27th September 2000
27th September 2000 CANADIAN international Mark Watson makes his Athletic debut in tonight’s Worthington Cup second round, second leg tie at Sheffield Wednesday.
The 30-year-old defender, on a one month-deal, replaces Crewe loanee Chris Lightfoot, who failed a fitness test this morning on his injured groin.
Carlo Corazzin and Neil Adams also miss the trip to Hillsborough, where Athletic are trailing 3-1. Corazzin has a slight hamstring strain, while Adams took a knock during training on Tuesday.
“All three are still a bit sore and it would be stupid to risk them with an important league game coming up,” said boss Andy Ritchie. “It gives us the opportunity to have a good look at Mark Watson and also Barry Prenderville, who did well when he came on against Bournemouth and also in the reserves last week.”
Matthew Tipton is back in the squad after missing the Bournemouth clash. The young striker badly bruised his pelvis after crashing into a gate in the first leg at Boundary Park. Craig Dudley, who replaced Corazzin in the second half last Saturday, is set to partner Mark Allott, who rediscovered his scoring touch on the South coast.
Despite the two-goal deficit, Ritchie heads to South Yorkshire full of confidence. He said: “I thought we were the better side in the first half last week and could have been 3-1 up at the break.
“We were still in the game in the second half until we gave away stupid goals, which has tended to be our problem this season. Our job tonight is to eradicate those errors.”
Athletic (from): Kelly, McNiven, Holt, Watson, Prenderville, Smith, Duxbury, Boshell, Innes, Allott, Dudley, Miskelly, Jones, Tipton, Salt, Sugden, Futcher.
Paul Jewell’s Wednesday side have endured a miserable time in division one with only Huddersfield Town below them in the table. Injuries have again forced Jewell to call on youth, with the midfield four of Tony Crane, Alan Quinn, Matt Hamshaw and Owen Morrison all under the age of 22.
Striker Andy Booth is ruled out for six weeks because of a groin strain, while 19-year-old Italian Michele Di Piedi is missing because of a knee problem. Wednesday’s two loanees, Manchester City’s Terry Cooke and Middlesborough's Robbie Stockdale, are not allowed to play with Stockdale’s place going to teenager Derek Geary.
Wednesday
(from): Pressman, Geary, Walker, Westwood, Humphreys, Hamshaw, Quinn, Sibon,
Morrison, De Bilde, Crane, Muller, Nicholson, Hutton, Staniforth, Stringer.
Not tonight,
however. For Second Division Oldham Athletic could throw in a central defender
who actually has more than Walker.
It may be for
Canada as opposed to England, but Mark Watson can point to 62 caps against
Walker’s 59 - and he’s power to add as well.
The 30-year-old
Watson has arrived at Oldham from Oxford who wanted to sign him but wanted
him to retire from international football.
Watson said ‘no’
and so is getting a chance at Oldham with manager Andy Ritchie probably
reckoning a Worthington Cup tie is a perfect opportunity to take a first
look at him.
Wednesday, of
course, have taken more first looks at young players than they would have
liked this season but manager Paul Jewell has little choice but to name
another stack - probably as many as 11 - in his squad.
Cushion
At least Wednesday
have a two-goal cushion from the first leg, having won 3-1 at Boundary
Park last week. It was only their second win of the season. Meanwhile Oldham
haven’t won since the first day of the season, a run of nine matches.
Watson is set
to come in for Chris Lightfoot who has a groin strain. Oldham’s other Canadian
international, Carlo Corazzin (49 caps), faces a late test on a slight
hamstring strain.
One player likely
to figure is striker Matt Tipton,who injured himself when he slid off the
soaked Boundary Park pitch and crashed into a boundary post.
He missed Saturday’s
draw at Bournemouth but is available again as is defender Mark Hotte who
returns after suspension.
Missing again,
however, will be ex-Owls favourite John Sheridan. Returning from a knee
injury, he has suffered a slight setback and won’t figure.
Oldham’s experience
is largely provided by goalkeeper Gary Kelly, brother of ex-Blades man
Alan, and midfielders Lee Duxbury and Neil Adams.
Up to that point
the scores were deadlocked at 1-1 and the game dying a death of boredom,
and in fairness to the visitors they came with a game plan that worked
well and with a bit of luck could have seen them come away with just one
goal. It is also fair to say they failed to cope with a zestful Wednesday
side in the last twenty minutes.
