Advertisement
Penney handed double tonic
Reporter: Matthew Chambers
Date online: 29 March 2010
ATHLETIC are set to be at full strength for their game against Brentford at Boundary Park tomorrow night — a fixture which carries a huge amount of significance.
Dale Stephens (hip and groin) and Jim Goodwin (thigh) are in training and should land places in boss Dave Penney’s matchday squad.
The fight against relegation was boosted by results at the weekend. With Athletic not in action due to Southampton’s presence in yesterday’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final against Carlisle (see Page 34) at Wembley, all eyes were on their rivals towards the bottom of the Coca-Cola League One table.
Only Exeter of those sides in danger of the drop picked up a win, defeating Walsall 2-1 at home.
And it leaves the door open for Athletic to deal their rivals — most of whom have played two games more — a huge blow tomorrow.
Currently 19th in the table, Penney’s men would rise three places with a win over Brentford, creating valuable breathing space with another home match against Gillingham to follow on Saturday.
Athletic missed out on getting in a new forward before last week’s deadline for emergency loans.
The club revealed that they made a renewed bid to bring in Fabien Brandy from Manchester United before the window closed.
The move failed due to what were described as “excessive” demands by the player’s agent, after the two clubs had a agreed a deal which would have seen Athletic pay the 21-year-old’s wages and appearance money.
The fee the agent was seeking was deemed too large for a short loan period.
Athletic also said that an earlier swoop for Ply-mouth’s Bradley Wright-Phillips was foiled due to injuries at Argyle.
The club had set up a loan move for the former Manchester City youngster before the game at home to Wycombe on March 13, but the player was called back up to the first team and has since scored two goals in five games.
A verdict on the fitness prospects of Daniel Nard-iello is expected today.
The Blackpool striker is back at his parent club having treatment on a hamstring injury and may not remain with Athletic if he is set to be out of contention for more than another week.
A YOUNG Athletic reserves team is in action against Preston at Hyde United tonight (7pm kick-off)
It is the first of two fixtures against North End, with the teams meeting again on Wednesday at Bamber Bridge in the semi-finals of the totesport.com League Cup.
Comments
Typical, this business of who we might have signed...sounds like a stable doors and horses scenario to me.
How come we failed to make moves of this nature with quite obvious substantial investment by the club !...in September or October when quite clearly we simply did not have any firepower at all ?.... baffles me I'm afraid but I guess I'm being stupid in my old age, this after all is OAFC and with the only exceptions being the Premier league seasons - they act like this all the time, daft!
In order to "rise three places with a win over Brentford", we need to win, in order to win we need to score !!!!!!!
How about handing Penney his P45, wonder what his excuses will be if we lose tomorrow night seing as we have a full strength side, also have you noticed that everything is quiet on Latics website, all they seem to do now is advertise Thomas Cook Holidays, and i don't believe for 1 minute that Wright Phillips of Brandy were ever coming to Latics, Hardy has realised that the fans are staying away in their thousands because of a lack of ambition, so a story like that would make us think they care
A few grand to an agent to get a player the club have been targeting for months?
Seems certain TTA have issues with the club, committment to the cause is no longer evident.
Maybe the rumours circulating at the moment have foundation if the club cant pay an extra few grand for an agent or player. Its been mentioned TTA wanted support to pay the players wages also.
What was the point of the club giving a 'look what you could have won' message about players that we went for?
oafc-fan - How on earth, do you know that just a "few grand " was involved.
We all know how greed agents are, and why should we have to pay an agents fee, for a loan deal - in fact why should we have to pay agentss fees at all.
Thesooner all the clubs stood firm and refused to pay these exorbitant, the sooer we get rid of these parasites
I believe they also enquired about the availability of Rooney, Ronaldo, and Torres!! I could phone a club up, ask about his availability, be laughed off the phone, then give a press release saying that I had tried to sign certain players. Get real AH, I don't think for one minute the fans believe anything that is said at present.
MAD4IT.
I know because the players talk! Join DW Fitness you learn more than just fitness.
