Welcome to today's issue of 
BOUNDARY BULLET-zine
 
The Daily On-line e-zine for 194 Oldham Athletic Supporters Worldwide
 
Today's Edition for
 
    30th April 2000   
 
 
Today's Headlines
 Sports.com Steve McMahon launched a scathing attack on referee Paul Robinson after 10-man Blackpool were condemned to relegation. Manager McMahon was seething after the red card was shown to Rick Wellens for a cynical tackle from behind on Craig Dudley. Blackpool were ahead 1-0 at the time. They were then condemned to the drop by an injury time equaliser from Ryan Sugden. McMahon fumed over the sending off: "If that was violent conduct I'll eat my hat. It was a cop out. "I thought the rules had been changed to allow some common sense, but they obviously haven't changed for this referee. "I spoke to him afterwards and he said he begged to differ, which he would. "It's our livelihood and if he had thought about what a sending off meant he might not have done it." Backed by 1,600 vocal away fans, Blackpool were clearly fired up and went ahead after 63 minutes through defender Clarke Carlisle. But their hearts were to be broken when Sugden, who had only been on the field for a minute, scored his first senior goal with his first touch.

Blackpool's first real scare came after 23 minutes when Steve Whitehall's right-wing corner for Oldham eluded everyone but Danny Coid who cleared off the line at the far post. Oldham sprung to life and Whitehall almost put them in front from Danny Boshell's quick free kick. Andrew Holt popped up in the danger area a minute before the break as the home side created the clearest opening of a poor half. Holt met Whitehall's cross with a firm close-range header and visiting keeper Phil Barnes got down to make a desperate save. The low-quality fare didn't improve until the 63rd minute when Blackpool broke through with their only shot on target of the match. Wayne Gill cut inside from the left and passed into a ruck of players.

It was held up by Mike Newell and Carlisle, still forward from a corner, drilled his shot low past Gary Kelly from 10 yards. It was after 74 minutes that everything went wrong for Blackpool. Wellens scythed down Dudley in full flight and was shown a straight red, even though the forward was still 40 yards out. Oldham went on to bombard the visitors' goal and Barnes needed to be at his best to keep them out. But, after 92 minutes 35 seconds the shattering blow was delivered to brave Blackpool. Bushell seized possession deep in the area and pulled the ball back from the right. Sugden was first to react and slid home a neat shot from eight yards.
Oldham 1, Blackpool 1

Last three meetings
Blackpool 1, Oldham 2 (19/10/1999)
Oldham 3, Blackpool 0 (16/1/1999)
Blackpool 3, Oldham 0 (15/8/1998)

Final


Final Results
Oldham 1 Blackpool 1
Name, Minutes
Sugden, 90 		 Name, Minutes
Carlisle, 63 

Yellow Cards
Name, Minutes
No Yellow Cards		   Name, Minutes
Beesley, 64
dissent

Red Cards
Name, Minutes
No Red Cards		   Name, Minutes
Wellens, 74
violent conduct

Match Stats
16 Goal Attempts 6
7 (On Target) 1
0 (Bar/Post) 0
10 Fouls 15
0 Offsides 3
8 Corners 8

Match Squads & Ratings 
3 stars (out of 5)
Oldham Blackpool
G 1. Kelly - 6
D 2. Garnett - 7
D 3. Jones - 7
M 4. Hotte - 6
F 5. Dudley - 7
D 6. Holt - 6
D 7. Duxbury - 6
D 8. McNiven, S - 6
9. Boshell - 8
D 10. Thom - 6
F 11. Whitehall - 6		 G 1. Barnes - 8
D 2. Bardsley - 7
M 3. Coid - 6
D 4. Beesley - 7
D 5. Carlisle - 7
D 6. Jaszczun - 6
M 7. Gill - 8
M 8. Richardson - 6
M 9. Wellens - 6
F 10. Newell - 6
F 11. Thomas - 6
Substitutes Substitutes
F 5. Sugden (90)
D 6. Tipton (76)
F 11. Innes (65) - 6
12. Miskelly
13. Salt		 M 8. Bushell (58) - 6
F 10. Murphy (82)
12. Caig
13. Ablett
14. Jones
*Players ranked from 4 (lowest) to 10 (highest)
Referee: J. P. Robinson

