441 Tom Heaton

Position : Goalkeeper

Played : 2009-10  ( on  loan  from  Manchester  United )

Appearances : 12

Goals : 0

Tom  joined  in  December making  his  debut  at  home  to  Chesterfield. Tom  had  been  with  United  since  2002  but  had  never  got  past  the  bench for  them. Instead  he  had  a  string  of  previous  loan  spells  with  Swindon  (2005) , Royal  Antwerp , Cardiff  (2008-09)  and  QPR (2009).

Tom  got  off  to  a  false  start  by  conceding  three  goals  in  a  defeat  but  that  turned  out  to  be  a  one-off.  He  only  conceded  7  more  goals  and  kept  4  clean  sheets   and  didn't  finish  on  the  losing  side  again. He  was  juist  excellent  - there's  little  more  to  say.

Tom  was  a  bit  too  expensive  to  keep  so  he  returned  to  United  then  finished  the  season  with  15  games  on  loan  to  Wycombe. United  released  him  in  the  summer  and  he  re- joined  Cardiff . He  made  20  appearances  in  2010-11  having  to  miss  some  games  through  a  groin  injury.

440 Josh Lillis

Position : Goalkeeper

Played : 2009-10 ; 2010-11  ( both  on  loan  from  Scunthorpe )

Appearances : ( first  spell)  1  ;  (second  spell )  23

Goals : 0

Josh was first signed on a 7 day emergency loan in October when Kenny Arthurs was injured. He was the son of former Manchester City striker Mark Lillis who had latterly been assistant-manager of Scunthorpe. Josh came through Scunthorpe’s youth system and had made 17 appearances for them. He had previous loan spells at Notts County (5 games) and Grimsby (4 games).


Josh’s first spell was a success - a clean sheet in the 4-0 win at Bournemouth.

He came back at the start of last season for the first few months. I have to admit I wasn’t too keen on him. He could pull off some great saves but he seemed to be glued to his line and didn’t take command at corners. Scunthorpe recalled him in January ; I don’t think we’d have finished ninth if he’d stayed.

439 Marcus Magna

Position : Forward

Played : 2009-10

Appearances : 2

Goals : 0

Marcus  was  given  a  short  deal  in  November  after  turning  up  for  a  trial. The  young  Parisian  had  been  with  Stade  Laval  in  France  and  most  recently  at  Steaua  Bucharest.

Keith  Hill  signed  him  saying  he  and  Flicker  had  seen  something  they  liked  in  his  play. No  one  ever  found  out  what  it  was. He  made  a  late  substitute  appearance  at  Grimsby  where  he  looked  lively  in  a  game  that  was  already  won.  A  longer  look  at  him  in  the  game  at  home  to  Accrington revealed  his  deficiencies. He  was  fast  and  slippery  but  not  as  much  as  the  ball  after  he'd  tried  to  control  it. After  a  comically  bad  appearance  in  the  FA  Cup  replay  against  Luton  he  was  sent  on  his  way.

His  current  whereabouts  are  unknown.

438 Simon Whaley

Position : Winger

Played : 2009-10  ( on  loan  from  Norwich )

Appearances :  9

Goals : 2

Simon  arrived  in  September  and  made  his  debut  away  at  Northampton. He  was  another  product  of  Bury's  youth  scheme  making  his  debut  in  2002  and  going  on  to  make  73  appearances  and  score  11  goals. In  January  2006  he  made  a  £250,000   move  to  Preston  where  he  was  apparently  brilliant  to  begin  with  but  later  lost  his  way  under  Alan  Irvine  who  loaned  him  out  to  Barnsley  for  a  month  in  November. Although  Simon  got  back  in  the  Preston  side  he  was  transferred  to  Norwich  in  the  summer  of  2009   for  a  reported  £250,000.  Simon  started  the  first  few  games  but  was  dropped  by  the  new  manager  Paul  Lambert  after  the  Canaries' dreadful  start  to  the  season.

Simon  did  quite  well  for  us  although  you  could  tell  there  was  something  missing  from  his game , a  bit  of  confidence  or  self-belief  perhaps. He  scored  a  good  goal  on  his  home  debut  against  Hereford  but  his  influence  in  subsequent  games  was  peripheral.

After  finishing  his  two  months  with  us  he  went  straight  back  out  to  Bradford  making  6  appearances  and  scoring  once. When  Bradford  declined  to  extend his  loan  Simon's  contract  at  Norwich  was  cancelled  by  mutual  consent. He  then  signed  a  short  deal  with  Chesterfield  scoring  once  in  6  games. Last  season  he  was  briefly  on  Doncaster's  books  but  never  got  off  the  bench  then  he  had  a  brief  spell  with  Burton  in  March  making  3  appearances  before  becoming  a  free  agent  once  again.

437 Dale Stephens

Position : Midfield

Played : 2009-10  ( on  loan  from  Oldham )

Appearances : 6

Goals : 1

Dale  was  signed  to  give  us  some  midfield  cover  while  Ciaran  Toner  was  injured. He  started  out  at  Bury  making  his  debut  in  February  2007. The  following  season  he  had  a  6  game  loan  spell  at  Droylsden  and  in  the  summer  he  decided  to  leave  Bury  for  Oldham  having  made  9  appearances  and  scored  one  goal. However  Dale  (what  a  great  name !)  hadn't  made  any  first  team  appearances  for  the  Latics  when  he  came  to  us.

