Oldham Athletic 1 Sheffield Wednesday 2
Last updated : 04 August 2002 By The Chairman
Athletics final friendly of the season was against Sheffield Wednesday. The best early chance fell to the Latics when Lee Duxbury was brought down just outside the box but David Eyres fired over the bar. Duxbury got a chance to open
the scoring after 20 minutes but his volley was wide. A neat free kick minutes later resulted in Julien Baudet heading over.
An Eyres corner 15 minutes from the half resulted in Duxbury heading the ball back across goal but it again came to nothing. Wednesday then came alive and Les Pogliacomi did well to save a free kick from Sibon before Quinn sent a shot from the edge of the area over. Bromby was next to head over the bar.
Ten minutes before the break Athletic opened the scoring through Tony Carss (pictured). It came from an Eyres cross which Chris Killen laid to the unmarked
Carss who fired home. It could have been 2-0 before the half as Matty Appleby shot past Pressman’s left hand post.
Carss had to leave the field with 5 minutes of the half remaining injured and was replaced by former Owls favourite John Sheridan. Two minutes before the half time whistle Quinn shot but Pogliacomi blocked it. Unfortunately for the
Latics Donnelly was on hand to hit home the rebound.
Fifteen minutes into the second half Sheridan took a free kick which went well over before Carlo Corazzin almost increased the lead with a 25 yards chip which brought a great save from Pressman. Baudet was then replaced by Clint
Hill. Killen could have opened his account after an Eyre centre but his header was just wide.
Wednesday then got the match winner after John Sheridan lost the ball in midfield. Sibon picked it up and fired home from 25 yards. The Wednesday keeper, Pressman, was stretchered off after a collision with Killen just before the end but Athletic failed to win yet again. A statistic which must be put right when the real thing happens against Cardiff.
After the game Philliskirk said, “We’re quite pleased with the way we played, we’re obviously very disappointed with the result. When they scored the wining goal we were dominating the game, having our best spell. A minute or so earlier Chris Killen should really have scored from a great cross by John Eyre to make it 2-1 in our favour. Tony Carss suffered a blow to the face when the ball was kicked in his direction. He’s OK, the incident happened before he actually scored the goal. Cato the physio said that he was a little bit concussed and at this stage of the season there is no point in taking any risks".
"Julien Baudet just felt a bit of cramp in his hamstring, nothing serious. We just brought them both off as a precaution. We’ve not had the greatest pre-season, we’ve drawn a lot of games but if we’d won every game pre-season and then lost the first two or three then it would have all been worthless. We’ve worked very hard, we’ve tried in most of our pre-season games to play teams like Middlesborough, Burney and Sheffield Wednesday so hopefully when we play Cardiff next week it’ll put us in good stead because Cardiff are probably
pre-season favourites to win the league but we’re all well prepared to get the result we feel that we deserve".
"Josh Lowe is a big strong powerful lad. He’s quick for his size, he’s whipped some decent balls in. Not only that, he’s showed a willingness to do well since he’s been here. Obviously the gaffer will have to speak to Cardiff- see what the situation is there. He’s a player that we feel might strengthen us, he’s the type of player that we certainly haven’t got here at the club".