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Your Oldham Athletic v Barrow Match Reports

Mullet added 16:24 - Apr 26 Town went to crash Burnley's promotion party in form as changeable as the weather. Washed out in a rarely seen all white, there was a need for more than a little bit of luck to go our way today. With more changes across the 18 there wasn't so much a need to knock on wood, but listen to the sound of our squad's barrel being tellingly scraped. The same strong back five were shielded by another defender on the right in Richardson, a veteran on the left in Hunt and another central pairing of Skuse and Green. William and Murphy were the strikeforce with a job to do. It was a side a little lopsided and a little listless. Stifling each other in the stiff spring breeze, both teams defended reasonably well from the off but it was Town who started weaker in the face of superior firepower. Burnley might have been home and dry but in front of a fairly sparse celebratory crowd they eked out the first of the chances. Town purred and pawed in the opening quarter for too long when they needed to roar. It was the more attacking left hand side which saw Town achieve relative amounts of success as the threat of Ings in the middle and Kightly down the left were kept quieter than they'd have liked by double fullback combination Richardson and Chambo. It was the loanee on the right who was found with a neat volleyed pass by Skuse that set Town away for the first notable time. The borrowed Boro player crossed high and long to no one. It signalled the limitations of Town all too well. As the middle pair of Green and Skuse grafted to good effect, the magic and menace of Williams and Murphy were lacking service or sight of goal to make their mark. A half which took a while to come to life, sleepwalked its way into ending with Town showing solid movement out of the back but little life in the goalmouth. A header off the line from a decent set piece was the best chance from Town's endeavour but not the best bit of football. When Murphy and Williams exchanged passes in triangular and angular sweeps from touchline to goal line it was greeted by an audible swell of hope across the away end. The gloves of Heaton rarely felt the sting of shots, while Gerken made one save from Ings which didn't do justice to the run he made to take it. Williams would create a few things of note be it runs or balls that tested the top flight credentials of Burnley's backline but the shots he worked for himself and others never looked likely to produce results. Richardson had a good chance early on to bury one at the back post but diving in he failed to connect cleanly. Hunt too looked like he might do something if as always; you judged the run and not the resultant finish to each move. As it was we were clearly going in goalless, unless the hosts could take their minds back off promotion and into the moment. And so it was to be, but not just yet. Town had 45 mins to keep the dream alive. The David Fishwick end a wood-filled pyre of hope as beneath the ribs of 400 Town fans the beating of fleeting hearts thumped with the faintest of hopes. There was to be little to spark the flames of expectation up to Mick's broken nose. Ten minutes in and they were all but extinguished. Dangerman Ings ghosted into the box and Gerken splayed to stab studs on a simple shot. The fate of outrageous fortune fell to Kightly as the ball fell onto his foot to sweep home Burnley's lead, and brush away any chances we might have had of joining them next year. Town were up against it and Burnley began changing tack. The excellent Stanislas on they had now in their favour the one thing Town have lacked all season – pace. If we had one or two more legs that moved as quickly as we moved the ball today, or any other this year we might be dispelling nagging doubts, not equating them with clear failures in this game as in any other. The introduction of Taylor and Nouble for the original widemen was a positive move. Both were busy, both impressively keen. One false first touch aside the badboy from the bench was much improved today. Skipping past men on either flank, a flurry of stepovers past two markers yielded a dangerous cross on more than one occasion. When Green worked the ball from a diving Heaton's hands he didn't know where he, or it was to capitalise. Such was the nature of the game and Town's luck. As both teams pushed and pulled each other around literally and metaphorically it would be the set pieces which offered Town the most hope of parity. Headers down and away missed marks as attackers missed markers at either end. The home fans cooed as Ings bent one well wide, Nouble would do much better and regain composure to dip a volley off the outstep to dip just over. I can't have been the only one to moisten and moan in exasperation. As a move it was only bettered by the felling of Town legs on the edge of the box. Cresswell once again had the set piece taken away from him as Taylor put the ball down. Bending a run almost as furiously as his shot, the excellent effort produced an excellent save. The shot was clawed impressively from the postage stamp as if the points themselves were being ripped from Town's grasp. As Burnley tugged the wool slowly over the ref’s eyes with a substantial amount of gamesmanship in both halves, with it came the curtain on our season. Town fans ran through the song-sheet repertoire when calls for Marriot to come on as he did in this fixture at the end of last season fell on deaf ears. Mick stuck with what he knew, hoping as we did it'd yield goals in the dying moments. It didn't. Perhaps we can look back on this as with any other fixture and rue and remember that miscued touch here or that missed decision there. It does no good to navel gaze. Instead cast your eyes up and your gaze beyond the endless summer to next season. Next week is meaningless beyond blooding those in Mick's maybe pile. It ends not with a bang but a whimper then. Oh well, enough said.

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