressed high while out of possession they could grab the ball in our half and get behind the back 4. I think they were maybe unlucky to not score 2 in the 1st half. They would've come here for a draw, and that's what they got, but I think they can feel hard done by not getting 3 points. I'm sure they'll take a lot of positives from this, though. As said above, their fans were quality, a good amount and very loud. They went crazy when they scored. I love teams that fill out that top tier. They'll probably be top 6 this season.
Blades were negative, the first half was probably the worst I've seen all season, lots of players hiding, not committing forward and passing laterally. So many frustrating passages where we had the ball in a good position then passing back under no pressure. We don't seem to play like the home team at BDTBL much, as said before, negative play all afternoon, granted with a bit more pep in the 2nd half. The annoying thing is that we seem to have plenty of quality when we actually push forward in a concerted attacking effort, but it seems to happen once a game. We did enough to grab one goal, and against Colchester/Scunthorpe/Yeovil/etc that's enough, but a quality team at the top end of the table will take the piss with tactics like that.
Alcock confuses me, I've seen some games where he's absolutely bossed it, (Crewe away in the cup, he won every header all day) but during this game he was absymal. I think he gave the ball away 5 or 6 times and pussied out of several last man tackles that allowed Oldham to have a shot on goal. He should've been off at half time, did anyone see when he didn't take a throw-in properly and the ref had to give it to Oldham? So fucking embarrasing! A lot of our players were poor or anonymous. Doyle/ McCarthy/Mcevely did fuck all, and some of the yellow cards the squad picked up were unnecessary. A few players did do well, JCR obviously with the goal was a glimmer of hope, and was the only one of our players taking on defenders and picking out runs. Basham was solid, and is one of the better players right now. He needs to push up front more, get his head on more crosses. Scougall, Baxter, Murphy didn't do much at all. Overall it was a poor squad performance, no positive action in the final third and too much dithering with the ball. Just fucking run at defenders!
Sorry to ramble. I'm a optimist when it comes to my club, but with tough games against Notts County and Franchise Football coming up, I'm worried we're gonna slip into the doldrums.
