Micky Mellon, the manager of Oldham Athletic, makes last-minute arrangements

Sports

By Samuel Onoja On Aug 5, 2025

Micky Mellon, the manager of Oldham Athletic, makes last-minute arrangements

In a number of respects, Micky Mellon was hesitant to reveal too much.

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Oldham Athletic had a strong preseason defensive record and was only breached once, in their final friendly match against Bradford City at Boundary Park.

A scheduled meeting at Curzon Ashton on Tuesday night was canceled due to illness and injuries in the camp, which made it wiser to err on the side of caution rather than take a chance.

Mellon has seen enough of his players, albeit in a more shortened preseason than usual, to have a good idea of what to expect if he can get as many of the Saturday casualties and absentees back for this weekend. The main event begins with an opening day trip to MK Dons.

There are also targets in the world. There are no assurances that a striker will be found in Buckinghamshire, but Mellon would love to have one in place before the season begins.

Against Graham Alexander’s League One newcomers, Oldham had to wait an hour for their first attempt on goal and have only scored in one of their preseason friendlies.

Mike Fondop, the highest scorer from the previous season, placed his signature to it. Although summer acquisition Jack Stevens had been in space to his right, screaming for a pass that never came, he scuffed it and watched it roll to the keeper, much to his own annoyance.

As Mellon made adjustments to the lineup and players, Stevens had recently joined Fondop as a strike partner.

Before the first game, Mellon did not reveal a lot of his hand. After bringing in substitutes in the second half, the Latics, who had started 4-1-4-1, changed to their most common shape of the previous season, 3-5-2.

The Oldham manager was able to use Jake Leake, a left-back, as a left-sided center half as a result. Since he is now limited to 22 outfield players according to EFL regulations, that is the other crucial area that the manager is eager to bolster as soon as possible in order to, in his words, cover all eventualities. Leake was guaranteed to be versatile in both roles, which is advantageous.

As soon as Stevens joined Fondop up front, he was knocked down and replaced by play-offs goal hero Joe Garner, so he never really had an opportunity to show what he could do with him.

Shortly after, Barnsley summer acquisition Stephen Humphrys of Oldham gave Bradford the lead.

Mat Hudson received assistance with his forceful blow, but it was insufficient to stop it.

Mellon stated that some fine-tuning was required because pre-season training was included into pre-match preparations.

“We know we still have work to do, probably some fine-tuning and some tempo work in the last third that we need to improve on, but overall we look good,” the Latics manager stated.

In order to generate the movement we want, we’ll be applying what we learned (against Bradford) and attempting to be a little more clinical and slick in the latter third.

Both managers, I believe, would agree that the preseason was ordinary. After that, we’ll have some questions that we hope to address during the week as we prepare for Saturday’s season opener.

“We’re working hard to try to accomplish a couple things, and we’ll see if we can finish them this week. However, we will be prepared for the weekend. We’ll be prepared, so there won’t be any justifications.

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