OLDHAM ATHLETIC 0, BURY 1
Yet another home loss at SportsDirect.com Park – Oldham’s Athletic’s ninth of the campaign in Sky Bet League One – as the club finds itself cast eight points adrift of safety at the foot of the table.
It is beginning to look desperate for Latics after their failure to beat Bury in a local derby.
And it had to be former loanee Leon Clarke who was the Shakers’ matchwinner – he is guaranteed a goal when he plays against Latics.
New manager John Sheridan, with defeats in his first two games, fielded a new-look strikeforce as Jonathan Forte and Dominic Poleon replaced Jake Cassidy and Rhys Murphy.
Loan signing Matt Palmer came into midfield as Latics switched from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 due to the injury to Cameron Dummigan and the shortage of right backs.
Latics made a bright start with Mike Jones and Liam Kelly fashioning openings, though Tom Pope also did so for Bury.
The deadlock was broken after nine minutes when central-defender James Wilson failed to deal with a ball over their defence as Clarke broke free and poked the ball past keeper Joel Coleman.
Clarke almost doubled the lead inside the opening quarter of an hour, but this time he was denied by Coleman, even though he was only five yards out.
Carl Winchester lifted Latics’ crowd with a 25-yard drive that was easily saved by keeper Ian Lawlor.
Bury had another great chance for a second goal as Clarke turned provider heading the ball down for Andrew Tutte who volleyed narrowly wide.
New-boy Palmer was impressing on his debut looking comfortable on the ball and providing energy in midfield.
And he almost equalised five minutes before the break when his 25-yard effort was turned over the bar by Lawlor.
Jones was a key figure and a driving force in the middle and twice in the early stages of the second half he almost conjured a leveller.
First his shot from the edge of the box was deflected for a corner an d then a free kick, in a similar place to the one against Millwall when he scored, was well saved by Lawlor.
Latics were on top territorially, but Bury were a threat on the counter as Coleman’s punch fell to Clarke, but Daniel Lafferty cleared off the line.
Winchester had another chance from distance which brought another good save from Lawlor.
Latics had a let off with 20 minutes left when Clarke set up Tutte who struck the crossbar from 12 yards.
There were shouts for a penalty when Timothee Dieng appeared to be shoved off the ball in the box, but the appeal was rejected.
Cassidy and Murphy were thrown on in pursuit of a leveller, but it was to no avail as the Shakers inflicted more home misery on Latics.