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Oldham Athletic 3 Yeovil Town 0

Gavin Browne
18/ 2/2008

GARY McDonald’s fifth goal of the season set Latics on the way to a third consecutive home victory as they comfortably saw off Yeovil at Boundary Park.

The Scot netted the opener after 15 minutes, for his third in five games, as Athletic continued their improved home form in 2008.

While talk of a late play-off surge remains just that at the moment, 10 points from 12 at home sees them going the right way in League One.

Having seen Yeovil’s Anthony Barry drag an early effort wide of Mark Crossley’s right-hand post, the home side took the lead in clinical fashion.

After setting skipper Neal Eardley free down the right, McDonald continued his run into the area and calmly sidefooted Eardley’s pass beyond Scott Flinders.

On-loan Flinders then prevented his side from going 2-0 down with a point-blank stop from the impressive Lewis Alessandra.

The teenager again combined well with his team-mates, utilising his quick feet to bring others into play, although there were still occasions when he tried one trick too many instead of keeping it simple.

Town should have been level five minutes before half-time when they broke upfield from a Latics corner, sending substitute Jamie Peters through one-on-one against Mark Crossley.

However, the veteran stood his ground well to push the youngster’s shot away for a corner when a goal might well have changed the impetus of the game.

Injuries were to prove a headache for Town boss Russell Slade as, with Peters having replaced Nathan Jones in the first half, he then had to bring Martin Woods off five minutes into the second half.

The decision which proved the costliest though was bringing Paul Warne on for Lloyd Owusu with 20 minutes remaining.

It was nothing that Warne did; far from it, the former Latic received a standing ovation from the home crowd and was his usual industrious self.

Slade’s problem came when Athletic doubled their lead with 14 minutes remaining following a build-up which saw centre-half Scott Guyett come off with what appeared to be a fractured rib, reducing the Glovers to 10 men in the process.

Having been turned by Alessandra, Guyett was powerless to prevent Alessandra from crossing the ball and Lee Peltier from heading it into his own net.

Facing 10 men for the final quarter-hour, Latics utilised the extra space to good effect for their third goal.

Alessandra got the better of Matthew Rose and sent Deane Smalley away down the right, but although Flinders saved his shot, the rebound fell to Craig Davies who slotted home his 14th of the season.