Oldham Oust Liverpool in FA Giant Slaying

Smith celebrates as Jones despairs. Coates can't look.

Report from correspondent Jack White Year 11 All Saints

A brace from Matt Smith and a goal from Reece Wabara was enough for Oldham, as they saw off Liverpool in a physical, entertaining affair.

It all started in the 2^nd minute,  a cross from Youssouf M’Changama, who soon went off through injury, was met by the head off 23 year old Matt Smith, who out jumped Sebastien Coates and via a deflection powered his header into the back off the net, the goal really summarised the physicality of what was to come in the game. Soon after this there was a confrontation between Brad Jones and Robbie Simpson, who scored in the previous meeting between the two when Liverpool beat the Latics 5-1 at Anfield.

 Liverpool struck on the 17^th minute when Suarez picked up the ball on the left hand side and drove at the Oldham defence, attempting to play a one two pass with Daniel Sturridge, Suarez passed the ball straight off Cliff Byrne and back to himself almost as if it was deliberate before slotting the ball into the bottom left hand corner off Dean Bouzanis’ goal. Suarez then thought he had doubled Liverpool’s tally when he converted a Jordan Henderson cross before the goal was rightly disallowed for offside. The Uruguayan then linked up with Fabio Borini who back heeled his pass into the path of young Raheem Sterling who should have scored but hit his shot straight into the gloves of former Liverpool Goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis.

Oldham withheld Liverpool pressure for 15 minutes before they got their noses back in front. Smith who scored the first goal of the day, was at it again. A low cross from Reece Wabara should have been dealt with easily by Brad Jones but instead was spilt straight to Lee Croft who squared the ball straight to Smith who passed the ball into the net. Oldham went in to the half time interval leading the illustrious Premier League big boys.
  

Liverpool started the second half brightly and should have equalised but Fabio Borini could only hit his shot over the bar. The Merseyside giants’ defensive fallibility was punished again in the 48^th minute when a Carl Winchester cross was met by the head of Manchester City loanee Reece Wabara who powered his header into the bottom left hand corner off the goal via the bar.

Soon after this Steven Gerrard was brought on from the bench and the England captain almost brought Liverpool a goal back but a fantastic block from Jose Baxter stopped the Liverpool captain shot finding the bottom left hand corner of the Oldham Athletic goal.

Liverpool aimed to save their blushes. A shot from Joe Allen soon found the net after a deflection from Jose Baxter with only 11 minutes left but Oldham held on to reach the 5^th round where they will play Everton at Home.

Man of the Match: Matt Smith, used his physical stature all game till he went off through injury. Smith bullied two very physical defenders in Skrtel and Coates all game and scored a brace which proved decisive in Oldham victory on the day.

Reece Wabara powers a header towards goal

Statistics

Oldham	Team Statistics	Liverpool
3	Goals	2
2	First half goals	1
7	Shots on target	7
7	Shots off target	7
0	Blocked shots	10
2	Corners	13
8	Fouls	10
3	Offsides	4
3	Yellow Cards	1
0	Red Cards	0
61	Passing Success	75
21	Tackles	15
76.2	Tackles Success	86.7
37.6	Possession	62.4
52.8	Territorial Advantage	47.8
290	Total Passes	408
15	Total Crosses	20
181	Lost Balls	195
49.9	1st Half Possession	50.1
25.6	2nd Half Possession	74.4

LINEUP, BOOKINGS (4) & SUBSTITUTIONS (6)

Oldham Athletic

13 Bouzanis

03 Grounds

05 Mvoto

16 Byrne

23 Wabara (Booked)

04 Wesolowski

07 Croft

22 M'changama (Winchester - 10' )

10 Simpson (Booked) (Taylor - 77' )

14 Smith (Booked) (Mellor - 84' )

20 Baxter

Substitutes

01 Cisak

02 Brown

26 Winchester

06 Tarkowski

28 Sutherland

29 Mellor

19 Taylor

Liverpool

01 Jones

16 Coates

37 Skrtel

47 Wisdom (Gerrard - 55' )

49 Robinson

14 Henderson

24 Allen

31 Sterling (Booked) (Shelvey - 72' )

07 Suarez

15 Sturridge

29 Borini (Downing - 55' )

Substitutes

42 Gulacsi

23 Carragher

08 Gerrard

19 Downing

21 Lucas

33 Shelvey

30 Suso

Ref: Probert

Att: 10,295