The article was to prove they went for players in the window
Unfortunately, the TTA are now experiencing the dilemma facing all football club owners. Its becoming more and more obvious that professional football outside the premiership & championship is unsustainable in its current form and its time for some radical changes to ensure clubs compete on a more level playing field
- wages cap as a percentage of income
- a return to the gate income share so that every match played yields some sort of income
I'm sure there are many more suggestions out there!
Lionel Messi flying in for tomorrow night has been asked if he had been available for last week would he have signed and.... if he is also available for Brentford match.
Messi has promised the club he will give his decision by 22.00 hrs Tuesday.
This is beyond a bloody joke - the TTA are allowing themselves to be seen as the instigators of all this mess, the town will trun on them eventually....no no it's never anyone else's fault at B.P. course not !
Dave P, sorry I wont be at the match tomorrow, I have decided to bring forward root canal work to a day where the Dentist could guarantee to have no aneasthetic - best of luck - dont forget, on your arm, in between your shoulder and hand is your elbow, and the top of your legs just before your back starts is your backside. If your still struggling to find either - dont ask Smalley / Colbeck / Furman / Brill / Jacobsen / Tsylor / Ass-istant 1 or Ass-istant 2..... Please just resign..
tommorrow evening, and next saturday- are probably the most important games, in latics recent history! leave your hang-ups, and moaning till the seasons end, and support" your so-called team!
Capstan Full Strength!!! ha ha ha. So much Nicotine that when the first table of Tar Content of cigs was published they were off the scale! That'swhat you needed to blow your mind when watching Latics in March 1960 - or so the grizzled veterans of that era used to tell me as an early teenager dazzled by the - er - skills of Charlie Ferguson!!
NDL that made me laugh at the begining. will attend tonight its either that or watching the motherinlaw having a blue rinse in my kitchen.
on second thoughts.
bob the builder out
"I know because the players talk! Join DW Fitness you learn more than just fitness.
The article was to prove they went for players in the window"
oafc-fan, are you saying that everything that comes out of a footballer's mouth is gospel truth!?
In the company where I work, I am not party to what happens at director level. Do you think footballers are told everything by the directors? I think not somehow.
@ MarkH - This player I have known since school. He shares the same agent resources, therefore knew about the player (Brandy) being approached a number of times and that TTA wouldnt pay the agent fee for the loan. A few grand, ( less than £6k ) is a lot to fans but pocket change to so called Millionaires ! How much is relegation worth? Will we lose more than £5k tonight with a poor crowd compared to a tuesday night game this time last year ?
Febian Brandy is an in-contract United reserve player, who had the chance to play League 1 football at a club about 10 miles away for a period of 6 weeks. If a greedy agent asked for £5k (for what exactly?), then TTA were right to refuse to pay this 'fee'. Brandy is hardly a free scoring striker anyway! Get real.
oafc-fan: That's fair enough, thanks for the explanation.
The word 'agent' gets everyones' heckles raised, especially when a lot of them give all agents a bad name.
Interesting to know that Paul Scholes has never had an agent, and has done quite well.
I've worked in a football club (abroad) and if fans knew all the things that really went on, it would make your hair curl.
So, DP that was a full strength side and you still couldn't muster a win. Still, you did say it wasn't a must win game. Pathetic! You have, single-handedly, put the club back years. Less than 2900 at the game. Enough! Pack your bags! Fall on your sword! Whatever you want to call it - but GO!!!!
You know something ammypam, I'm amazed at the wide diversity of fans we have at Oldham Athletic.
In Oldham Scotland, we've got a bi-lingual, teetotal multi millionaire.
We've got oafc-fan, friend to the stars and their agents
And we've got yourself an experienced football club employee !!!!!!!!!!!.
Absolutely useless management all season.
Have Your Say
Full strength! Wasn't that 'Capstan Cigarettes'?
Let's hope that this 'full strength' side can do.
Let's face it the fact that the club went for Wright-Phillips and Brandy was more an attempt at looking as if they were doing something rather than hoping they would get them. The players probably wouldn't have wanted to come here to play in a below average team anyway.
By Owdhamfan @ 29/03/2010 13:14:23