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" It would worry me if we were not making chances, but we are and we're in games. It's a fine line between winning and losing and we're not a million miles away right now. but we need to get closer - and a win against Carlisle would set us on the way. We certainly need a home win on Saturday, and if we take our chances that will come.
" They've had some excellent results away from home and they seem to be better on their travels. We don't seem to be so good at home so hopefully something will change. You get bad runs and, when they come along, it is important you stick to your beliefs and eventually results will come. Every day, every week, every game is a challenge whether I have been a bricklayer, player, coach or manager and I have always met those challenges head on.
" We'll have to be patient and work hard to break them down and you can see the frustration building up in the fans. It's about time we did win at home in the league, we've drawn two and lost one since we arrived and we're going to do our best to win on Saturday. If the fans can get behind us I'm sure that win will come. Nobody has battered us, not even Hartlepool when you look at the chances we missed and the ones they took.
" We have very little scope to make changes at the moment. We need competition for places and that's not something we have right now, hopefully people can step up to the plate and show what they can do. We have some good young players, like Djeny Bembo-Leta, Phil McGrath and Kirk Millar, who've all impressed me with their performances in the Development Squad games this season.
" It is fair play to Chris (Taylor) and Pawel (Abbott) who are both playing with injuries and not able to train for the full week. Chris is having a course of injections on Mondays and it doesn't settle down until Thursday when he can start training. In an ideal world we would like to leave them out, but we are short of bodies and they are playing with injuries. I think the team bus must have run over a black cat or something like that but hopefully we'll come out the other end smiling. "
As Dave Penney has mentioned, Oldham have a plethora of injury problems ahead of tomorrow's match. Midfielder Jon Worthington is the first absentee as his ankle injury will see him only able to perhaps resume training next week. While next come left-back Joe Jacobson who is sidelined more long-term with a pelvic hernia and winger Rob Purdie who has only just returned to training after suffering a stomach injury in early pre-season. Striker Lewis Alessandra another definite absentee as he sits out the action with an ankle ligament problem.
Highly likely to play though due to Oldham's shortage of fit players are winger Chris Taylor (pelvic-muscle) and 27-year old centre-forward Pawel Abbott (groin strain), the pair taking pain-killing injections at the moment to get through games. Elsewhere though utility man Andy Holdsworth is a major doubt after picking up a knee injury in a 1-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers last Saturday, while Blackburn-loanee midfielder Nick Blackburn, like Holdsworth, has also missed training this week after he took a knock to the foot in the same match.
It doesn't stop there either for the Latics as striker Deane Smalley has had a bout of food poisoning that has slowed down his recovery from a back problem. Then finally, another player on loan from Blackburn at Boundary Park, in midfielder Alex Marrow, has been absent for some training this week through illness. But that surprisingly hasn't stopped the Latics from this week extending the loan spell of 21-year old midfielder Dale Stephens to Rochdale into a second month.
Oldham having four players on loan away from the club at the moment, Stephens being one while the other three are goalkeeper Greg Fleming, striker Chris O'Grady and midfielder Phil Ojapah. Former Gretna stopper Fleming at Dunfermline for the whole season, O'Grady, like Stephens, at Rochdale, although his spell at Spotland lasts until the New Year, and Ojapah at Conference North outfit Stalybridge until the end of this month.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Phil Gibbs from Solihull in the West Midlands, and he will be assisted down the lines by Phil Bramley from Leeds and William Smallwood from Northwich in Cheshire. Meanwhile the fourth official is Mike Denton from Todmorden on the Lancashire/West Yorkshire border.