On loan Darren Byfield is hoping that his one month deal can be extended as he is already targeting a longer stay at Boundary Park. The 32 year old much travelled striker made his Athletic debut at Northampton on Saturday and he said, "I'm looking to score a few goals straight away and get the loan extended. I haven't been playing a lot of football at Doncaster, so I was pleased to come here and I believe I can do well for Oldham. I came in pretty late so part of my debut was about working out the strengths of the other players. But it doesn't take too long - maybe about 15 minutes - to see how people are playing and where they want to run.""I thought it was a great team performance, especially because Northampton hadn't lost at home all season, and it was a debut I was pleased with. The disappointing thing was that I didn't score. I had a couple of chances and there was another one where I should have squared it to Lee Hughes. I apologised to him afterwards, but it has been a while since I scored and I got a bit excited. Even at my age that can happen, but I've got a few more games to make it up to Hughesy."
"As a striker it's no good always saying three points are the most important thing - you want to be scoring goals. That's what you are judged on, so hopefully I'll do that for Oldham. And if I have to go back to Doncaster, I want to have done my bit here. I already knew Hughesy socially because we are both Midlands boys, but I'm very pleased to link up with Hughesy here. Even though I'm 32 I can learn from him because he has played in the top flight and his movement is second to none. I like to think we caused Northampton a few problems between us, and Hughesy did great to win the penalty. He showed movement and strength, so it was everything you want from a striker."
Manager John Sheridan added, "You'd like to think they will do okay together because they both have craft in the box. I was very pleased with Darren's first game. He worked his socks off and fitted in well. He only met the other lads at the hotel before the game, which is never ideal, but his performance for the team was good. It's nice to have variation in your strikers and Darren gives us that bit of pace. He'll be an asset."