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Search on for a striker
Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date online: 01 March 2010
THE GOAL drought threatening Athletic’s status will be urgently addressed this week.
Another blank against Coca-Cola League One leaders Norwich City at Boundary Park leaves manager Dave Penney’s team in the relegation zone on goal difference, having not found the net in their last 282 minutes of action.
Penney (pictured above) was pleased with his team’s creditable efforts in the 1-0 defeat but admitted afterwards that he is desperately in need of a goalscorer.
“We do need to freshen it up and we need to bring somebody in who can score goals for us,” said the Athletic boss, after a third consecutive defeat.
The loan spell of Millwall forward Jason Price is not up until after the game away at Exeter City on Saturday. The Welshman has scored just once in his six appearances for the club so far.
Penney has previously stated his desire to extend that deal, possibly to the end of the season.
But he could also opt to send Price back and free up space in the budget for two new loan strikers, provided they can be found.
The most likely route for Athletic to go down in the hunt for a goal scorer is young players in the reserves ranks of Premier League and Championship clubs.
Currently, Pawel Abbott is out on his own in the club’s scoring stakes with nine, with Keigan Parker, Danny Whitaker and centre-back Reuben Hazell next with two each. Athletic have managed only 24 goals in 31 league games.
“There is room to bring someone in,” said Athletic’s chief executive Alan Hardy. “The owners have made it clear that if necessary, money will be available for a striker.”
The new month is massive both for Penney’s own future and Athletic’s. After the trip to face third-bottom Exeter, there are games against Leyton Orient (home), Wycombe (home), Stockport (away), Brighton (home) and Brentford (home).
ATHLETIC’S reserves are in action against Rochdale once again at Ewen Fields on Wednesday (2pm kick-off).
The reserves have also reached the semi-finals of the totesport.com League Cup, where they will meet Preston North End away from home on an as-yet unspecified date. The game has to be played by Monday, April 12.
Comments
Money for a strikers says AH. Would that be more than the price of a box of Swan Vesta?
Nil-ONE again and I did state in my last e-mail to you that our 'lack of pace strikers, i.e. Abbott & Price' would not posd any threat to Norwich. Nonetheless, Athletic gave a Norwich side who were brimming with confidence a hard game and were unlucky not to achieve at least a point. On the negative side however is the fact that it has been obvious all season that we had no effectgive firepower and when the manager says that we need a striker after scoring just 24 goals one can only wonder!!!!
Finally!!! an admission from Penney that something is missing, the good relationship between Price & Abbott that we keep hearing about is worthless if it doesnt bring goals! And if cash needs to be made available, heres a radical suggestion, offload the lazy, unintersted Chris Taylor who quite obviously doesnt want to be at BP. Hes contributed nothing at all this season and looks distinctly uninterested!!
How the 3 amigos must be rueing the day they let LEE HUGHES go.They could have given him 10 Grand a week,if they had they would have been saving 50 Grand a week now because 3000 missing fans equates to £60,000 a week,not rocket science is it,and the club have ZERO chance of finding anything the calibre of Hughes,so yet again its the Manager and owners fault we are in dire straights,just wish they would own up to it.People are voting with their feet enough said.
Penney has finally dropped!
Striker ask Fergie for Rooney but we would end up with Mickey Rooney!
Mr Penney I'm still available, 43 next week, overweight & high blood pressure, but I would give 100%. & I will play in my flip flops. Give us a shout by Thursday so I can get my fitness up to speed. Talk later Dave oops I mean gaffer.
having watched the game on Saturday (said I wouldn't go) I think the problems lie in the tatics used. Yes we defend well as unit that's why we don't let that many in. But when attacking the build up is too slow, and individuals won't gamble. I think we have one eye on getting back to defend knowing that we are inevitably going to lose the ball. Also I think its time Chris Taylor woke up and realised he is not as good as he thinks he is! That's just my opinion feel, free to crucify.
The search should have been on months and months ago for a permanent solution, not a quick-fix loanee.
The O'Grady fiasco is certainly going to bite this club on it's backside and that rests squarely on the manager's shoulders, because pretty soon, O'Grady will have scored more on his own than the entire Latics squad.
Take a risk on a non-league, hungry striker and not some recovering Prima Donna from the Premiership or Championship.
Nothing to lose anymore.
Its only taken 7 months for Penney to realise we need someone who can score goals. great it only took the rest of us two weeks
Search on for a striker! Beginning of March, lowest goal tally in League One, has DP been in a coma?
ANOTHER striker?
I thought Price was supposed to be the man to "urgently address" the goal drought?
Surely the men in suits must now seriously question Penney's judgement, it's one signing failure after another.
Latics will survive in League One, just, but in the summer Penney MUST go.
Appoint Howe from Bournemouth - young, hungry, forward thinking and is managing well on a shoestring worse than that at Oldham. He'll be cheap as well given the financial woes at Bournemouth.
This is nothing short of scandalous. Penney admits he needs a scorer now? Unbelieveable.
And 'JJ' Price? Pathetic.
PENNEY OUT, DOWIE OR RITCHIE IN.
3 down, none to go, still nil points. Can't wait to hear what plan B is going to be, perhaps a team visit to Lourdes to arrange a miracle. I have been saying since last season, as have other fans, that O'Grady should have been given the chance when he was here, but he was never given a decent run in the first team & as for Hughes enough said. Latics situation is now pretty dire as we don't seem capable of scoring even against poor opposition.
One good thing to come out of the last three games was that we didn't get 'Stuffed' by the top three teams in the league 1-0 AWAY to Colchester 2-0 Away to Leeds and a 0-1 home defeat to Norwich. So lets be honest yes I don't like losing BUT lets see where we are at the end of this month 6 games against teams we should be able to get lots of points from. IF not. then we really are in the XXXX but I for one think we will be up in the top half come the end of the season. 'KEEP THE FAITH'
Why another striker ? strikers feed on service, give them nowt, they'll get nowt.
