Oldham Athletic 1 Blackpool 2

Last updated : 11 October 2004 By The Chairman

The Latics really hit rock bottom when they entertained Blackpool in a performance which pushed them further towards the relegation zone. They took the lead against the run of play through Will Haining 7 minutes from half-time when he headed in at the far post from a David Eyres centre. Murphy hit an equaliser minutes later when he gave Les Pogliacomi no chance. It was a goal that Blackpool deserved after their first half performance. In the 67th. minute Wellens gave Blackpool the winner when he smashed in a bobbing ball. It was a day to forget as the performance was not acceptible and Brian Talbot’s talk of a “hard work week” never came anywhere near to fruition. There were too many lack lustre performances and not enough players showing the passion needed by the team at the moment. They were justifiably booed off at the end by the disappointed Latics fans.

After the game manager Brian Talbot said, “I think the players are very disappointed with their performance. We know we're not playing well and it was a poor performance today which people saw for themselves. I don't think I need to say too much, other people saw it. I thought it was poor. I don't think we won enough battles and I don't think we passed the ball. Confidence is low. People will say it's my job to pick them up and motivate them and I understand that but we looked a nervous team out there. There's battles to be won every game in a football match and we certainly didn't win enough of our battles. You try and put your finger on it. You've got to look, are the players good enough to win the battles? They weren't today and they weren't last week and it's a concern for me. When I came last season I was in this position and we battled our way out of it. But we did have Murray who got me 5 goals in that period and Johnson was playing well and today we didn't have either of them.”

“I don't want to make any excuses at all because we weren't good today. I thought we scored against the run of play and then we let a sloppy throw-in to make it level and I've got to be honest, I didn't think second half they would score but I couldn't see anyone scoring. But they got another set piece from a throw-in and heads dropped. I've got to say in the last 10 minutes we did rally and come at them but it was too late.”