Oldham Athletic 2 Tranmere Rovers 2

Last updated : 01 January 2005 By The Chairman

The New Years day fixture at home to Tranmere Rovers ended all square at 2-2. Griffin and Vernon got the goals for the Latics in a game played in appalling conditions. There was rain, wind and hailstones but both teams put on an entertaining and gritty performance which was never dull. The Latics could have won the game late on but Holden headed just wide.

Speaking to the official site Brian Talbot said, “I think we deserved to nick it in the finish. In fact not nick it, I think we were slightly the better side. I think that it was a harsh penalty. I thought that it was a great finish for the goal and maybe Hume should have scored after that with a good chance but if you want to look back on the game, possession-wise, I think we had much more possession than them. They had to change their system at half-time. Right at the death we were a little bit disappointed that we hadn't won the game a header from Dean Holden but at the end of the day it's a good performance against a team who are third in the League.”

“I was disappointed about the penalty because, if you can recollect it, they had about 30 or 40 seconds to take a short corner. When there's only one man out there, we're not doing our job properly to stop the short corner. And from the resulting short corner they get the penalty. It's a harsh decision but don't let them do the short corner. If they had done it quickly I would have accepted it but they must have deliberated over it. It was poor play by us and it's disappointing as I think 9 times out of 10 the referee would have played on.”

“In home games you expect certain things from players and we work hard on the training ground but they're always looking to the Manager to do everything, the decisions and play for them, I cannot. We've got a very young team and they've got to learn on the pitch. They have to make some decisions themselves to win a game of football and hopefully, as we go on, they'll learn.”