WILD BUNCH
Oldham gladiators wrestle Ranieri out of Cup
GIVE him the job now. There’s no way Pete Wild can remain Oldham caretaker manager after this.
Callum Lang left Craven Cottage the hero, scoring a late winner to write another chapter in this competition’s rich history of giantkillings.
But truth be told, they were all heroes. True gladiators.
No- one more so than Wild. Stepping into the breach after the Boxing Day sacking of Frankie Bunn, the Latics interim boss left the safety of his role in the academy for a crack at the top job.
He who dares wins. After three wins on the spin and yesterday’s euphoria, if owner Abdallah Lemsagam fails to make the appointment permanent, there’s simply no justice.
Of course, the Fulham triumph might be the best it gets for the 33- year- old. But surely he’s earned the right to find out.
‘ I’m the proudest man in Oldham, along with the 4,000 fans who came down,’ said Wild. ‘This means a lot to me and my family, to give something back to the town.’
If Wild thought yesterday was a whirlwind, then he hasn’t seen anything yet. Afterwards, he was whisked to the Match of the Day studios.
This may turn out to be a mere five minutes of fame. But in Oldham, the local lad has etched his name into folklore.
If he gets his wish of drawing Manchester United in the fourth round then Wild could become an all- time Oldham legend. ‘I want United away because they ruined my childhood when Mark Hughes scored against us in the FA Cup semi-final in 1994,’ said Wild. There’s an argument to suggest yesterday’s win doesn’t quite match up to the euphoric runs of 1990 and 1994, when they twice fell at the semi-final stage to Manchester United. But you’d struggle to convince the frenzied away support of that at the full-time whistle. Pure joy, pure ecstasy. The FA Cup is dead? Don’t be silly. As for Fulham, this was another disaster in what has been a calamitous season. For Claudio Ranieri, the tie afforded his side momentary respite from their Premier League struggles. With that in mind, he made six changes from the team that lost to Arsenal on New Year’s Day, fringe players Neeskens Kebano, Floyd Ayite and Luciano Vietto given a chance to stake their claim. They all failed miserably. ‘ The players involved missed their chance,’ said Ranieri (left). ‘I wanted to see the players who don’t play so frequently, but I didn’t see the desire, the passion that Oldham players had.’
Fulham were poor while brilliant Oldham executed Wild’s gameplan to a tee in this heartstopping game.
When Denis Odoi put the hosts ahead seven minutes after the break, the fairytale looked off. But what followed proved why the FA Cup is the world’s greatest cup competition.
Oldham were awarded a penalty in the 75th minute when Ryan Sessegnon hauled down Peter Clarke. Bournemouth loanee Sam Surridge stepped up to spark pandemonium in the away end.
But if that was dramatic, it was nothing compared to what happened next. Fulham were awarded a penalty in the 82nd minute, Christopher Missilou appearing to have tripped Tom Cairney. Oldham’s players were furious, insisting the midfielder had dived. TV replays suggested they were right. There looked little or no contact.
Yet, despite the incident being referred to VAR, the penalty stood. Amid the chaos, Cairney was replaced by Aleksandar Mitrovic, on his first home appearance since his lost argument with Aboubakar Kamara over penalty-taking duties which ended with a spot-kick miss against Huddersfield.
The Serbian’s first involvement was to take the penalty but, incredibly, his effort was saved by Daniel Iversen.
And then, the unthinkable happened. Lang had no right to beat Maxime Le Marchand to Gevaro Nepomuceno’s 88th- minute cross. But he did, heading past Marcus Bettinelli.