Robert Hunter

Central Defender - Oldham Athletic U18
18 Mar 2029
Sunday
Process

Marked for Robert Hunter

56 Edition

The Oldham Athletic Chronicle

23 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Calum Kavanagh

Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65

A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Player ratings

Luke Hannant, 33, rolls back the years — 8.13

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Giacomo Gabbiani is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

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.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Oldham Athletic

4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

The terraces

Oldham Athletic supporters have found a favourite in Ryan Kavuma-McQueen

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Ryan Kavuma-McQueen has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

Market

One of our own: George Jones joins the Oldham Athletic first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. George Jones is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Robert Hunter steps up from the Oldham Athletic academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Robert Hunter has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

In brief