Latics leave Wednesday worried

A second successive defeat to League One opposition has rang alarm bells for Wednesday less than a fortnight before the new season kicks off. The Owls followed up Saturday's shock 3-0 loss at Port Vale with another inept display as Oldham Athletic, managed by former Owl John Sheridan, ran out 2-0 winners at Boundary Park.

Assistant Manager Russ Wilcox was the man in charge tonight with Brian Laws overseas on a secret striker scouting mission. The starting XI was a strong line-up with just Liam McMenamin and Mark Beevers from the Academy.

And while Laws is off in search of a new number nine he may wish to consider his defensive options heading into the new campaign after another calamity of a performance at the back. An error between Lee Bullen and Glenn Whelan after just ten minutes allowed The Latics to take an early lead. Craig Davies pounced for the home side despite the goal line efforts by McMenamin to clear the ball.

Chris Brunt's stray pass allowed the home side a great scoring chance after 30 minutes but this time keeper Lee Grant denied Davies' shot after Michael Ricketts has supplied the chance.

Wednesday were forced into a change before the break as Deon Burton hobbled off after a strong challenge, Marcus Tudgay replacing him. A second goal for Oldham, this time by Ricketts, minutes before the break ensured there were a further six changes made by Wilcox after half-time.

Young winger Rocky Lekaj almost made an immediate impact after coming on for Chris Brunt but his header lacked power.

The Owls struggled to put Athletic under any real pressure throughout the second period but continued to look frail defensively. After 60 minutes Bullen had to charge down another shot by Davies, while a close range save by Grant and goal line clearance by Kenny Lunt kept the defecit at two.

It was another bad night for The Owls with worrying signs for the season opener at Ipswich, now just ten days away. Before then though Wednesday host Birmingham City at Hillsborough on Saturday, in what is Wednesday's only home pre-season fixture.

Russel Wilcox post match comments: "It's worrying times to be honest, just ten days before the start of the season. If we go to Ipswich in that shape we are in serious problems." "I won't make excuses because it wasn't good enough tonight but sometimes when you are playing against a League One side they are going for it big time because Sheffield Wednesday is a massive scalp." "Teams are not having to work hard enough against us at the moment. Hopefully we are getting these problems out of the way now, we would sooner have them now than at Ipswich and there are still ten days to work on these things."