Peter Taylor happy with performance at Boundary Park as Oldham goalkeeper puts in top class display
Peter Taylor said he couldn’t believe his Gills side didn’t take all three points away from Boundary Park on Saturday as goalkeeper Mark Oxley made a string of fine saves to inspire Oldham to a 1-0 win.
The Latics number one did very well to deny Myles Weston a one on one opportunity in the first half, before making two brilliant saves towards the end of the game to deny substitutes Bayo Akinfenwa and Cody McDonald.
Gary Harkins got the decisive goal on 33 minutes when he struck from inside the box from a tight angle to beat Stuart Nelson, but the Gills stopper had very little to do for the rest of the game as the visitors continued to apply pressure and find a way through.
Speaking after the game Peter said: “I can’t believe we haven’t won to be honest; we had enough chances and a lot more chances than the opposition – their goalkeeper pulled off some wonderful saves.
“We had a couple of chances in the first half where he didn’t need to pull off a couple of saves because our finishing wasn’t good enough, but after that some of the finishing was very good and he made some good saves.
“The players didn’t get a lot of luck in front of goal and I thought we played some excellent football in the first half, not so much in the second half but we still created enough chances.
“I can’t see where Stuart has had to make saves like their goalkeeper has made saves.
“Tell me if I’m wrong but I can’t see it – in open play we were good in the first half and in terms of chances we must have edged it easily.
“I’m very frustrated that they didn’t go in and that their goalkeeper had a good game because with some of our play we could have been leading in the first half easily.
“When we played Carlisle they missed a couple of early chances but we played here today and we are the only ones who have had the real chances so I’m frustrated that we haven’t taken them.
“It’s just a shame that unfortunately for us we keep losing some frustrating goals and we give ourselves too much to do.”
With the Gills having played on Wednesday night Peter chose to bring in some fresh legs with six changes made in total, and the Manager said it was the right decision at the right time.
He said: “It was a disappointing second half during the week and the players looked extremely tired.
“If two and a half days later you are not going to take advantage of the squad then when are you going to take advantage of it?
“At the end of the day I wanted some fresh legs out there, all the players agreed with it and I think the way they played in the first half it was right and all we needed was some goals.
“It probably means now that Peter Taylor has picked the wrong team because we lost the match, but if you look at the 90 minutes I don’t think that is the case.
“If we are going to stay in this division it will be the squad that keeps us in it. Not 11 players, it’s a squad and that was the whole idea of today.
“It’s to keep everybody on their toes and make it healthy competition every time we train and play and I think the players that came in did some very good things and I have no complaints on the way we played.
“If you don’t take advantage of your squad players then you will have an unhappy camp because they will all be thinking I’m never going to play.
"They are professional footballers and they understand it, I’d love to play everybody - you have to play 11 but you have to play a fair 11.
“You have to give fresh legs a chance. We could have a practice match Monday morning with the first team against the supposed reserves and it would be a tight match.”