Match Report: Oldham Athletic 1 Yeovil Town 0

Yeovil Town suffered their second defeat away from home as a late winner from Mike Fondop saw them go down to a 1-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic.

The Glovers more than matched their hosts in the first half but were indebted to goalkeeper Ollie Wright who pulled off some fine saves throughout the match until Fondop’s header beat him with eight minutes remaining.

In the dying seconds of the game, Yeovil felt they were denied a penalty after Morgan Williams went flying inside the box, before manager Mark Cooper was shown a red card from the utterly inconsistent and baffling referee, Paul Marsden.

Here’s how Dave saw it from his view inside Boundary Park….

First half

The opening ten minutes appeared an exercise in both sides finding each other out. Glovers’ keeper Ollie Wright made a good claim off the head of Mike Fondop and at the other end both Matt Worthington and Sam Pearson heavily involved. 

The clearest cut opportunity for either side came on 13 minutes when Oli Hammond burst forward  but dragged his shot wide of goal.

Five minutes later, a short corner routine caught out the Yeovil defence and James Norwood’s effort from inside the area was denied by a smart save from Wright.

There was a worrying moment around the 20-minute mark when Morgan Williams needed an extended period of treatment after what looked to be an off-the-ball incident. He was very politely referred to as ‘soft’ by those lovely folks in the home end of Boundary Park.

They had a very different opinion of what looked to be a high boot from Frank Nouble as he challenged Ogle. The referee, who managed to make himself unpopular with both sets of fans within the opening 20 minutes, shared the home fans’ opinion and gave out the game’s first yellow card on 26 minutes to the Yeovil forward.

Wright was forced in to another fine stop on 35 minutes when Fondop rose highest inside the penalty area to power a header which the young keeper did superbly to push out. Three minutes later it was Josh Lundstrum (brother of Jon) who forced a stop of out the on-loan Southampton man.

There’s been a lot of questions about “online abuse” of Wright from the Huish Park media corps recently, but even his biggest critic could not question he earned his pay check for his performance in the first half.

Yeovil’s best chance of the opening 45 minutes came with the final move of the half. Great link-up play between Nouble and Pearson set the latter free to hit an angled shot which was headed away by Joe Raglan.

The better chances had undoubtedly fallen to the home side, attacking their own supporters in the first half, but Yeovil had caused the Oldham backline problems and more than deserved to go in level at the break.

Half time: Oldham Athletic 0 Yeovil Town 0

Second half

Dolan forced another smart stop out of Wright before on 63 minutes another bit of good link-up play between Nouble and Jarvis put Worthington in on goal. He tried to barrel his way through defenders when maybe just swinging a boot at it would have had more effect.

Brett McGavin was introduced on 63 minutes replacing Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, and seven minutes later new loan signing Ciaran McGuckin replaced Jarvis. It had been another hard-working display from the frontman who should really donate his shirt to the Oldham defence who clear wanted to take it off him all game. That said, he gives as good as he gets.

The move saw us switch to wing-backs (yes, wing-backs) with Bernard moving in to the middle while Pearson and Whittle took up the wing-back positions.

The breakthrough came eight minutes from time and it was that man Mike FONDOP again. Another good cross from Ogle found him in the middle and he headed powerfully past Wright. That’s four goals in three games against us now.

Boundary Park finally found its voice and the Oldham players responded with substitute Jes Uchegbulam having an effort tipped over by Wright.

As happened in the first half, the best opportunity of the second half fell for Yeovil with five minutes of eight added on. McGavin’s shot from the edge of the box was blocked.

But the biggest drama came in the dying seconds.  First there was a tangle between Latics’ keeper Matthew Hudson and Morgan Williams which led to the former going to ground whilst the latter grabbed the ball to set up a corner. From the resulting flag kick, there was scrum inside the Oldham penalty box saw Morgan Williams go flying inside the box. The visitors’ bench flew up and within seconds referee Paul Marsden was showing Mark Cooper a red card.

It was impossible to tell from the angle the away end was at, but the view from the Oldham home end, see tweet below, puts it firmly in the ‘seen them given’ category.

You’ve seen them given, but unlikely that ref was going to give us anything today. #YTFC https://t.co/IYnSyTtNDh

— Gloverscast 🎙⚽️💚 (@gloverscast) September 21, 2024

As I mentioned in the first half, the man in black made himself unpopular with both sets of fans within minutes of the game starting, but the entire match was scarred by some  utterly inconsistent and at times baffling decisions for both sides.

When the final whistle blew, it’s fair to say Gloverscast Rule 1 (all National League referees are sh*t, just live with it), was in tatters amongst the travelling fans.

Full time: Oldham Athletic 1 Yeovil Town 0

Match Details

Venue: Boundary Park
Date: Saturday 20th September – 15:00

Competition: National League Premier

Pitch:  Literally like a carpet 
Conditions: Dry with a blustery wind

Attendance:  5,411 (210 away supporters)

Scorers: Mike Fondop 82 (0-1)

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Frank Nouble 26,
Oldham Athletic: Charlie Raglan 32, Mark Kitching 90+5, Matthew Hudson 90+8

Referee: Paul Marsden

Yeovil Town (4-2-3-1)

Substitutes:  Dom Bernard (for Michael Smith, 51), Brett McGavin (for Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, 63), Ciaran McGuckin (for Aaron Jarvis, 69), Jordan Young (for Sam Pearson, 81), Finn Cousin-Dawson (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Oldham Athletic: Matthew Hudson, Reagen Ogle, Mark Kitching, Manny Monthe, Josh Lundstrum, Mike Fondop, Tom Conlon, Joe Raglan, Jake Caprice (for Jes Uchegbulam, 55), Oli Hammond (for Callum Dolan, 55), James Norwood (for Joe Garner, 73).

Substitutes (not used): Scott Moloney, Liam Hogan, Shaun Hobson.