Oldham Athletic v Crawley Town preview: Can Reds take advantage of dire situation at Latics?

Crawley picked up their first three points of the season last week with a 1-0 win over Scunthorpe United. This week they have a very good chance to build on that result as they face a struggling Oldham Athletic.
Ashley Nadesan should be back in the team for Oldham tripAshley Nadesan should be back in the team for Oldham trip
Ashley Nadesan should be back in the team for Oldham trip

The Latics have lost both of their opening league game after a promising start in the Carabao Cup with a 3-0 win against Carlisle. Since then it has been three defeats on the bounce for Oldham against Leyton Orient and Stevenage in the league and against Morecambe in the Carabao Cup.

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Oldham are also due to play Wolves U21s in the EFL Trophy the Tuesday before they match up with Crawley. It’s a familiar face managing Oldham, as Harry Kewell is taking charge of Oldham this season after being appointed in the off season.

It’s Kewell’s first job back in managing since he left Crawley for Notts County which ended in him getting sacked promptly. As we know from his Crawley days Kewell likes his sides to play out of defence and try and play good football.

This will lead to mistakes from Oldham which the Crawley strikers have to be alert to as they could intercept the ball from the defence and create a good goal scoring chance. However, it’s not just on the pitch where Oldham have problems off the pitch is looking in a very bad state.

Oldham fans are extremely unhappy with the owners and look as though they could be heading in the same direction as Bury and Macclesfield. On Monday a club statement revealed two key player, David Wheater and Gary Woods, will no longer be with the first team squad. This has caused huge concern for Oldham and it has left the club in a dire situation.

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As for Crawley, they should be looking to make the most of it and put an end to their torrid away form. It’s a horrendous run for Crawley which has seen them not pick up a win on the road for over a calendar year to August 24th, 2019.

That win was a 3-2 win against Leyton Orient and Crawley have been given a perfect chance to end that run when they travel to Oldham on Saturday. Crawley should have Sam Ashford and Ashley Nadesan back in the team after they missed out on last weekend's win over Scunthorpe through injury. Tom Nichols’ first goal in Crawley colours was the difference and he’ll be looking to keep up his good start in Crawley colours.

Crawley played the 4-4-2 formation last week instead of the 4-3-3 they played at Port Vale. If they stick to 4-4-2 it’ll be a battle for who starts between Ashley Nadesan, Tom Nichols and Ricky German as all three of them will look to stake their claim to being one of the starting strikers. With the rest of the team starting to gel Crawley should see this as a perfect opportunity to get another three points and boost confidence even further. A win against Harry Kewell would also make Crawley fans a very happy bunch as I am sure they’d be delighted to get one over on him.

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