If we do get another loanee, can we get one with a better write up than "things bounce off him and go in", maybe "got a good touch and brings others into play" may help a lot better.
Also whats happened to Ryan Brooke, not even in the squad now, where price and Parker are fixtures in there, what does DP see that the rest of us are missing.
DEAR DAVE SAME OLD RUBBISH, NOW YOU SAY WE NEED SOMEONE TO SCORE GOALS. HOW ABOUT FEEDING THE ONES WE HAVE GOT. DON'T JUST BLAME THE STRIKERS, LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE USLESS MANAGER MR DAVE PENNEY TRY BLAMING YOUR SELF LIKE THE FANS DO AND PLEASE LEAVE THE CLUB BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. THERE'S A JOB VACANCY IN THE LAUNDRY DEPARTMENT AT THE CLUB. YOU COULD GET THAT ONE BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL WASHED UP AS A MANAGER
toddy there is nothing good whatsoever about not getting stuffed by the top 3 teams. do you not think the lads tried that little harder because they were up against the big boys.
lets see how they fair against this lower loti suspect a heavy defeat again soon like swindon because they may think their better than what they really are.
clueless again groundhog day again.
apart pav gregan rueben and furman the rest can leave.
parker brill and taylor very disappointing all season
oh and dave you have been the worst latics manager i can remember and that includes ronnie moore.
keep smirking dave this is our club you have made redundant, when your long gone we will be still trying to recover for years to come.
Dave,
Get your coat, goalkeeping coach and assistant manager - and leave Boundery Park.
Mr Gregan & Mr Duxbury,
Please kick this team into shape and get them to play like you do (gregs) / did (Dux) - we need to stay in this league or ots curtains.
i bet he will sign a player who will not score its time up penney you need to go ASAP because your the worst manager in oldham history.
oh and dont keep harping on about the last 3 games.
so far this season we have drawn a blank in 16 games and currently the 4th worse team in the division,the worse goals for average by half a dozen the stats dont lie and all clubs loose players for various reasons so dont blame bad luck either.
SHOCKING MANAGER
Why did we only pressurise them in the last 20min when losing? As usual! Why do we play deep at home until going behind? This is why we don’t score from midfield or they’re not capable. Why is the passing awful from midfield? Why does Abbot usually have to hold the ball for a fortnight before support arrives? Why do we usually cross the ball into the goal area and the keeper? Whatever the reasons, it’s not working. But the defence sure looks good and that with a poor keeper. Exciting stuff eh!
I am convinced the players we have could perform better. It is the tactics and lack of a playmaker in mid field that is killing us. Stevens is an improvement but lacks the pace to make a yard on someone. It is this yard that opens up defences by forcing one of them out of position. Taylor has that yard and should be given a chance. Overlapping fullbacks are a thing of the past at BP. They come up wide to the edge of the box for a back pass. It is stifling stuff and crucifying the home support.
Apart from Parker plus Taylor over 5yds we have no pace. Parker seems ineffective most of the time. Is there a reason? Taylor can’t or won’t cross with is left foot making him predictable. Colbecks control and touch are awful. Smalley runs into people too often. All things that should be being addressed by the coaching staff. In Colbecks case why didn’t they know his major fault? Abbots tally includes about 3pens. We weren’t scoring before, while or after he was injured. What does that tell us?
Money available? I presume he means money available to pay a percentage of a loan player's salary, because you can't buy anybody.
I wonder? Would supporters like a team of triers - who firmly believe in the club but who might still struggle - or persevere with the "Loan Arranger' and his bunch of incompetents who might play well in the odd game but cannot produce a result nor show genuine concern for the club? I wonder?
At the beginning of the season i sat down and looked at this seasons squad, then when Mr Gazel said we have a team capable of achieving a top 8 position i laughed my socks off, this club has been going down the pan season by season, despite the depths of the club with the right words and MONEY (wage contribution) decent players will still come, Its alright saying the directors are right cutting the budget each season, all they are doing is cutting their own throats.
A little foresight and imagination it would not have cost hundreds of thousands in wages getting in the right loan signings alot fewer with the right credentials would have done, they chose for the cheap option, then stated the loans they have are not cheap again i had to laugh. Anyways this reason i cannot abide these directors because they bought the club for the land and for a bit of a pathetic passtime, they seem to forget they may own the club but the public will not waste money on rubbish.
What a FANTASTIC picture to head this feature...Mr Penney in his search for a striker SINCE OCTOBER !.....You are staring to look really silly now.
This picture is the key to the Latics problems...quite obviously Mr Penney can't see the wood for the trees, in fact as it is - "he can't see at all" ...SPECSAVERS ARE DOING A GOOD DEAL ON LENSES.
Oh it just gets worse.
Yet again a side comes to BP and doesnt really look much better than Latics, but we lose. Passing is awful, commitment is dreadful and the least said about shooting the better. This is a bad trend to get into to, and a costly one. DP's resignation must be coming soon.
The situation we are in is of Penney's own making, we have let better players go than we have got. As for O'Grady WHAT ON EARTH WERE THEY THINKING. Chris was never given a fair crack of the whip at B.P, SO NO WONDER HE WANTED TO STAY AT ROCHDALE WHERE HE IS PLAYING AND CONTINUES TO BANG THEM IN GOOD LUCK CHRIS.
RIP LATICS.
Have Your Say
The next month needn't be massive for DP. He could resign now.
By dramasingapore @ 01/03/2010 13:20:58