 Teamtalk Oldham 
Sugden saves point

 A last minute goal by Ryan Sugden relegated Blackpool to the Third Division and earned Oldham a point in a 1-1 draw at Boundary Park. In a first half of few chances neither goalkeeper was called into action as both sides failed to hit the target. Oldham had the best opportunities to take the lead with Steve Whitehall going the closest on three occasions. In the opening minutes the striker blazed the ball high and wide from a good position before he saw his header from a corner cleared of the line by the Seasiders defence. Blackpool could have taken the lead when Wellands shot wide before Thomas's free kick shaved the top of Kelly's bar. Whitehall again spurned a good opportunity to break the deadlock. This time shooting just wide from inside the box. After the break Blackpool pushed forward and Mike Newell was unlucky to see his shot deflect just wide of the post. From the resulting corner the Seasiders took the lead when the ball fell to Carlisle who made no mistake from close range. Blackpool were then reduced to ten men when Wellands was sent off for foul and abusive language. Blackpool seemed to have done enough to earn a stay of execution until Ryan Sugden struck in injury time to break their hearts and earn Latics a point.
 Manchester Evening News RYAN Sugden grabbed his first senior Latics goal in the 90th minute to send the Seasiders down to the third division — but at least they went down fighting. Oldham found Blackpool keeper Phil Barnes in inspired form after the visitors stole the lead midway through the second half. Just when it looked as though the Latics might equalise, Barnes bravely denied Stuart Thom with a close-range header and tipped a Danny Boshell 35-yard free kick past a post. Blackpool were reduced to 10 men in the 74th minute when Richard Wellens was red-carded for violent conduct after chopping down Craig Dudley with a leg-scything tackle from behind. Oldham, boosted by the return of skipper Lee Duxbury after a knee injury, showed off their new blue and white home strip. And before the kick-off, veteran midfielder John Sheridan was revealed as the fans’ Player of the Year. Blackpool, battling to avoid the drop, brought 1,600 noisy fans. And they had the first reason to cheer when Latics keeper Gary Kelly made a fine stop from a close-range header from old campaigner Mike Newell. The visitors, as expected, broke forward at every opportunity, but the Latics showed some determined defending.

It was just as boss Andy Ritchie had predicted with Blackpool throwing everything at them. Oldham came up with the first threat of the second half when Craig Dudley used his pace to get behind the Blackpool defence and put in a cross which went just above the head of Whitehall at the near post, two minutes after the restart. The visitors were finding it more and more difficult to open up the Latics’ defensive cover but eventually succeeded. Blackpool finally struck lucky in the 63rd minute. They took the lead after Gill played a neat ball into the box, Newell cleverly held it up, before putting it into the path of Clarke CARLISLE who made no mistake from 12 yards out.

 ESPN Soccernet A goal by Oldham's teenage striker Ryan Sugden in the dying seconds at Boundary Park condemned Blackpool to relegation to the Third Division. Sugden's first goal for the Latics brought the scores level and broke the hearts of Blackpool, who were making a desperate bid for survival. Blackpool had gone in front in the 63rd minute when Clarke Carlisle fired home from 12-yards out to give them hope. They then left themselves with a fight on their hands when they were reduced to 10 men in the 74th minute after Richard Wellens was red-carded for a late tackle on Oldham's Craig Dudley. After that Seasiders keeper Phil Barnes saved his side with several fine saves before 19-year-old Sugden came up with a late leveller. 
 Sporting Life Champions Preston enjoyed a 3-2 win over follow promotion rivals Millwall at Deepdale. Preston went 3-0 up in the first half thanks to goals by David Eyres, Michael Jackson and Brett Angell. Millwall's second-half fight-back courtesy of goals by Paul Ifill and Lucas Neill proved not to be enough, and they slipped to sixth place.

