Tower of strength
Date published: 27 February 2013
HE only went and did it again!
But this time Matt Smith’s fourth FA Cup goal in three games — against Premier League opposition — was simply a consolation goal.
The towering striker’s astonishing cup run has finally come to an end but he believes the team should take heart from a memorable journey.
The 23 year old, who came on as substitute to power home yet another header, said after the game: “We showed a good account of ourselves especially in the second half, but obviously I am disappointed.
“We have got to take heart from coming from the first round up to the fifth round.
“The FA Cup has been fantastic for me and these will be memories I will never forget.
“I would like to thank the Oldham fans who have been great to me. They were a strong force - louder than the Everton fans.”
Nasty streak was lacking - Simpson
STRIKER Robbie Simpson felt Athletic weren’t nasty enough.
Simpson - a second-half sub for Jordan Obita - said: “I’m gutted, to be honest. We didn’t play well at all in the first half. We were too nice to them, I guess.
“In the home games against Liverpool and Everton we got into their faces and we were really nasty and stopped them playing. In the first half we didn’t really do that.
“Maybe you could put that down a little bit to nerves among the players, but we shouldn’t have been like that — we gave Everton a real scare at Boundary Park.
“The third goal killed us a little bit. If we had have kept it at 2-0 and then pulled it back to 2-1 it could have made it an interesting last 10 minutes. I would have fancied us to get an equaliser then, like we did at home.”
There was no small amount of pride from Simpson as he continued to reflect on this season’s magical Cup campaign.
“We can be proud of the run. Nobody expected us to beat Forest, let alone beat Liverpool and then to draw with Everton. We’ve proven on our day we can be a match for anybody.”
