‘It’s got to be close to clicking’, says Oldham’ Dan Ward
Dan Ward believes Oldham Athletic are entering a crucial period for the club as they look to spark their season into life.
Barring the 5-1 thrashing of Aldershot in the first home game of 2023/24 Latics have struggled, and ahead of Saturday’s trip to in-form Bromley sit 17th with just seven points from their opening eight games.
But Ward feels that a three-week run of Saturday-Tuesday fixtures will provide the perfect opportunity for them to pick up momentum in performances and results.
“There’s not going to be much time to do stuff on the training pitch but you’re just bouncing from game to game and it’s a great chance, if you win a couple, confidence is high and you’re rolling from game to game and that’s when things start to take care of themselves so hopefully that’s what we can do,” said the midfielder.
“Sometimes Saturday-Saturday can be quite long, when it’s Saturday-Tuesday it’s a quick turnaround and if you’re winning you can get that real good buzz back.
“It’s got to be close to clicking. We’re eight games in so it’s got to be.
“Hopefully these next few games we’re going to pick up some momentum.”
As well as things not going to plan for the squad so far this season, Ward has had a frustrating start to Latics life personally, having had his pre-season disrupted by a calf strain, going on to suffer a hamstring tear in the opening day defeat at Southend United.
The 25-year-old recovered well enough from his latest setback to return ahead of schedule and make his home debut at home to Dorking, after an already decimated midfield was hit further by Mark Shelton’s one-match ban for his red card at Gateshead.
And while there were positives for Ward personally, it proved to be another frustrating afternoon for Latics as they were held to a goalless draw by Marc White’s part-timers.
“I think they came and sat very deep so we had to break them down, which means you have to move the ball really quickly, which probably we struggled to at times in terms of getting into a rhythm and getting into a flow,” the former Gateshead midfielder explained.
“The heat killed the game a little bit as well. There was a low intensity because of the heat.
“But if you look at the positives we did have a lot of possession. We probably didn’t create as much as we would like but we still had opportunities – Kurt (Willoughby) had one at the end and Shez (Nathan Sheron) had one off a long-range effort from myself, and there were a couple of times when it went into Nors (James Norwood) up front and if I’d maybe made a different run I would have been in, but I’d never played with him before so it’s just getting used to that. That’s a shame from my point of view because I’ve not even played with the lads a handful of times, just a couple of times, and you’re trying to build relationships.
“Since I’ve come here I’ve never been up to speed in terms of full fitness, which has been the most frustrating thing for me in terms of coming to a new club, but I’m just looking forward now and putting everything else behind us.”
Ward says the players are all conscious of the fans’ frustration, and added: “You definitely sense it, but there’s high expectations at a big club like this.
“I knew that when I came here, I spoke to a few people who have been here before and they said if it’s going well it will be the best thing ever and if it’s going the other way it will be tough, but you’ve got to be strong and try to turn it around. You’ve got to deliver.
“We’re all trying and at the end of the day we all want the same thing, the fans, the management and players, we all just want to win games and get this club as high up as possible and do as well as we can.
“I think that’s the main thing that we’re all pushing in the right direction, and hopefully with this run of games where it’s Saturday-Tuesday for about a month hopefully we can build up some momentum and go from strength to strength from there.”
