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Stockport County 1 Oldham Athletic 2

Last updated : 30 October 2004 By The Chairman
The Latics finally achieved their first win in nine games in the six-pointer game at Stockport and it was all thanks to new loanee Aaron Wilbraham (pictured). The Latics took command from the whistle and John Eyre hit the crossbar in the second minute while David Eyres was very unlucky when he hit the rebound wide.

Jermain Johnson was unlucky when he cut in from the wing but the Latics deservedly took the lead in the 13th. minute. It came from a David Eyres pass and ironocally it was Stockport old boy Wilbraham who drilled home a left footer for the opener. It was mainly the visitors who were doing all the pushing and County were restricted to the occasional breakaway.

Eyres and Johnson both had good chances was before that man Wilbraham struck again five minutes from the break. The goal followed a one-two with Kevin Betsy and the new boy hit his second from the edge of the box to send the huge army of travelling supporters into ecstacy. The home fans were stunned but minutes later they reduced the deficit through Bridge-Wilkinson after a poor clearance from Mark Arber was struck home through a sea of blue defenders, a shot which gave an unsighted Les Pogliacomi no chance.

County came out firing on all cylinders in the second half and Poggsy did well to palm away a Feeney effort round the post 10 minutes in. Bridge-Wilkinson went close again and as County were finding holes in the Latic back line the visitors had to thank Poggsy for saving their bacon on several occasions. They defended in numbers in an attempt to keep their slender lead and another Arber mistake allowed Feeney a chance which he should have done better with.

Scott Vernon came on for Johnson with 6 minutes remaining and he almost scored with a header after a Kelvin Lomax cross. Poggsy again performed heroics in the closing stages but the team hung on for a very useful win and hammered another nail in Stockport’s coffin. The home supporters booed off their team as the full time whistle was blown but the Latics faithful went away thinking perhaps we have finally turned the corner.


New assistant manager Tony Philliskirk was left with the task of summing up the game. He said, “We started the game so brightly. John Eyre is probably the most underrated player. If you ask any of the lads in the dressing room to write their best team out, John Eyre would be in it. He's a bit of an unsing hero so just having him back just gave us a bit of a boost. Will Haining's a massive player for us at centre-half. Again he's a young player, only 21, but I thought when Mark Arber came on he did exceptionally well against Feeney and Beckett who are amongst the better strikers in this division. So Mark was a great replacement when will did go off but they're two big players for us and fingers
crossed that they'll be OK.”


“It's funny how things happen, 2-0 going away, we've had chances to make it three, a goal disallowed, Eyresy's header. It gives them a bit of a lifeline doesn't it? But basically I told them at half time, if you can, much of the same. Because we thought we played ever-so-well for the first 45 minutes. I thought our front two were a massive threat once the ball went up. I think our quality from back to front perhaps wasn't as good 2nd. half and I think that resulted in us being under a little bit more pressure but Les Pogliacomi went onto make 3 or 4 fantastic saves second half and virtually guaranteed that we hold on and win the game.”