05 September 2020

Harry Kewell hails Oldham display in cup cruise against Carlisle

05 September 2020

Boss Harry Kewell saluted a ‘fantastic’ performance from his Oldham team as his first game in charge ended in a 3-0 Carabao Cup win against Carlisle.

Debut goals from Ben Garrity, Bobby Grant and Conor McAleny handed Oldham a thoroughly deserved success at Boundary Park as they cruised into the next stage of the competition.

Former Crawley and Notts County boss Kewell said: “That was a fantastic effort, all the players played exceptionally well.

“It was a tough test for us, Carlisle are a tough team, but we dealt with everything they threw at us and fully deserved to win.

“Carlisle looked a bit overwhelmed at times but this was a real challenge for us.

“The players dealt with that challenge really well.

“It’s all about getting that winning mentality going here now.

“That’s not an easy thing to do but I know the players are capable of working on that and turning it into a real positive.

“We’re all happy of course, we’ve got the job done, but we can’t look too much into the future at this early stage in the season.

“It’s really important to try and get a run going in the Carabao Cup but more importantly it’s about taking it game by game.

“We had a dangerous two-nil lead for a long time here but we coped with that really well and it’s been a terrific day.”

Oldham dominated the first period at Boundary Park.

Grant floated over a free-kick, leaving an unmarked Garrity to routinely head home after 29 minutes.

Grant then grabbed his debut strike eight minutes later, slotting home from 18 yards.

Cameron Borthwick-Jackson thumped the crossbar just ahead of the break before McAleny wrapped up victory shortly before the end when he drilled home low under the body of keeper Paul Farman.

Disappointed Carlisle boss Chris Beech criticised some of his side’s defending.

He said: “The first two Oldham goals were quite ridiculous from our point of view.

“When you’re competing in a 100 metre race you just can’t be giving someone 50 metres start.

“The players have to take full responsibility following a performance like that. It just wasn’t good enough.

“You just can’t give away goals in that manner and expect to come away with anything.

“Oldham looked okay and gave us a few problems in the first half but we threw it away and at two-nil behind at half-time you know you’ve got a mountain to climb.

“We’ve still got plenty to work on, clearly, and it’s still early days yet.

“We’ve got to get back on the training pitch and put the work in.

“It’s a hugely disappointing result of course but there still wasn’t that much between the two teams for large parts of the game.

“We just have to get this result out of our system as quickly as possible and look forward to Cambridge next weekend.”

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