Dale  first  appeared  as  a  sub  in  the  game  at  Morecambe. He  looked  pretty  tidy  and  then  scored  a  superb  third  goal  to  complete  the  comeback  from  0-3  down, hitting  it  from  the  edge  of  a  crowded  box  into  the  bottom  corner.  I  would  have  liked  to  have  seen  a  bit  more  of  him  but  he  returned  to  Oldham  in  November.

He  made  his  debut  for  Oldham  the  following  month  and  has  been  playing  regularly  since  clocking  up  60  appearances  and  11  goals although  he  finished  last  season  on  loan  at  Southampton.

436 Chris O'Grady

Position : Forward

Played : 2009-10  ( initially  on  loan  from  Oldham )  to  ?

Appearances : 90  to  date

Goals : 34  to  date

Chris was signed in September as the replacement for Lee Thorpe. He made his League debut for Leicester at the end of 2002-2003 but his next appearance was on loan at Notts County in September 2004. He played 9 games for County without scoring. The following year he made 13 substitute appearances for Leicester and scored his first League goal but made 22 on loan at Rushden and scored 4 goals in their final League campaign. After 10 more games for Leicester he signed for Rotherham for £65,000. Chris enjoyed regular first team football scoring 9 goals in 38 games but the move turned sour in 2008 when Chris refused to agree to a wage deferral as Rotherham went into administration. A transfer to Oldham was quickly arranged but he never established himself at Boundary Park. He made 13 mainly substitute appearances before three loan moves in 2008-09 to Bury ( 6 games no goals ) , Bradford ( 2 games, no goals ) and Stockport ( 18 games, 2 goals).


With his chequered record no one was expecting him to be brilliant and Keith Hill said we should view him as a provider rather than a goalscorer but the caution proved unnecessary. He made his debut at Rotherham and looked good with his strength on the ball and excellent touch. It soon became clear that no defender in League Two could really handle him and soon afterwards he started scoring. He did provide some goals for Chris Dagnall but if anything the relationship worked the other way round and COG eventually out-stripped Daggers to finish top scorer after a season-long battle. Despite being 6 foot 3 Chris was indifferent in the air and all his goals were scored with his feet. With Oldham fans getting increasingly agitated about the number of goals he was getting while they were struggling to score, the pressure on the Board to sign him permanently mounted until they gave way and he signed a two and a half year deal in January 2010 for a reported £90,000.

Chris celebrated days later with a hat-trick at Cheltenham in an awesome team performance. Then of course it fell to him to get the winner at home to Northampton a good finish which finally sealed our promotion after two stutters against Torquay and Darlington. Some might argue that in hindsight it was actually the third goal at Accrington that took us up but as Chris scored that one as well the glory is his either way.

Last season in League One Chris came up against tougher defences and didn’t manage to get into double figures. However some of this was down to more cautious tactics which often required him to play out wide. Chris is actually a very good winger where the combination of skill and strength makes him difficult to stop but he’s still more valuable attacking a cross than delivering it. Towards the end of the season he’d become just as effective a target man as he’d been in League Two but unfortunately he didn’t have a convincing strike partner to take advantage.

It’s to be hoped we can resist offers for him in 2011-12 wherever they might come from as he’d be very difficult to replace.

435 Scott Spencer

Position : Forward

Played : 2009-10

Appearances :  4

Goals : 0

Scott  was  signed  on  a  short  term  deal  in  August  having  been  discarded  at  the  end  of  his  three year  contract  at  Everton. Scott  had  been  with  Oldham  since  he  was  10 , came  through  their  Centre  of  Excellence  and  attracted  attention  with  his  goalscoring  in  the  youth  team. Everton  were  persuaded  to  sign  him  in  2006  before  he'd  made  his  League  debut. The  "new  Rooney"  failed  to  deliver, Everton  publicly  expressing  that  he  was  not  of  the  standard  they  were  expecting. His  only  League  action  came  in  three  substitute  appearances  for  Macclesfield  and  he  struggled  to  make  Everton's  reserves.

Scott  was  said  to  be  "mad  keen"  to  get  his  career  back  on  track  but  he  didn't  really  get  the  chance  to  do  it  with  us. He  only  made  4  substitute  appearances  for  us - in  each  case  we  were  chasing  a  game  we  eventually  lost  -  where  he  looked  very  lightweight  and  short  of  confidence. He  last  appeared  in  November  although  he  was  a  regular  goalscorer  for  the  reserves  indicating  that  there  was  a  level  where  he  could  be  useful.

Hill  discarded  him  in  January  whereupon  he  signed  for  Southend  and  scored  his  first  League  goal  on  his  debut. Three  more  goals  in  17  still  mainly  substitute  appearances  saw  him  kept  on  despite  Southend's  relegation. New  manager  Paul  Sturrock  didn't  rate  him  and  he  finished  last  season  on  loan  at  Lincoln  failing  to  score  in  his  10  appearances. He  is  now  a  free  agent  once  again.