Ritchie: "Not even a whimper"

Mar 31 2008 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ANDY RITCHIE watched Town capitulate at the scene of some of his greatest moments as a player and admitted: “We didn’t even put up a whimper.”

While the Oldham fans in a 5,637 crowd roared as four goals flew in, former Latics striker and manager Ritchie and his players came in for fierce criticism from some of the 1,095 Town supporters present.

“We were lucky to get away with four and I’m disappointed for the fans,” said Ritchie, whose side dropped down to 14th in League I.

“We had an outside chance of the play-offs and we needed to cling to it. But that performance was disgraceful and embarrassing and the players should be ashamed of themselves.

“The ironic thing is we should have been one up before they scored (in the seventh minute). Andy Booth should have put one in, and from that point, our heads dropped. I couldn’t believe some of the things that were going on.”

Looking back at the previous week’s 3-2 win at Bristol Rovers, Ritchie added: “I can’t believe how we can go from black to white in such a big way. There’s no middle ground.

“Nobody really played well out there. There were a lot of individual errors and our decision-making was so far off the mark it’s untrue.”

Town, who have now lost 20 out of 40 league games, have six to go, starting with Saturday’s home derby against promotion-chasing Doncaster.

“A lot of players are playing to stay at Huddersfield,” added Ritchie.

“There are quite a number who have to impress between now and the end of the season.

“We’ve been far too up and down and we need people who are consistent.

“We are looking at everything at the moment and we’ll be sorting things out in the coming weeks.

“It’s disheartening to see your team play like that but it doesn’t diminish the enthusiasm I have for the job or my determination to get the club where we want to be.”

Oldham manager John Sheridan, whose side are ninth, said: “It was an excellent performance from start to finish. We dominated the game and should have scored more. The only disappointment was their goal.”