I'll go player-by-player and then offer some thoughts...
Smith - 7/10, excellent save at 1-0 and generally solid.
Eardly - 5/10, decent first half, but part of the most brittle defence in living memory.
Zakuani - 5/10, battled OK and did the "head it, kick it" ugly stuff well but as above. Brittle.
Nyatanga - 4/10, inability to concentrate makes him a liability.
Buchanan - 5/10, showed reasonable endeavour but the winner was down his side, again. Left way too exposed by whoever was supposed to be playing left mid, again.
O'Toole - 6/10, most influential midfielder. Popped up with a deserved goal. Lackluster with his passing.
M Taylor - 3/10, game passed him by. Should've been hooked at half time. Lucky not to be given a red card.
Boateng - 5/10, strong and physical. Went missing for long periods. Appeared to be playing right wing for some of the game, bizarrely.
Wylde - 4/10, didn't do anything to suggest he's anything more than a L2 player in L1.
M Smith - 5/10, worked hard & won lots of flick-ons & knock downs. Doesn't look like he knows how to score. Another L2 player in L1.
K Anderson - 4/10, went missing for long spells and fluffed a 1 on 1.
Subs:
Richards - not sure he touched the ball other than for the goal?
McCourt - ran around a lot and made a few tackles.
Beautyman - lived up to his "Invisibleman" nickname.
Justin Edinburgh - 5/10, appeared to ditch the reasonably stable diamond for a flat 4-4-2 first half, resulting in Oldham running through us at will. Seemed lost with how to deal with it, ended up with O'Toole being the only midfielder who ended the half in the same position as they started it. Deserves credit for making proactive changes with time to spare last night. 16 goals conceded in 8 games shows where he's failing.
Overall - Oldham were deserved winners. Yes, we should've scored 2-3 goals in the first half but Oldham always looked threatening and by far the sharper team. In fact I'd go so far as to say Oldham were more willing to do the ugly stuff and throw themselves in front of blocks to get the job done. In the wider picture of the relegation scrap, I'm not confident that we've got enough nous about us to graft out 3-4 wins and see this through.
A fair assessment, Clarkey. As for relegation, I honestly wasn't worried, even going into last nights game, because I felt we'd showed
enough under JE to drag ourselves higher up the table. There is more than enough quality in that squad to keep us in League 1. However, too many players went missing again last night, and that'll be what it comes down to in the end. We better hope that was just a blip, because if the always touted
'new gaffer enthusiasm' has begun to wane, then we'll be right in it.
Personally, I still believe we'll be alright. I just hope that, come the final few weeks of this season, we are well clear of the danger zone.