Upon seeing the first half of Oldham's first game of the season against Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup, I thought that they woulod have no problems in achieving a mid-table finish at least in League One. They were 2-0 up, but then contrived to lose 4-2 due to a second half comeback. Despite the fact that the squad was quite thin, there were some decent players, young or experienced, but somehow they ended up in a real battle to keep their third tier status. This will also be a season remembered for a wonderful FA Cup run all the way to the 5th round beating Liverpool in a rounsing 4th round game in January. However poor Liverpool were, Oldham were superb and Matt Smith up front definitely made a name for himself. He increased his burgeoning reputation by scoring a stoppage time equaliser against Everton to force a replay which they eventually lost, but not without a fight, and their exploits won plenty of admirers in what was a superb 2012/13 FA Cup. By then though, manager Paul Dickov had left due to the team's poor league form. The sacking was justified, as their place in League One was under severe threat, in pretty much a three-way battle to stay up with Colchester and Scunthorpe. However, the decision to appoint Lee Johnson, at only 31 and recently retired from playing, ruffled a few feathers due to his age and lack of experience, especially with the club embroiled in a relegation fight. To his credit though, he kept the team up, and there is ample opportunity to build next season. There was a mix of youth and experience, Matt Derbyshire, who played in the Premier League with Blackburn and Jose Baxter the former Everton youngster both figured while experienced duo James Wesolowski and Cliff Byrne didn't play as much as the season went on. Oldham are not a club who should be worried about relegation, but it's unlikely that they'll be challenging towards the top of League One in 2013/14.
