Match report: Crawley 2 – 2 Latics

This was a better performance from Latics than they have put in for a number of weeks but, having taken the lead in the second half, they could not hang on to it.

CRAWLEY TOWN 2

Loft 18, Tshimanga 82

OLDHAM ATHLETIC 2

Mellon 46, Stevens 68

5,296

Both Latics goals were out of the top drawer or, as an unusually effusive Micky Mellon put it after the game, they were “two absolute crackers”. First, Michael Mellon curled it past Crawley keeper Harvey Davies from just inside the area on the Oldham left. Mellon Snr was not wrong when he said his son was one of only a few players in this league who can finish like that. Seconds earlier, Mellon Jnr had completely missed an attempted scissor kick. When he finished a much more difficult chance, it was almost a perfect illustration of youthful promise.

Next, Jack Stevens, whose pace and quality transformed Latics when he came on as a half-time substitute, lashed it into the roof of the net from close range after being put through by a high-quality Mellon back heel.

Davies, on loan from Liverpool, had no chance with either effort. Mellon Snr was delighted for Stevens, praising his “energy, running, class and quality”, all of which has come after a long injury lay-off. It was Stevens’ first goal for Latics and he ought to get plenty more playing like he did.

Crawley’s opener was well taken and completely avoidable from a Latics standpoint. Nobody likes picking out individuals for faults, but Manny Monthé had options to deal with the ball into the box – he could have reached to clear it before it got to Ryan Loft, or he could have got goal side to prevent or block a shot. He did neither, and Loft produced a neat finish on the half volley.

Crawley’s equaliser was equally preventable, and by the same player. Tshimanga held off Monthé and squeezed a shot past Mat Hudson at his near post. Latics fans watch Monthé clean up from similar positions perhaps as much as once every other game, but Saturday wasn’t his day.

The non-penalty incident at the end was what fans have been asking for since the dawn of fans. The referee initially gave Crawley a penalty for handball. Everyone bar the referee and the Latics fans behind the opposite goal could see that the hand on the ball belonged to a Crawley player. Eventually the referee consulted the linesman, who had the better vantage point and had not given the penalty. In years gone by, referees took the dictum that “the referee’s decision is final” the wrong way: they took it to mean that, once they had made a decision, they had to stick with it come hell or high water.

VAR was meant to eradicate clear and obvious errors, but has simply introduced another layer of fallibility. It turns out that the officials in the middle are perfectly capable of coming to the right decision without trawling through 56 angles and slo-mos of 2D TV, and that they can reverse a previous ruling in better hindsight.

It was a better performance from Latics, but not much better of a result. They could use a win and, on this second-half performance, it surely can’t be far away.

Crawley Town: Davies, Barker, Conroy, Flint, Adeyemo (Tshimanga 74), Forster, Roles (Pereira 74), Williams, Brown (Holohan 66), Dixon (Watson 53), Loft

Subs not used: Wollacott, Bajrami

Oldham Athletic: Hudson, Ogle, Daniels, Monthe, Hannant (Leake 7), Caprice (Stevens 46), Payne, Woods, Pett, Mellon, Fondop (Garner 66)

Subs not used: Donaghy, Simeu, Sutton, Drummond

Referee: Charles Breakspear

Attendance: 3,152 (414)