Hull City 2 Oldham Athletic 0

Last updated : 22 August 2004 By The Chairman

The setting was perfect. A visit to the KC Stadium was inspirational but the Latics forgot their lines and were eventually booed off the stage. The introduction to the game was ‘American style’ with all the various stands being invited to cheer when introduced. Is this the way forward? Who knows, but Hull seem to be getting it right.

The Latics started brightly enough and caused no end of problems in the first ten minutes but from then onwards it was a downward spiral. They pushed the self destruct button and failed to perform to the requisite standard expected from travelling supporters, supporters who had saved their hard earned cash to view a spectacle which should have been better than it was.

Allsop made it look easy when he put the ball past a bemused Pogliacomi in the 27th. minute. David Eyres was working like a Trojan but it was all to no avail as his team-mates failed to turn up. Eyres hit the woodwork after John Eyre sent a good pass through on the half-hour mark but the referee had already noticed an infringement. Arber was again having a stinker and manager Brian Talbot must eventually stand up to be counted as Arber is ‘his’ man but again he failed to deliver the goods.

Hull took a grip on the game but Rodney Jack almost equalised from a corner near the end of the half. Hull struck the killer blow just on half time when Green shot through the defence into the bottom corner with Pogliacomi not even moving.

Jermaine Johnson was replaced by Matt Barlow in the second half and Barlow looked lively if nothing else. The long ball tactic was again killing the game as Athletic looked clueless trying to exploit it against a resolute Hull defence. It was becoming embarrassing with the Latics having to resort to long range efforts like Mark Bonner tried from 40 yards in the last 10 minutes. Hull were unlucky not to increase their lead in the closing stages as a woefully inadequate Athletic failed to get to grips with their attacking prowess.

Supporters were using such adjectives as gutless, woeful and embarrassing as the words to describe the performance after they only really performed for the first ten minutes of the game. In reality they panicked every time the Tigers went forward and again the defending was shambolic with mistakes and errors that a pub teams would be ashamed of.

At the end of the day the players looked shocked at the reception they received from the Latics faithful but it was hard to give praise when they didn't deserve it. The diehards were astonished with the lack of effort and, in their opinion, rightfully booed the players off the field. The worst pill to swallow was the response of the Latics captain, Dean Holden, who admonished the Latics supporters with a jesture which was unacceptable to all Oldham fans. To incense the fans further does not help the situation and a public apology would not go amiss to the travelling supporters who work hard to save their hard earned money to go and support the team.

When the team played the way it did at Hull the players cannot expect to be cheered off the pitch. All in all a bad day at the office and Mr. Talbot should take Mr. Holden to task for his totally unacceptable behaviour on the field.