Welcome
to today's issue of
BOUNDARY
BULLET-zine
The
Daily On-line e-zine for 173
Oldham Athletic Supporters
Worldwide
Today's
Edition for
18th April 2000
Welcome to new subscribers
in Limavady, Stalybridge, Vancouver and Middleton
Today's
Headlines
Miskelly
starts Spirites game
Oldham
Evening Chronicle
Miskelly
set to win Latics starting slot
DAVID
MISKELLY, Stuart Thom and Phil Salt are all poised to line up for Athletic
tonight (Tuesday) in the Boundary Park battle with Chesterfield. Manager
Andy Ritchie has seen his squad decimated by injuries and, with only 16
players available, has precious little room for manoeuvre. But
Miskelly looks certain to replace Gary Kelly in goal as Athletic give him
a rare taste of first-team action. The
20-year-old has been unable to dislodge Kelly from the number-one spot
and, bizarrely, has played more games for Northern Ireland under-21s than
he has in the league for Athletic. Miskelly's solitary league appearance
came at Reading in December, 1998, although he also faced Stockport in
this season's Worthington Cup.
Attempts
to send him out on loan were foiled by injuries lower down the pecking
order but, with points no longer at a premium, Athletic will now give him
his chance. Central-defender Thom has had his campaign ruined by injuries,
especially a broken collarbone which ruled him out for four months. Athletic
are forced into another defensive reshuffle, with Paul Rickers, who played
wing-back against Wigan last week, recovering from a hernia operation. Scott
McNiven will move out wide tonight, with Thom and Ben Futcher competing
for a place in the middle. Thom is expected to get the nod as Athletic
opt for a dash of extra experience. John Sheridan's injury opens the way
for Salt to make the sixth league start of his career. The
21-year-old — a compact midfielder — is back from serious ankle surgery
and likely to play ahead of Danny Boshell.
ATHLETIC
(probable): Miskelly, Jones, Hotte, Thom, S McNiven, Holt, Duxbury, Salt,
Innes, Tipton, Whitehall. Subs: Kelly, Futcher, Walsh, Boshell, Sugden.
Chesterfield are bottom of the table and looking like certainties for relegation.
But caretaker-manager Nicky Law has ordered them to play attacking football
and finish the season with all guns blazing.
CHESTERFIELD
(from): Gayle, Carss, Blatherwick, Breckin, Woods, Willis, Simpkins, Williams,
Perkins, Reeves, Wilkinson, Payne, Hewitt, Pointon, Barratt, Armstrong.
Teamtalk
Oldham
Miskelly's
special night
Oldham's
Northern Ireland under-21 keeper David Miskelly is to get his first outing
of the season in tonight's home match with Chesterfield. Regular number
one Gary Kelly is stepping down to the substitutes bench and the match
will also see call-ups for Stuart Thom, Phil Salt and Mathew Tipton. It
will be Andy Ritchie's youngest Latics side as four youngsters have been
named for the bench, namely Ryan Sugden, Danny Boshell, Ben Futcher and
Danny Walsh. Ritchie is aware that he is taking somewhat of a risk but
he feels confident that the lads are ready for the test. He said: "I'm
sure they won't let us down but, to be fair, my hands were tied because
we have almost a full team out injured."
Boss
warns over mistakes against the Spireites
Oldham
boss Andy Ritchie wants his side to take Tuesday night's visitors Chesterfield
very seriously even though they are rock bottom in division two. Chesterfield
recently parted company with long-serving boss John Duncan and look certain
to drop down to division three for next season. They have won just once
in their last twenty matches and have taken only nine points from those
games. The club are twelve points from safety with only five games left
but Latics boss Andy Ritchie knows that his side can expect no favours.
He said: "We won't be making the mistake of thinking it's going to be easy.
They are not down yet. This is a dangerous time of the season and teams
fighting for survival are never easy to beat. "We proved that last
season when we just managed to stay up by the skin of our teeth. Chesterfield
gave us a real battle to beat them at their place and I am sure they will
be up for this one. Sides in danger tend to come out at you with all guns
blazing."
Triple
injury latest
Latics
striker Craig Dudley is making slower than expected progress from his hamstring
injury but Shaun Garnett is getting over his knee worry. Dudley has missed
the last four matches with his hamstring complaint and Andy Ritchie is
having to wait and see just when the forward can return. Ritchie said:
"Craig is coming on, but only slowly. There is nothing we can do but wait
and hope he will play again this season." Centre-back Garnett is recovering
from his knee injury and should be back in training come Monday. Garnett
has been to hospital for a scan which showed there had been no serious
damage. Meanwhile there is good news over injury-jinxed defender Richard
Graham who has now recovered from the hamstring injury that has kept him
out for four matches. He looks set to make his comeback for the reserves
on Thursday night when the young Latics travel to Scunthorpe for the Pontins
League Cup semi-final.
Defender
trialist arrives
Ex-QPR
left wing-back Simon Glover has arrived for a trial with Oldham and will
play for the reserves at home to West Brom on Wednesday night. The 19 year-old
recently left Loftus Road and will be given a second reserve outing in
the impending trip to Scarborough. Boss Andy Ritchie said: "There aren't
many left-sided players about and it will do us no harm to take a look
at him."
Contributions
and letters should be sent to Gary
Davies by e-mail at [email protected].Boundary
Bullet-zine Archive can be found at http://www.geocities.com/laticsgary.geo.The
views expressed on this e-zine are not the views of Oldham Athletic
F.C. nor necessarily the views of the Editor.This
e-zine is a unofficial publication NOT sanctioned by Oldham Athletic Football
Club.The
editor will not publish any letters containing bad language.This
e-zine is written using Microsoft Outlook Express and is best viewed with
the HTML (rich) text option enabled.