, Will Oldham Athletic be able to survive relegation?

Will Oldham Athletic be able to survive relegation?

Oldham currently occupy a relegation spot in League One but can Richie Wellens keep Latics in the division that they’ve been in for 21 consecutive years.

Oldham Athletic sit 21st in League One with a total of 33 points from 32 matches. Wellens took over the side when the club was rock bottom of the league following John Sheridan’s departure. When Wellens was appointed caretaker manager he took the side on a six game unbeaten run and guided Latics up to 14th. This run saw some of the most glamorous football that Boundary Park has witnessed in years courtesy of loan trio Eoin Doyle, Jack Byrne and Kean Bryan.

Unfortunately, after Wellens was appointed manager leading goalscorer Eoin Doyle picked up a severe injury ruling him out for months, since then Latics have failed to rekindle their form going on a 11 game winless run and dropped back into the relegation zone.

During this campaign, Abdallah Lemsagam completed a takeover of Oldham Athletic this meant Wellens had a chance to expand his squad in the January transfers window. Wellens was successful in the transfer window as he managed to resign loan duo Kean Bryan, Eoin Doyle and brought back Jack Byrne permanently for an undisclosed fee from Wigan.

Oldham got rid of Peter Clarke, Ollie Banks, Paul Green and Ryan Flynn in the window this allowed Wellens to add Ben Pringle, Wilfred Moimbe, Zeus de la Paz, Kundai Benyu, Duckens Nazon, Jonathan Benteke and Patrick McEleney to the squad to help avoid relegation but Wellens failed to bring a centre back to the club after he missed out on defender Matt Mills on deadline day.

Oldham have managed to turn their form around in their past two matches as they beat Bradford 2-1 at home which cost Stuart McCall his job and following this they went to Ewood Park backed by 2,300 supporters and drew 2-2 with promotion chasing Blackburn Rovers, giving Latics fans a reason to be optimistic about survival.

Oldham’s biggest games of the season are when they travel to fellow struggling local rivals Rochdale and Bury, two massive six-pointer matches. But they still have the likes of Wigan, Scunthorpe and Portsmouth left to play, which means Wellens has a tough task on his hands but Latics have more than enough quality in the squad to survive relegation.

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