Crawley Town v Oldham Athletic preview: Reds much-improved against Scunthorpe - can they build on that against the Latics?

Oldham travel to The People’s Pension Stadium on Easter Monday in what was the last fixture fans were able to attend with no Coronavirus restrictions last season.
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That ended in a 3-0 win for Crawley and they’ll be looking to replicate not only that but also the 3-2 win they claimed at Boundary Park earlier in the season.

Former Crawley boss Harry Kewell was in charge of Oldham that day but since then has left Oldham and Keith Curle has taken charge. Oldham do tend to chop and change managers, with Kewell being the longest serving out of their last 13 managers prior to him, despite only completing 41 games.

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Jordan Tunnicliffe was on the bench against Scunthorpe - could he be back in the starting line-up against Oldham?Jordan Tunnicliffe was on the bench against Scunthorpe - could he be back in the starting line-up against Oldham?
Jordan Tunnicliffe was on the bench against Scunthorpe - could he be back in the starting line-up against Oldham?

Curle will have a difficult task impressing Oldham’s owners who have come under a lot of pressure from the Oldham fan base due to their poor running of the club. On the pitch hasn’t been fantastic either for the Latics with them sitting in the bottom half of the table.

They’ve managed to build a big enough gap between them and the relegation zone that they should be safe unless they have a very poor run in.

Despite being low down in the table Oldham are one of the league's top scoring teams but their issues come at the back with them conceding more goals than anyone else in League Two.

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They have had many high scoring encounters this season but they usually end up on the wrong end of the result with a severe lack of defensive stability.

This may work in Crawley’s favour as they are now two games without a goal following Friday’s 0-0 draw at Scunthorpe. It was a much improved display from Crawley, after disappointing performances against Carlisle and Port Vale, but they couldn’t clinch all three points.

However, Crawley did play some good football throughout the course of the game and were the better side.

The injury list has been a nightmare for the Reds with fixtures coming thick and fast it’s been a relentless period but they were boosted by the return of Jordan Tunnicliffe being on the bench on Friday and he may be ready for a start on Monday should he be selected.

Ending a run of poor performances with a clean sheet is a good start for Crawley and they now have a platform to build on and pick up a win to help them have a good end to the season.

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