Oldham Athletic manager Lee Johnson says singing fans can make the difference in Tuesday’s visit from Coventry City as the League One side look to remain unbeaten.
Oldham have gone 11 games without defeat in all competitions – in stark contrast to Coventry, who are without a win in seven.
The Latics’ good run of form has seen home attendances steadily rising and a ‘feel-good factor’ steadily building – as demonstrated by the 1,000 travelling fans to Chesterfield on Saturday.
“Everyone is enjoying it at the moment,” he said.
“We are very appreciative of all the fans that come in and we are appreciative when you tell your mate to come along because that’s going to be important as well.
“I can’t stress enough how much these two games are important. This could define our season and where we are going to go so if everyone could give us one song per half that would be great. We need them for the full 90 minutes and they can tell us afterwards what they think.”
Coventry have not won in over a month and Johnson is targeting tonight’s match as a chance for his team to ‘impose’ themselves on weaker opposition.
“They are in poor form at the moment for them but we need to go for the jugular on games like this,” he said.
“That’s not just our players and that’s our fans as well,” he said.
“In this division you get injuries to key players and it affects your team. Coventry have a very good youth academy there, a great manager and some good players but you need to tick the boxes in League One,” continued Johnson.
“In the last six or seven games they haven’t managed to tick all the boxes for whatever reason and that has cost them. They have threats, big name players and young talent so it is up to us to impose ourselves on them.”
The Latics play six games over the next 20 days, and Johnson is mindful of the need to manage his players correctly.
“We have to be careful with the players,” he said.
“We are still working out a couple of players in terms of what they need. Some players may need an extra day, which there has been a lot of debate about recently. That doesn’t mean an extra day off, but it means massages, swimming pool work or yoga so we are still getting there.
“There is a fine balance and it is about the players being at their peak for match day so we have got to do everything in our power to make sure we get things right,” said Johnson.
Main image courtesy of Official OAFC via YouTube, with thanks.
