RONNIE Moore believes the next 10 days could be crucial in determining the sort of season his Oldham Athletic side will have.

Saturday's FA Cup tie against Brentford is the first of three games in a week at Boundary Park followed, as it is by home matches against Walsall (Tuesday) and Swindon Town (Saturday).

With Latics only five points off a play-off spot and, conversely, a place in the bottom four, Moore is looking for his players to kick on from last weekend's 2-0 win at Yeovil Town.

He said: "It's a big week. We could be in the third round of the FA Cup and be around the play-offs if we win all three games. We haven't played particularly well at home, the crowd get uptight and that feeds back to the players, but it's time for them to stand up now.

"As chairmen and owners do, they'd like us to get through and get Manchester United or Chelsea away, but I don't think that applies to the manager! The FA Cup is a wonderful thing which is why you want to do well in it. The supporters want to get through to the third round and get a big club home or away."

Having got to the second round by seeing off Chasetown - who, incidentally, have sent Latics a good luck card - Moore's side now face familiar foes in Brentford. By a quirk of the fixture list, this is the third time the clubs will have met inside two months - Brentford winning 1-0 at Boundary Park and then coming from 3-1 down to earn a point at Griffin Park 12 days ago.

With Will Haining and Guy Branston now back from injury, Moore believes his side will pose a sterner test for The Bees than in either of their previous meetings.

He said: "We know each other, there's no doubt about that. We were 3-1 up a fortnight ago and we'd have won that if Will and Guy had played. The game here wasn't a classic but it could have gone either way, so let's hope it's our turn because it'd be nice to have a cup run."

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