Wednesday survived
an early scare that saw Kevin Pressman clear Mark Innes's shot off the
line with his feet to take an early lead. Richie Humphrey's, developing
nicely in his left-back role, made a determined run to the by-line before
putting in a high cross that had the beating of Latics keeper Gary Kelly
and was simply headed in at the back post by Matt Hamshaw for his first
senior goal.
Alan Quinn should
have doubled the lead and finished the game as a contest after 15 minutes,
but shot wide after collecting a pass inside the box from Gilles De Bilde.
He was to later make up for his miss that gave Oldham a chance to get back
in it.
They did exactly
that on 25 minutes when Paul Smith's corner was only half cleared to the
back post and met by Oldham skipper Lee Duxbury, a former team-mate of
Paul Jewell, who fired home unchallenged into the top right hand corner
of the net.
Wednesday then
nearly conspired to offer Oldham a chance to win the game, but two more
goal-line clearances from Ashley Westwood and Richie Humphreys saved them
going into the break, and Pressman was forced into a double save from Mark
Allott. At the other end Gerald Sibon offered some encouragement with a
shot that bounced back out off the inside of the post.
Jewell left it
until ten minutes in the second half before growing impatient with Gilles
De Bilde and giving Di Piedi his chance, and what a change it made. From
the corner won by the Italian, Ashley Westwood arrived out of nowhere on
67 minutes to head home and spark a late onslaught.
Two minutes later
and Di Piedi had his first Hillsborough goal to celebrate, and owed a lot
to a great pass from Owen Morrison that carved open the defence but the
finish from the 19-year-old Italian was sublime, clipping it nonchalantly
past the oncoming keeper with the outside of his boot.
Gerald Sibon,
who is doing his best to prove that he wants to remain at Hillsborough
by working hard for 90 minutes, broke his duck for the season with the
fourth goal for Wednesday. Again Di Piedi was involved, managing to cut
the ball past two defenders in the box to Sibon who was unmarked and given
the simple task of firing past the isolated Kelly.
With two players
having got off the mark this season there was still time for a third in
the game, as Quinn added the fifth goal to make it 8-2 on aggregate.
Reading this
you won't be surprised that Di Piedi again played a part in the goal. His
pass sent Adam Muller sprinting clear and the 17-year-old was denied a
goal on his home debut by the outstretched arm of Kelly, but Quinn profited
from the loose ball as he fired into an empty net.
The evening was
soured by Kevin Pressman being forced to come off with a groin injury that
is certain to keep him out of Saturday's trip to Gillingham. Fortunately
his understudy, 17-year-old Chris Stringer, is proving to be a safe pair
of hands. The youngster was called into one save, brilliantly turning away
Allott's close range shot for a corner in the last few minutes.
The biggest test
for Wednesday now is to see if they can reproduce the last 30 minutes performance
over 90 at the Priestfield Stadium, the scene of last season's humiliating
FA Cup defeat.
Sheffield
Star
IF
First Division central defenders were to throw their international caps
on the table when they come to Hillsborough, then Des Walker is likely
to cover the lot of them.
Planet Football
Endeavour
The Latics pressed forward in search of the equaliser and their endeavour was rewarded on 24 minutes. Paul Smith's right-wing corner cleared the Wednesday defence for skipper Lee Duxbury to fire home at the back post. Oldham continued to have a go and they started the second-half the brighter, as they encamped themselves in the Wednesday half. Craig Dudley shot wide after seizing on a misplaced Tony Crane pass and strike partner Mark Allott watched a deflected drive clear Pressman's bar. However, The Owls settled the tie after 68 minutes when Ashley Westwood side-footed home from a corner.
Wonderfully crafted
Two minutes later, Wednesday made it 3-1 with a wonderfully crafted goal. Owen Morrison split the visitors' defence with a through ball and substitute Michele Di Piedi lifted the ball over the advancing Keeper. Di Piedi then turned provider 10 minutes from time, as his centre from the right found Gerald Sibon six yards out, the Dutch striker opening his account for the season despite Kelly's valiant efforts to keep the ball out. Alan Quinn completed the scoring in the 87th minute, guiding a loose ball home after Morrison's cross-shot was parried by the hapless Kelly.
