GRAHAM FOX lives in the North West and provides this week's fan's view: Known locally as Ice Station Zebra, Boundary Park has never been one of our happiest hunting grounds.
Indeed those sat around me were mentally stretched to remember the last time we won here.
The key to winning football matches is to put the ball in your opponent's net and to do so you have to create chances.
This we woefully failed to do against the worst Oldham side I can recall, a side that is surely doomed to Divison Three next season.
But do not be downhearted. This was a much better performance than my previous outing to Vale Park on August Bank Holiday Monday, where we were just plain dreadful.
The transformation was clear to see and we were the much better side on the ball.
As a resident of the North West I can testify that winter comes early in these parts, and although the car thermometer was registering 12 degrees centigrade it was hard to believe on a cold, grey, wet and miserable Saturday afternoon.
The first half reflected the weather. It was dour in the extreme and the sizeable band of the travelling faithful had little to cheer.
The half-time team talk must have been identical in both dressing rooms. "These are here for the taking", and so the second session produced a game with much more urgency and purpose from both teams.
We deserved a point from this encounter, but failed to get it due to a lapse in concentration when the referee quite rightly played an advantage to Oldham, when our guys expected the whistle.
Having said that, there was much to applaud from our effort and clearly Colin Todd is getting it right, but with such a new and young side it is going to take time.
I would make one final comment. Oldham's man of the match was their scorer Craig Dudley, who was dismissed for a second bookable offence with minutes remaining.
What sort of outfit is it that awards such commendation to red-carded player?
In my opinion he went 45 minutes too late, for his performance on the day was absolutely disgraceful.
One might suggest that he is refocused on the fact that the game is about the ball not the man.
Take heart, STFC will get back, but maybe not this term. See you all at Meadow Lane.
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