Burnley go into second place thanks to a 2-0 home win over Cambridge. Andy Payton scored his 26th and 27th goals of the season as Burnley claimed the points an their first clean sheet in nine games.

Wigan slip to third following a 1-0 home defeat to Wrexham, Karl Connolly scoring his ninth goal of the season in the 10th minute. They are now equal on points with Gillingham, who won 2-0 at Priestfield against Brentford. Goals in each half by Iffy Onuora and Steve Butler took the points.

Bristol Rovers missed a great opportunity to make up lost ground on the promotion leaders, managing only a 2-2 draw at home against Bournemouth. Veteran winger Mark Walters gave Rovers the lead in the 44th minute only for Carl Fletcher to equalise in first-half stoppage time. Steve Fletcher then gave Bournemouth the lead seven minutes into the second period before Jamie Cureton scored his 22nd of the season 14 minutes from time.

Notts County slipped up 2-1 away at relegated Chesterfield. Paul Bolland gave County the lead in the 33rd minute before two second-half strikes from David Reeves, his 12th and 13th goals of the season, took the points for Chesterfield.

Bristol City came out on top of a seven goal thriller against Colchester at Layer Road. Colchester looked to have made the game safe in the 50th minute when Karl Duguid scored to make it 3-1. However goals by Alex Meechan, Mickey Bell and an own-goal by Barry Ferguson took the points for Bristol City.

Colchester had earlier gone 2-0 up through Lomano Lua-Lua and an Aaron Skelton penalty, City's goal coming from Scott Murray in the 39th minute.

Wycombe were beaten 1-0 at home by Luton while their Thames Valley rivals Reading drew 1-1 at Bury. Darren Caskey opened the scoring for the visitors in the 43rd minute, Andy Preece equalising for Bury with his 12th goal of the season.

Oxford United did their chances of avoiding the drop no harm by defeating fellow relegation rivals Scunthorpe 2-0 at the Manor Ground. Matt Murphy and Paul Powell were the goal heroes with strikes in each half. The result sends Scunthorpe down to Division Three just a year after they won promotion through the play-offs.

Blackpool were also relegated in dramatic circumstances after drawing 1-1 at Oldham. Clarke Carlisle had put them 1-0 up in the 63rd minute, a lead Blackpool held until the final minute when Oldham's Ryan Sugden scored an equaliser. To add insult to injury Blackpool also had Richard Wellens sent off for foul and abusive language with the score at 1-0.

Yahoo Football Oldham  
Pos. Team Pts Pl. W D L F A Diff
1 Preston 92 45 27 11 7 72 37 +35
2 Burnley 85 45 24 13 8 67 46 +21
3 Wigan 82 45 22 16 7 70 36 +34
4 Gillingham 82 44 24 10 10 75 46 +29
5 Bristol R 80 45 23 11 11 69 44 +25
6 Millwall 79 45 22 13 10 75 50 +25
7 Stoke 76 43 21 13 9 63 40 +23
8 Notts Co 64 45 18 10 17 59 53 +6
9 Bristol C 64 45 15 19 11 59 55 +4
10 Luton 60 45 17 9 19 60 64 -4
11 Oldham 59 45 16 11 18 49 54 -5
12 Reading 59 45 15 14 16 56 63 -7
13 Wrexham 59 45 16 11 18 51 61 -10
14 Wycombe 58 45 15 13 17 54 52 +2
15 Bury 56 44 13 17 14 59 59 +0
16 Bournemouth 56 45 16 8 21 57 60 -3
17 Brentford 51 45 13 12 20 47 61 -14
18 Colchester 51 45 14 9 22 59 82 -23
19 Cambridge 48 45 12 12 21 63 63 +0
20 Oxford 45 45 12 9 24 43 72 -29
21 Cardiff 41 43 8 17 18 42 61 -19
22 Blackpool 40 45 8 16 21 47 75 -28
23 Scunthorpe 39 45 9 12 24 39 72 -33
24 Chesterfield 35 45 7 14 24 51 57 -6
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