ESPN Soccernet
Wednesday get it right at long last
It had looked as if Lee Duxbury had turned up at Hillsborough to pile on the agony for his old friend Paul Jewell as relegated Wednesday's miserable season stumbled on.
Wednesday boss Jewell saw his former Bradford team-mate Duxbury, now Oldham skipper, snap up a simple 25th-minute equaliser for the modest Second Division side to stun a sparse Worthington Cup crowd.
Matt Hamshaw, one of eight teenagers in Jewell's squad, headed his first senior goal after six minutes to give bottom-of-the-table Wednesday a 4-1 aggregate lead.
However, 30-year-old Duxbury pegged back Jewell's 'Grange Hill XI' before Derek Geary spared further blushes by clearing Andy Holt's header off Wednesday's line.
Wednesday's desperate Hillsborough form - four defeats and a solitary draw before - had left anxious Jewell claiming that his team 'look frightened to death of playing in front of our home crowd'.
Only 4,773 fans braved the rain. Their jeers turned to cheers after goals in the 68th and 70th minutes from Ashley Westwood and substitute Michele Id Piedi.
Gerald Sibon
added a fourth on 80 minutes and Alan Quinn made it five in the 86th minute.
There is some concern being shown about the condition of the Boundary Park surface only three months after removing the top 1.5" and recultivating and seeding.
The grass has been attacked by a fungus called leaf spot which has turned large areas yellow and reduced the grass cover in these areas resulting in waterlogging. The fungus appeared about four weeks ago and three separate treatments with fungicide have failed to stop its progress.
Chief Executive Alan Hardy said "we are very concerned about the disease and the experts are baffled as to why it should attack large areas as it has. They are now doing soil tests for any contamination. Ideally we would have liked to install a complete new pitch in the summer but the 8 weeks we had available was not enough time, you need at least 13 weeks to excavate all the old pitch out, bring new material in and re-seed. However it looks like the job will need to be done at the end of the current season and a new surface, similar to those at Watford and Wigan, needs to be installed". In the meantime more treatment is being given to the existing surface in the hope that it stabilises before the onset of winter.
RESERVES FRIENDLY
With no scheduled
Reserve Team game this week Manager Andy Ritchie has organised a Reserve
Team friendly against Crewe Alexandra on Thursday in an effort to give
fringe players much needed match practice.
ZEMA Abbey has been offered a new contract by Cambridge United after making just 16 first-team appearances.
And the talks about an extended deal will be crucial for the club, since the striker, already rated as a £1m asset, would be able to leave on a 'Bosman' free transfer this time next year.
He was 23 recently, and after his £15,000 transfer from Ryman League Hitchen Town in March, has a contract only until the end of this season.
"Zema has done very well," said United manager Roy McFarland, "better than anyone could have expected so soon after coming out of non-League.
"He's earned a better contract, and he and his agent are considering our offer.
"He still has quite a bit to learn about being a League player, but he's keen, takes advice, and picks things up very quickly.
"Looking at his all-round game, I believe he has the potential to be a more complete player than Trevor Benjamin or even Martin Butler."
Abbey's inexperience was evident in United's 3-0 home defeat by Bristol Rovers on Saturday, when he missed a hat-trick of good scoring chances.
But he has scored three times in eight League and cup matches this season, keeping former Tottenham and Queens Park Rangers striker Steve Slade out of the team.
He quickly replaced Benjamin in the fans' affections, coming out on top of their News Player of the Year points table last month.
Abbey said: "My main aim this season was to get a regular place in the team, and I'm a bit surprised it's happened so soon."
Meanwhile United have a couple of injury problems as they prepare for Saturday's Division Two match at Oldham.
Left-back Tom Cowan has suffered a recurrence of his hamstring trouble, preventing him training, while midfielder Neil Mustoe looks certain to be sidelined after twisting an ankle in a practice match.
Mustoe has been kept on the substitutes' bench for the last three matches by Alex Russell, but might have been in with a chance of a recall after the Bristol defeat.
Cowan's absence would present McFarland with a problem, since there is no specialist cover for the experienced defender in the squad.
It could mean Ian Ashbee being pulled out of his effective midfield partnership with Paul Wanless, or a switch to the sweeper system used in the Worthington Cup at Portsmouth.