Blues punished for penalty miss in Oldham draw

Apr 14 2012 By Greg Burns at Adams Park

Wycombe 2-2 Oldham

IT WAS a tale of two penalties at Adams Park as Wycombe drew at home to Oldham.

Grant Basey missed a spot-kick for Wanderers to make it 3-1 before Latics striker Robbie Simpson tucked away his late penalty to earn his side a point.

It was a huge blow for Blues who looked to be heading towards a priceless win when Joel Grant came off the bench to put Wycombe ahead with 12 minutes to play.

A win would have moved them a point from safety but they head to promoted Charlton next weekend needing a win to climb out of the relegation zone.

Wanderers continued to make life difficult for themselves by conceding the first goal for the fourth game in a row.

And it was a wonderful strike by Latics midfielder Filipe Morais that broke the deadlock at Adams Park on 14 minutes.

But the Oldham man was allowed far too much space and time to eye up a long-range effort and fire his shot in off the post from 25 yards.

Wycombe were labouring but equalised from their first chance of the game 20 minutes later.

It came when Ben Strevens put in a teasing through-ball that left Oldham stopper Dean Bouzanis hesistating about whether to race out of his box or stand his ground.

And Beavon pounced on that hesistation to stab the ball into an empty net.

But Wanderers were far from comfortable with the visitors having a first-half stoppage time Shefti Kuqi goal disallowed for offside.

Another draw was pretty useless for Blues.

And the way they started the second-half showed the players knew that themselves with Beavon forcing a low save from Bouzanis early on.

But forcing the breakthrough proved frustrating.

Centre-back Leon Johnson, who replaced injured Blues skipper Dave Winfield in the first-half, came close with a half-volley after connecting with a Matt Bloomfield free-kick on 65 minutes to go before Gary Doherty glanced a header wide moments later.

Grant Basey was the next to test Bouzanis but the Oldham goalkeeper was equally to his low free-kick on 75 minutes as the home side continued to be held at bay.

That was until super-sub Grant showed the kind of skill and finish that Blues fans had hoped to see more of this season.

The wideman showed great composure to pounce on a loose ball, drop his shoulder and rifle in a left-foot shot into the bottom corner with three minutes later.

They had a gilt-edged chance to make the points safe seven minutes from time when Grant Basey sent his penalty wide after Craig Eastmond was brought down in the box.

And it was a miss that proved costly with Oldham striker Simpson showing him how it should be done when he slotted away an 88^th minute penalty of his own after being brought down by Marvin McCoy.

It was a huge blow for Wanderers who needed the win to keep their survival hopes alive.

WANDERERS: Bull, McCoy, Winfield (Johnson 35), Doherty, Basey, Eastmond, Lewis, Bloomfield, McNamee (Grant 59), Strevens, Beavon.

Subs (not used): Foster, Ainsworth, McClure.

Booked: Doherty (56 mins).

OLDHAM: Bouzanis, Lee, Diallo, Brown, Tarkowski, Morais (Bunn 86), Furman, M'Changama, Simpson, Kuqi (Marsh-Brown 71), Tounkara.

Subs (not used): Simpson, Winchester, Belezika.

Booked: None.

Att: 5,109.

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