Steven Murphy

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Oldham Athletic U20
20 Nov 2028
Monday
Process

Marked for Steven Murphy

79 Edition

The Oldham Athletic Chronicle

31 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Oldham Athletic

18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Oldham Athletic

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Oldham Athletic is running low.

Player ratings

Calum Kavanagh runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Whatever happens, Oldham Athletic do not lose

12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Market

Mathew Hudson has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Oldham Athletic they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Oldham Athletic

Mathew Hudson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Words at Oldham Athletic training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luke Hannant is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Ryan Kavuma-McQueen

At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Squad

No hiding place for Calum Kavanagh

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Calum Kavanagh, and the manager let it.

In brief