HOPE RESTORED FOR CUMBRIANS
CARLISLE boss John Sheridan praised his players for their powers of recovery after securing a well-deserved win at Oldham.
The Cumbrians faced Sheridan’s former club after suffering two home defeats, but they responded with a dominant dsplay.
He said: “The division is tight and you never know what results are going to bring, but it was a brilliant response after losing two home games.
“We’ve got back on the winning track and now we need to put a run together so we can move back up the table.
“This is a difficult place to come and Oldham are a good team. They are a club I want to do well because I have a lot of happy memories here and some of the lads playing for them today were my signings.
“My priority is for us to keep picking up points and I thought the difference was we took our chances and gave ourselves breathing space.
“In the first half we were very good on the counter-attack and then we had a spell leading up to the second and third goals when we played magnificently.
“I don’t like singling players out, but Kelvin Etuhu was outstanding. He was up against Dan Gardner, who is the best footballer in this division, but he kept him very quiet.”
Sheridan, who has had three separate spells as Latics manager, saw his side dominate from the start and clinch their third straight away win.
Carlisle took the lead after 21 minutes when Jerry Yates headed across goal and Hallam Hope had the easiest of tasks to nod in from pointblank range.
Ishmael Miller went close to equalising with an angled drive, but the visitors made it 2-0 after 56 minutes as Hope turned provider with a cross for Ashley Nadesan, who lashed in from six yards.
They effectively killed off the game just a minute later as Jack Sowerby collected Hope’s pass, spun away from his marker and slotted into the bottom corner.
Oldham replied in the 69th minute when Miller swept in Callum Lang’s through- ball, but defeat capped a troubled week for the Boundary Park club after reports that their players were threatening to strike over unpaid wages. Oldham had altered their system after failing to score in two games, but manager Frankie Bunn admitted: “I got it wrong. “I take responsibility for that because I tried to change things around and it didn’t come off, but we will learn from it. “We were uncertain and only looked more comfortable when we went back to the way of playing that the lads are more familiar with. “I’m not a good loser and this hurts, but it isn’t the end of the world because it’s our first poor defeat in 12 games so far this season.”