Oldham v City - BIG Match Preview

Weird experience
By CCFCSleepingGiant.com
August 9 2002

Forget about the months of transfer speculations and the pre-season friendlies - this is what it's all about. 3,500 City fans are expected to make the four hour journey north as our championship winning season gets underway.

Preview from CCFCSleepingGiant.com

At kick-off time on Saturday, 2417 hours and 20 minutes will have passed since Souleymane Oulare scored Stoke's winning goal in the play-offs. It is time to put the misery behind us and concentrate on this season - a season which promises to be one of the best of modern times.

Our 46 match journey to Division One begins with a tricky trip to Oldham. The Latics have made a number of summer signings, including Dean Holden, who should add extra steel to their defence.

Their pre-season form has been mediocre with one win, two draws and four defeats from their seven friendlies. During these fixtures, they managed just five goals and two of them were against Irish opponents Lisburn Distillery. It seems that a lack of a prolific goalscorer will prevent them from making a big impact on Division Two this year.

Every City fan will remember what happened last time we travelled to Oldham. Campbell, Fortune-West, Thorne and Young were on the scoresheet as the Bluebirds romped to an unbelievable 7-1 away victory. Tony Philliskirk, the former Cardiff City striker who is now first team coach at Oldham, says that the freak result will help motivate his team.

Philliskirk said: "Our players won't need any extra motivation after last season's result at Boundary Park when they beat us 7-1.

"That was a freak result, of course, and even Lennie Lawrence said that when he chatted after the match, but what happened then is clearly an added incentive for us."

The Latics are without a number of key players for Saturday's curtain raiser. New recruit Clint Hill is suspended, as is Darren Sheridan, who is serving a 10-match ban after being sent off four times last season.

Midfielder Paul Murray is definitely out with a knee injury while ex-Bolton player Dean Holden (knee), England under-20 left back Chris Armstrong (hip) and former Manchester United squad member Michael Clegg (foot) are all extremely doubtful.

However, Oldham have a massive squad of 32 with back-up in all positions, so City have to do more than just turn up to get a result. Lennie Lawrence is convinced that his team is fully prepared, both mentally and physically, for the job in hand.

"They are ready, no doubt about it," said the City chief, who guided Grimsby Town to four wins from their opening six matches last season.

"The players need to start the season and they are ready for the challenge of Saturday's first match at Oldham."

After varied performances during our six first team friendlies, Lawrence has decided on his playing system - he will start the season playing 4-3-3 with Campbell, Thorne and Earnshaw as the dynamic trio upfront.

Thorne, Campbell and Earnshaw have only ever played together twice and the combination hasn't proved 100% successful. Earnie isn't particularly 'on fire' and Fortune-West has looked more threatening in recent games when he came on to replace the Wales International.

Lawrence is without midfield duo Mark Bonner and Jason Bowen. Bonner has only just come off crutches following his ankle operation and Bowen has only just returned to training after picking up a knock.

12 players stayed behind when the reserve team faced Bath on Monday night and they are certain to be in the squad of 16 travelling to Oldham. Those who stayed in Cardiff were: Neil Alexander, Rhys Weston, Scott Young, Danny Gabbidon, Gary Croft, Chris Barker, Graham Kavanagh, Willie Boland, Gareth Whalley, Robert Earnshaw, Peter Thorne and Andy Campbell.

The starting line-up will be chosen from those 12, but Lawrence is not yet sure who to play in the left-back position - Barker or Croft.

Both players are new to the club so Lennie hasn't seen a great deal of either of them, but Croft has been the one to standout during the pre-season.

Strong defender Spencer Prior is suspended, so the centre-backs will be Young and Gabbidon. Rhys 'Shaggy' Weston will take his place at right-back.

Gareth Whalley will be making his league debut for Cardiff after signing from cash-starved Bradford. The travelling supporters will be looking for a good performance from the skilful midfielder.

Cardiff fans are notoriously passionate and there will be a lot of noise inside the 13,500 capacity Boundary Park. However, Sean Jarvis, Oldham's Marketing and PR Manager has urged Latics fans to out-sing the visitors from South Wales. Everytime we start a chant, they're going to drown us out…well that's their plan anyway.

Jarvis said: "There are a lot of fans looking forward to the first game of our campaign to be promoted. Supporters are the ones that can make a real atmosphere at Boundary Park so anything they can do to help is always a bonus."

It will be a strange experience for Josh Low on Saturday, who will watch the match from the stands after completing his move to Oldham today. The pacy midfielder, who fell out of favour at Ninian Park, isn't allowed to play against us because of a clause in his contract.

For the Cardiff loving fans who are not making the weekend journey to England, there is only one way to listen to uninterrupted coverage of the entire 90 minutes. Gary Bell and another ex-player Ronnie Bird, who already works at Ninian Park, has linked up with local broadcaster Richard Shepherd for live commentary on all Cardiff matches via the club's official website on www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk

If you're going to Oldham, sing your heart out for the boys. A victory to start the season would be very nice indeed.

Kavanagh concluded: "Our goal is to start this season as well as we finished the last one. Everyone knows about Cardiff, what we've spent and the potential at the club.

"Teams are fearing us before the start of the season and we've got to make sure that continues right the way through until May."