DINO SLAMS MISFIRING FRONTMEN
OLDHAM head coach Dino Maamria could not hide his frustration after his shot-shy forwards were unable to make a telling impact during a home draw with fellow strugglers Leyton Orient.
David Jones hit a post with an 88th-minute free-kick, but after winger Jonny Smith had put the hosts in front in the second minute, the pressure in the second half that followed Jordan Maguire-Drew’s 25th-minute equaliser failed to yield three points.
“The players gave it absolutely everything they have got, but we came up short,” said Maamria.
“We have got to be honest about it and look at the squad we have. We are trying our hardest here to find a team that is going to score goals and win football matches.
“We are not scoring enough goals. We only have three centreforwards, Desire Segbe Azankpo, Scott Wilson and Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro, who started today and was tremendous for the 80 minutes he played until his legs went a little bit, which is understandable. Desire and Scott need to do a lot more.
“It forced me to put Jonny Smith up front as he has got threat – as he showed with his goal. My front line need to do a lot more. We put a lot of great balls into the box and I wish I had been playing at centre-forward as we would have been scoring goals.”
Oldham, whose supporters held a pre-match protest against the regime of owner Abdallah Lemsagam, had their spirits lifted when Smith opened the scoring, racing clear to slot home left-footed. The visitors levelled when Maguire-Drew bundled home after his initial shot from Lee Angol’s low cross had been saved by Oldham goalkeeper Zeus de la Paz.
In the second half, Oldham’s debutant midfielder Jones forced Sam Sargeant into a sharp low save to his right. Home sub Filipe Morais flashed a shot wide and David Jones was unlucky to see his 20-yard free-kick cannon off the far post.
Orient’s interim head coach Ross Embleton said: “It won’t be one we will all remember in terms of the quality of the game. It was one of the worst games of football I have ever seen. So to come away from a poor game with a poor performance yet a point on the road, we have to be happy.
“The start summed us up. We looked sluggish and to a degree I take some responsibility for that as we played on Wednesday and I picked a familiar team. In hindsight, fresher legs might have helped us.
“At the same time, we were off the pace and it told in the way we were caught for their goal. We had no real energy or bite.
“We worked our goal well. Lee Angol did well in setting up the chance and he didn’t travel with the rest of the team due to illness, so he put his body on the line.”