Town 0 Oldham Athletic 1
Line Ups:
Town:Jayson Leutwiler, Nat Knight-Percival (c), Zak Whitbread, Junior Brown, Ian Black, Richie Wellens (Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro 56), Jack Grimmer, Kyle Vassell, Andy Mangan, Larnell Cole (Shaun Whalley 46), James Wallace
Subs: Mark Halstead (GK), Scott Vernon, Dom Smith, Mat Sadler, Jordan Clark,
Oldham Athletic:Joel Coleman, Timothee Dieng, James Wilson, Liam Kelly (c), Mike Jones, Dominic Poleon (Rhys Murphy 63), Jonathan Forte (Jake Cassidy 87), Matty Palmer, Carl Winchester (Lee Croft 82), Anthony Gerrard, Danny Lafferty
Subs:David Cornell, Joe Miles, Theo Vassell, George Edmundson
Referee:Kevin Johnson
Assistants:Joe Clark & Paul Hobday
Fourth Official:Andrew Hendley
It came as little surprise that Town went with the same eighteen that pulled off a stunning late win at league leaders Burton Albion on Saturday. There was one surprise though, and that came from the visitors teamsheet. Lining up against his former colleagues was one Anthony Gerrard Esquire, who the Latics announced as a recent capture on their twitter account just before the game.
Oldham looked busy from the kick-off and took the game to Town in the opening minutes to create a number of half chances.
Town though looked dangerous themselves and with less than 5 minutes on the clock, first Jack Grimmer had a half chance when Vassell got in behind the Oldham defence, keeper Coleman came to clear but only got it to Grimmer, with shouts of shoot from the home crowd he tried to get it in on goal but couldn't get it on target. then moments later some neat build up play between Cole and Mangan saw Cole find space on the edge fo the box, his shot was blocked but dropped to WAllace who fired in a low shot but Coleman was down to collect.
Oldham continued to create chances and Leutwiler was down bravely to dive at the feet of an Oldham attack to snuff out the danger. then the visitors had their best chance of the opening minutes when Lafferty found space in the Town box, he cut the ball back to Palmer on the edge of the box but luckily he fired his shot just over the bar.
It was the visitors who took th early advantage on 21 minutes, the ball was with Palmer out on the left, he cut ball back to the edge of the box to Winchester, he had the space to control it and then hit a worldy of a low shot that flew past the dive of Winchester to make it 1-0 to Oldham.
The game took a little bit of lull after this with Town not able to get things going and there were a few too many errors creeping into the game.
There were some chances for Town though and the best probably came to Black, he got the ball just inside the Oldham half and then took the ball forward, he hit in a decent effort from 25 yards out that was just wide of the farpost.
Half-time: 0-1
Town started the second half with a change with Shaun Whalley coming on to replace Larnell Cole.
Town were looking more dangerous after the restart and were moving the ball around quicker and with a little more urgency. They were putting the visitors under pressure but nothing too much to test Coleman in the Oldham net with any clear chances.
Whalley's addition had added some more pace and he did well to put the ball wide to put Grimmer away, he pushed to the byline and then cut an inviting ball to into the danger area but there was no Town player near to the ball.
Town were creating openings and more good link up saw Mangan put Whalley away down the right, he got in behind the Oldham defence and hit an inviting ball across the face of goal but Wilson got their before Akpa Akpro could pounce.
Micky Mellon had made the changes during the game with Whalley on at half-time and then Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro for Wellens, and then on 69 minutes he made his final change with Scott Vernon on to replace Kyle Vassell.
Town were continuing to push and look for an equaliser but the chances weren't falling for the home side.
A Town attack broke down and Oldham tried to counter, Ian Black had tracked back and then slide in on the goal side and looked to have made a well timed tackle but ref Johnson saw differently and awarded a free-kick and booked Black.
Town were continuing to push and look to get on level terms, Whalley looked to burst forward and was fouled on the half way line, the ball stopped dead so Mangan tried his luck with a quick kick from the halfway line that dropped just over the bar.
There were goalmouth scrambles in the Oldham box, bookings for the visitors and a big shout for a penalty when Whalley went to ground but it was still Oldham who had the advantage.
Even with the fourth official showing 6 minutes of added time Town couldn't get that cutting edge or chance in front of goal and in the end it was the visitors who went away with the 3 points.
Full-time: 0-1