This was a very disappointing game. I was expecting a very positive win by Newport since they were in something of a trough in their league form and a match against third from bottom Oldham was expected to offer the opportunity to put recent results behind them.

But Oldham who were also similarly struggling started the brighter of the two teams and could have made a dream start but for their own players getting in the way of goal-bound shots. That move fizzled out with a free-kick ordered from the “D” area which was blazed over the top of the Newport goal. For a full 10 minutes Newport kept the play in the opposing half without creating any clear cut chances.

Newport had a couple of shots on target but these were easily dealt with by the Oldham keeper. When the visitors did start to look as if they could be dangerous, they left themselves with few options up front with only two or three players forward against a fairly solid Newport defence.

A clash of heads between McNamara (Newport) and Egert (Oldham) on the half-hour mark allowed the rest of the players to benefit from 5 minutes refreshment and tips from their respective benches. However it did not have any sort of beneficial effect on the game because passes were still being misplaced and shots were still off target. That defences were on top was quite evident when a corner by Oldham had 11 Newport players in the penalty area with only 4 Oldham players forward.

As the first half was drawing to a close the referee ordered just 3 minutes added time but it only took one of those minutes for Oldham to relieve the boredom. A low cross from the bye line on the right wing was initially blocked but the ball rebounded to Zac Mills who had been performing up and down the right flank and his first time effort was sufficient to beat the Newport defence as the ball settled in the back of the net.

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Newport were first to get going in the second half but an attempt from a corner came to nothing. Oldham’s Desire suffered an injury which the opposition appeared to believe was an attempt to delay proceedings. That was enough to persuade the referee to order treatment off the field though it did give the teams another chance of a breather. One of the annoying features of the match was the officials’ frequent oversight of petty fouls, offsides and carelessness of the Oldham goalkeeper overstepping the limits of the penalty area when distributing the ball.  However, tHat was no excuse for Newport’s Abrahams failing to take advantage of a slip by an opposing defender in the penalty area which allowed the attacker to have an unchallenged angled shot which he put over the top corner of the goal post.

By midway through the second half Newport tried to open up the game by spreading long passes across the pitch but so many of these were either over-hit, misjudged in length or simply out of reach. Oldham players were doing as much as they could legally do to slow the game down in order to hold on to their slender lead but efforts by Newport to break down their defence all seemed to be frustrated by big clearances without any objective other than to remove the threat.

On 84 minutes, Newport were awarded a free kick for an infringement in the “D” area in front of the Oldham goal. It looked a likely possibility that it could level the scores. Marty Dolan’s firm delivery went straight into the defending wall and that just about summed up the standard of play in this game.

Overall this was a very disappointing game since both teams seemed to be playing well below what was expected of them. Was it a fair result? No I don’t think so. Neither side deserved to win – it was such a poor match.

words Mike Commins