Oldham Town 7-0 Cheadle Town

I knew it would be difficult but good God, not this difficult....

Not that I'm begrudging Oldham Town the victory; far from it. With the best respect to the other teams in Div 2 that have beaten us this season, Oldham Town are the best outfit that we have played this term. They're direct, quick as ferrets on the break and lethal with it.

Within the first 16 minutes of this match Cheadle were down-and-out and three goals behind. With just five minutes gone, James Curley seized on a ricochet, bore down on goal and slipped the ball under Moores. 12 minutes saw Pheby blast home from the edge of the box with Curley getting his second of the match from the penalty spot on the 16 minute mark.

Then the merciless battering stopped. The final result would ultimately prove us wrong, but for the remainder of the first half we were wishing that the match had kicked off at 8.05pm as Cheadle started to do alright. We finally got our mark on the proverbial goalscoring chances sheet on 37 minutes, but the Oldham 'keeper was brilliantly equal to Brad Fellows' power header....

...and to his free-kick that was heading for the top-corner in the 50th minute. If only the Oldham 'keeper was a bit rubbish, Cheadle would have been only 2-3 down at that point and with a decent foothold in the game but football, like life, is full of "if onlys".

If only Darren Scanlon wouldn't have turned home from inside the box on 61 minutes. If only Stuart McGill wouldn't have cracked home from the edge of the box just eight minutes later. If only Curley wouldn't have latched onto a through ball on 77 minutes and slotted home for his hat-trick. If only McGill wouldn't have rolled home with five minutes of the game remaining...then this could have turned out so, so different for Cheadle(!)

Hilarious, aren't I? Well, if I wasn't a bit light-hearted after a 0-7 thrippling then you'd have every right to enrol me at the Heather Mills School of Sheer Lunacy. You may beat us by a cricket score, but you'll never beat our spirit (can you hear the inspirational music?) for we are Cheadle Town FC and we shall march on with venturesome abandon this Saturday.

Norton. You are next. And you're gonna get it. Good style.

TEAM: Moores, Clarke, B Roberts (Brokenbrow), Cotterill, Logan, Fellows, Riley, Hussain, Myers, Seaton, Buchanan. Subs: Brokenbrow, Bennett.

Tonight's Opponents: Oldham Town

With the hullabaloo of Saturday's mildly-enjoyable chaos still fresh in the memory, the turnover of matches quickens once more with our visit to The Whitebank Stadium, home of Div 2 high-flyers Oldham Town.

Let's not kid ourselves, this will be a difficult match and we'll do very well to get anything out of it. Oldham Town are very much in the frame for the second promotion spot sitting in 4th place, four points and two games-in-hand on 2nd-placed Ashton Athletic...and they are also unbeaten at home this season.

When they came to Park Road at the end of October they took away a comfortable 3-0 victory and let's not forget our visit to The Whitebank last season where Cheadle were reduced to nine men and thumped 4-1!

After the mayhem of Saturday's match - and for the good of my blood pressure - I'll take a nice, calm and relaxing 1-1 draw. Not bloody likely, though....!

Come on Cheadle!

Cheadle Town 0-3 Oldham Town

It's two home defeats on-the-trot now for Cheadle Town as they were comprehensively beaten 0-3 at home to Oldham Town; inevitably, Darren Scanlan got on the scoresheet for the visitors.

From the opening minutes of this match it was evident that Cheadle were going to put in an effort that was much-improved from Saturday's home defeat to Leek; the tempo was high and they were putting together some neat one-touch moves resulting in a few half-chances. Things looked promising.

Oldham's equally vibrant contribution to this lively opening almost produced the goods for them on the 10 minute mark: fortunately for Cheadle, Peter Mellor was equal to a left-footed drive by tipping it over the crossbar.

Five minutes later and it was Cheadle's turn to almost open the scoring. Scott Clarke delivered a teasing cross from the right that was met by Carl Buchanan who prodded a shot against the oncoming 'keeper's chest.

Oldham goal-machine Darren Scanlan found himself clean-through on 21 minutes and would have surely buried his chance had he kept his head. No matter as Oldham went ahead six minutes later: a rasping 25-yard drive from Landregan flying past Mellor on his near post. When that goal went in, slowly-but-surely Cheadle's heads started to drop and the momentum with which they had opened this match with started to wither away.

Oldham raced further ahead on 64 minutes when Darren Scanlan netted after collecting in the box, wriggling free of his marker and planting a left-footed shot past Mellor. Ten minutes later and the game was effectively over as a contest: Curley converting a penalty after Brocky had fouled. Oldham had other chances to make this a hammering, but thankfully they were spurned.

A triple-substitution by Trevor did pay dividends with ten minutes to go as Scott Flanagan netted but, in tacit summing up of Cheadle's second-half and night as a whole, the goal was disallowed for a reason that was beyond us at the time.

This was a much-improved performance from Cheadle - particularly in the first half - but taking stock of the 90 minutes in its entirety, they were beaten fair and square. Onto Saturday....

TEAM: Mellor, Clarke (Heath), B Roberts, Smith, A Roberts, Brocklehurst (Bennett), Riley, Lindon, Myers, Buchanan, Hussain (Flanagan). Subs: Heath, Flanagan, Moore, Bennett

Tomorrow's Opponents: Oldham Town

In what will be Cheadle's last home game for nearly a month, we can only hope that the horror of last Saturday is put right as Oldham Town come 'trick or treating' to Park Road tomorrow night.

In Cheadle's favour (or not if you believe in Sod's Law) is the fact that Oldham Town don't seem to be good travellers thus far: in the two away matches that they have played, they have lost both and failed to score.

