AWAY THE GAS
BY DARREN STOBBS
Oldham Athletic away was soon upon us after Cambridge United last Saturday and we left at 1:10pm from The Mem, heading north, on a full Supporters club coach.
After battling through the usual traffic near the M5/M6 interchange, we stopped at Sandbach services for 45 minutes and then, after enduring more traffic jams, we arrived at Boundary Park for 6.00pm.
In past seasons I have headed to the nearest pub, a Brewers Fayre establishment. However, this was shown as ‘permanently closed’ on the way to the ground. More 
research found that ‘The Greyhound Inn’ was only five minutes further in the other direction.
This was a traditional pub with seating for drinking as well as for food. The local bitter beer by J.W.Lees (Manchester’s oldest brewery) was priced at £4.70p. The pub also had a friendly bulldog resident, who didn’t seem too pleased to be banished upstairs, having wanted to be made a fuss of in the bar area!
We set off to the ground and once inside, I sampled a meat and potato pie, which you normally can’t go wrong with in this part of the country. However, it turned out to be a pretty poor choice, with the overdone pastry and lack of filling. At £4.70p it’s about the average now, but our friend was still convinced to try one despite our warning!
On to kick off and with prior news of Mola and Forde still unavailable and Akhamrich on the bench, I couldn’t help thinking that we would have a difficult match ahead of ourselves. In our situation we need all our best players on the pitch, to get through this difficult period.
The quickest goal of the season involving Rovers was soon to happen, as a
wonder strike from outside the box, in off the post, made it 1-0 to Oldham after only 35 seconds.
Despite having numerous efforts throughout the match, including three headers over the bar, and also Luke Thomas blazing over from close range, we were there to be punished.
Oldham were then given a penalty for handball by Joel Senior. The resulting penalty was well saved by Brad Young but the Rovers players failed to react first and the rebound was put in for 2-0.
My own Man of the Match was Tommy Leigh. He was at the heart of our forward play and looked comfortable on the ball, creating many chances and bringing players into play.
ATTENDANCE: 6,256 included 378 Rovers supporters
Despite Steve Evans mentioning on the radio of it being a good performance, that would have been challenged by quite a number of the 378 Gasheads who made the long journey on this cold Tuesday evening to Greater Manchester.
I myself wasn’t impressed and despite the effort being there, we were well short of the quality needed. Also hearing the comments on Radio Bristol on the way home suggested that the viewers back home were not happy either.
There is that saying that in the closing stages of the season ‘every game is a cup final’. In these situations, this phrase couldn’t be truer. For the ones that maybe thought we weren’t in a relegation scrap, they are now thinking the same as other fellow Gasheads already thought.
We have 14 games left, which sounds a lot, but they will come thick and fast now, with huge games against the likes of Shrewsbury, Crawley, Barrow and Harrogate on the horizon.
We left Oldham at 9:50pm and stopped for 15 minutes on the way back, also having to take a couple of frustrating diversions off the motorway due to roadworks. We got back at The Mem at 1:50am.
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