Micky Mellon was reluctant to give too much away, in more ways than one.
Oldham Athletic have had a sound defensive record in pre-season, and were only penetrated once against Bradford City at Boundary Park, in what proved to be their final friendly.
Injuries and illness in the camp led to an erring on the side of caution rather than throwing it to the wind, and a planned meeting at Curzon Ashton on Tuesday night was scrapped.
The bread and butter starts with an opening day trip to MK Dons, and Mellon has seen enough from his players – albeit in a more truncated pre-season than usual – to have more than a reasonable idea of what to expect if he can get as many of the absentees and Saturday’s casualties back as possible for this weekend.
There are targets out there too. The search for a striker remains ongoing and Mellon would prefer one in place before the campaign gets under way in Buckinghamshire, but there are no guarantees that will happen.
Oldham have scored in only one of their pre-season friendlies and had to wait an hour for their first shot on target against Graham Alexander’s League One newcomers.
Last season’s top scorer Mike Fondop put his name to it. But much to his own frustration he scuffed it and saw it roll to the keeper, while summer signing Jack Stevens had been in space to his right and screaming for a pass that never materialised.
Stevens had only just joined Fondop as a strike partner as Mellon tweaked the formation and personnel.
It allowed the Oldham boss to utilise left back Jake Leake as a left-sided centre half. That is the other key area the manager is keen to strengthen as quickly as he can in order to – as he puts it – cover all eventualities given he is now restricted to 22 outfield players under EFL rules. Versatility is favourable, and Leake was assured in both positions.
Stevens’ did not really get the chance to show what he could offer alongside Fondop, as no sooner had he joined him up front than he took a knock to the head and was replaced by play-offs goal hero Joe Garner.
Bradford took the lead shortly afterwards, through Oldhamer Stephen Humphrys, a summer signing from Barnsley.
Mat Hudson got a hand to his firm strike but it wasn’t enough to keep it out.
With the pre-season work merging into pre-match preparations, Mellon said some fine tuning was needed.
“We’ve got work still to do, we know that, probably a bit of sharpening up work and a bit of tempo work in the final third that we need to get better at, but generally we look okay,” said the Latics boss.
“We’ll be going through what we learned (against Bradford), trying to be a bit slicker and clinical in the final third, get that movement that we’re asking for.
“I think both managers would say it was a typical pre-season. We’ll come away from it with questions that we want to answer during the week and we’re building towards the first game of the season on Saturday.
“We’ll try and see maybe if we can get a few things over the line this week that we’re working hard to try and do. But we’ll be ready for the weekend. There’ll be no excuses, we’ll be ready.”
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