Their 7th placed in the league evidently owes much to their home form but also to the netting prowess of their goal machine, Darren Scanlon - he has already bagged 11 goals in all competitions this season.

Cheadle could do with the three points to get themselves back-on-track and also to prepare themselves for a potentially difficult November, starting with a visit to New Mills on Saturday. Anyhow, tomorrow night comes first....

Come on Cheadle!

Oldham Town 4-1 Cheadle Town

Oldham Town's rich vein of form continued apace as they defeated Cheadle comfortably at the Whitebank Stadium.

Not that Cheadle's cause was made easier by being reduced to nine men after 60 minutes of play. Scott Flanagan was the first to go during the first half when he air-headbutted an Oldham player right in front of their bench.

Up until then Cheadle were doing okay and playing the decent, hard-working football required on the mud-ridden and bog-heavy pitch. Scott Flanagan carved out a chance with just two minutes gone but just managed to scuff his shot into to keeper's arms.

Oldham were making a nuisance of themselves with their crosses all day. The first manifestation of this came on 17 minutes when a whipped cross from the right was gathered by Oldham's Scanlon; his turn-and-shot in the box crashing off the foot of the post. After Flanagan got himself sent-off on the half-hour mark, Cheadle lost their rhythm and Oldham got their noses in front and then some.

They had a goal disallowed on 35 minutes for offside but four minutes later a poked-in effort from another right-wing cross counted and it was 1-0 Oldham. Two minutes later and they were two goals to the good - Oldham piercing the Cheadle defence with a well-worked move.

Cheadle started the second half promisingly but couldn't make any of their possession count. Then, on the 60 minute mark, the roof caved in on Cheadle's day. An Oldham chance in the box resulted in the ball being blocked on the line by Adam Roberts. Unfortunately he prevented the goal with his hand; red card, Cheadle down to nine men and a penalty to Oldham.

The fact that Oldham ended up missing that penalty didn't really matter four minutes later as they went 3-0 up anyway; yet another right-wing cross was whipped in and met by a glancing header inside Mellor's far post.

Cheadle's remaining nine men kept going and got some reward for their efforts when the 71st minute brought a consolation goal. Andy Lindon holding the ball well in the box before managing to create some space for himself and blast home.

With six minutes to go and with their legs tiring with hard graft, Cheadle's nine couldn't stop an Oldham forward bursting through the defending line to drive a smart shot low into the net.

I think we'll write this one off as a bad day at the office. Positives? We scored a goal with just nine men on the pitch, it could have been a lot worse if Oldham would have taken all of their chances, Stuart Kay had an excellent game up front after being drafted in from the reserves and the effort that the nine remaining players put in was exemplary.

We've had better days. Roll on next Saturday.....

TEAM: Mellor, McDonagh, B Roberts, Cotterill, A Roberts, Brocklehurst, Smith (Hussain), Stewart, Flanagan, Kay (Riley), Lindon (Brokenbrow). Subs: Riley, Brokenbrow, Hussain.

Tomorrow's Opponents: Oldham Town

I'm hazarding an intelligent guess that this game will suffer from a frozen pitch as there's snow forecast for Oldham tomorrow, but just in case....

Oldham Town were formed as a works team in 1964 by local contractor George Dew, with the team name referencing this fact: Oldham Dew FC. In the 1982-83 season they became founder members of the NWCFL and changed their name to Oldham Town in 1985.

They have spent their entire NWCFL existence in Division Two, but that hides the true story of two denied promotions at the hands of the dreaded Ground Grading Committee; in 1994-95 they missed out on winning the Div 2 championship on the final day and actually managed to win it in 1997-98. They have been finishing in the bottom half of the table every season since.

That apart, they face our Cheadle in a rich vein of form. They reached the semi-finals of the Div 2 Trophy last weekend and give Div 1's Trafford a good 4-0 leathering in the League Challenge Cup the week before. Add to this a 2-0 home league victory over Runcorn and a 3-1 win away to Div 1's Glossop North End in the Manchester Cup and it's not hard to see why Oldham Town's manager picked up the NWCFL Div 2 'Manager Of the Month' award.

If the match goes ahead, Cheadle must hope that the 'Manager Of The Month' award "curse" strikes. Come on Cheadle!

Cheadle Town 2-1 Oldham Town

Well done, lads! As you know, we didn't go to the game so therefore we can't pass judgement on what we saw. All we can tell you is Mssrs Speed and Flanagan scored, with Oldham equalising inbetween.

See you all for the Runcorn game on Tuesday!

Tomorrow's Opponents: Oldham Town

Despite the fact that neither myself nor Polardin are able to go to tomorrow's league match, I thought I'd maintain the consistency of posting something about Cheadle Town's opponents the day before the match. So here we go: Oldham Town.

They've been around about the same length of time as CTFC. They were formed in 1964 (to CTFC's 1961) and have, again like our own CTFC, spent most of their NWCFL existence in Division Two. Alas, this hasn't been down to any mediocre seasons; they've been denied promotion twice by the ground grading committee (a common scourge of non-league teams), in 94/95 and 97/98.

As far as this season goes, they've had a bit of a slow start. They lost their opening match away to Winsford United (1-2) and then drew at home to New Mills (2-2) at their first home game of the season. They were knocked out of the FA Cup last weekend by first division Trafford (1-3) despite taking a 4th-minute lead. They got their first win of the season on Tuesday by beating Ashton Athletic 3-2 at home.

If you're going, then enjoy the game. We're sorry to be missing it.