Dino Maamria feels delayed kick-off helped Oldham against Bradford

Posted Sunday, February 02, 2020 by PA

Oldham boss Dino Maamria felt his side used a delay to kick-off to their advantage after sweeping aside a poor Bradford outfit 3-0.

Zak Dearnley took advantage of a Bantams defensive mishap to give Oldham an early advantage before Jonny Smith doubled their lead.

Mohammed Maouche added a third before the break as Bradford dropped out of the play-off positions and Oldham recorded back-to-back wins.

Kick-off was delayed until 3:30pm at Boundary Park after an advertising board became partly dislodged and had to be removed.

And Latics boss Maamria felt the winning margin could have been greater as he revealed how they dealt with the pre-match disruption.

He said: “I thought the way we started the game was tremendous. I think the team keeps growing in confidence and belief.

“I think we had 26 shots today and I think they got away with 3-0.

“I can’t believe in the second half we didn’t score more goals but that’s not a lack of effort because their keeper made some unbelievable saves and the ball didn’t fall for us. But as an attacking threat as a team, we were outstanding.

“We chilled out and watched a bit of TV, and then I spoke to them at the right times to make sure that we’re focused on the game in that first half. We did that, it could be a distraction sometimes, but we used that for our advantage.”

When the action started, Bantams defender Anthony O’Connor slipped after 10 minutes and Dearnley finished coolly past Richard O’Donnell.

The Latics doubled their lead after 20 minutes when Gevaro Nepomuceno teed up Smith on the edge of the box and he curled in a delightful shot.

A commanding Latics first-half and a miserable one for the Bantams ended when Maouche slipped in behind the Bradford defence after a flick on to nutmeg O’Donnell for Oldham’s third.

And after seeing his side be three goals down at the break, Bantams boss Gary Bowyer admitted he was stunned.

He said: “I’m in complete shock, stunned, it’s unrecognisable. We started alright, there was nothing in the game, and then one slip and it ends up in the back of your net.

“It’s a slip, it’s not done on purpose, but the manner in which we then went about it after that was the stuff that’s stunned me, because it wasn’t recognisable.

“The manner of the second goal, we lose the ball and we lose a header on the halfway line which is just too soft and then you show them videos and talk about the lad’s strengths about cutting in and hitting it with his left and it goes in and he goes and does exactly that.”