Closed-doors policy is the best approach

Latics’ goalkeeper writes every week for Chron Sport


TWO of my old clubs have been in the news a lot recently for events at board level.

For both Leeds and Leyton Orient, these are unsettling times. New owners have moved in and are definitely making themselves known.

At Orient, now owned by Francesco Becchetti, there was talk this week of Russell Slade possibly departing as manager after only seven games - despite taking the side to the play-off final last season.

At Leeds, nobody would have ever have thought it would take so long to start on an upward curve back towards where they used to be in the Premier League.

The current owner, Massimo Cellino, has been in the media a lot while the team struggles.

That’s not something you will see happening at Oldham Athletic. Things are done in the right way here, away from the spotlight. Quite rightly, too. It’s right that the team, rather than pronouncements from the board room, is the main focus.

We want headlines for the right reason — like James Dayton’s spectacular goal at Swindon on Tuesday.

We’ve been talking about changing things up, and have practised long-distance shooting, as well as visualisation techniques on scoring more goals.

To see it unfold as I did - from right behind it - was quite spectacular.

I got close to saving Swindon’s second from Andy Williams, which put them 2-1 up. Another inch and I would have turned it over the bar. That’s goalkeeping for you.

Some have talked about the game’s refereeing and it was tough to get three players booked when there didn’t seem to be many bad tackles.

But you have to be fair about it. We got plenty of decisions against Fleetwood — a game we won — and when we were up against decision at Swindon we managed a draw.

That shows we can cope with adversity = and that can only be a positive thing for the rest of the season.