Latics 1 – 1 Fleetwood Town: Latics come back to gain a point, but what for?

Latics started the first half lethargically and gradually lost interest.

Occasionally, their enthusiasm bled out in torrents, great outpourings of apathy drenching the Boundary Park playing surface and stands, geysers of boredom exploding high into wan winter sky.

LATICS 1

Stevens 77

FLEETWOOD 1

Helm 45+2

You can try to dress these things up in match reports, but the first half of this game was as boring as I have ever seen at Boundary Park. No enthusiasm from the players. They sucked the life out of the crowd, many of whom were not in the stands to see Fleetwood go ahead just before half time through a beautifully taken Mark Helm free-kick from 18 yards. He bent it round the wall and beyond the reach of Mat Hudson, and at that point no one would have been surprised in the least if it turned out to be enough to secure all three points. On the stroke of half time, Will Davies almost made it two for Fleetwood from an Ethan Ennis cross. Ennis had pretty much run the game until the break.

The Latics players, management and supporters know it’s over for this season. There was a vanishingly small chance of making the play-offs before this game, but not now. They showed no appetite to retain even that smidgen of hope.Fleetwood are in the same position – nothing to aim at for the rest of the season – but were composed, neat and tidy, and above all determined and ambitious. Latics were none of those things. Mike Fondop came off the bench to replace the injured Joe Garner after 23 minutes, but even he couldn’t do anything to stir his team into a semblance of action.

Latics were better in the second half. They could barely have been worse. You can fault Micky Mellon’s choice of first XI for that. He left Jack Stevens and Kane Drummond – two of his best attacking options – on the bench, and started no one with any pace. When those two came on, Latics pushed Fleetwood back and occasionally looked like they wanted to score.

On 77 minutes, Stevens came in from the left wing, got a bit of help from Drummond, glided into the box and produced a terrific right-footed finish past Lynch and in to the far corner.

Micky Mellon and the players have to find a purpose for the remainder of the season. This sloppy showing was simply not good enough.

Oldham Athletic: Mat Hudson, Tom Pett (c), Donervon Daniels, Manny Monthé, Kane Taylor (Kane Drummond HT), Joe Garner (Mike Fondop 38), Calum Kavanagh (Josh Hawkes 73), Jake Caprice, Jamie Robson, Kai Payne, Dynel Simeu (Jack Stevens HT)

Subs not used: Tom Donaghy, Ryan Woods, Luke Hannant

Fleetwood Town: Jay Lynch, Josh Powell, Finlay Potter, Shaun Rooney, Conor Haughey, Ethan Ennis (Mitch Clark 87), Elliot Bonds (c), Matty Virtue (Harrison Neal 75), Mark Helm, Will Davies (Esapa Osong 75), Owen Devonport

Subs not used: Luke Hewitson, Kayden Hughes, Toby Mullarkey