Cheltenham Town came into this game as one of the form sides in League Two, but Latics, after two-and-a-bit weeks without playing, produced a memorable comeback before holding on for the win.
LATICS 2
Garner 45, Payne 59
CHELTENHAM 1
Thomas 26 (pen),
Attendance: 6,345
Latics were well on top until one of those informal and slightly irritating heat breaks in the middle of the half – it has never been hot at Boundary Park in January. Joe Garner had been close with a header over the bar, and Kai Payne spurned two good chances. Woods’s deliveries into the box were threatening.
When play restarted, Jake Bickerstaff picked up the second ball from a midfield aerial tussle and moved into the Oldham area. Daniels’s challenge was clumsy – he allowed Bickerstaff to get the wrong side of him – and the referee pointed to the spot.
After Jordan Thomas sent the ball past Mat Hudson on 26 minutes, Latics fans settled in for a familiar afternoon of struggle. It didn’t turn out quite like that. Latics did struggle, but only for 20 minutes, at which point Joe Garner levelled it.
Garner’s header was a thing of great beauty for fans of old school centre-forwards, and somewhat similar to his goal against Walsall in December. The giants at the back for Cheltenham were simply not as clever as Garner in dealing with Wood’s inswinging corner from the Oldham left. Garner moved in from beyond the back post and gave himself an almost-free header.
Garner is a striker’s striker, a pro’s pro, and the Latics players must have thought he had spared them from the icy abyss of a Micky Mellon half-time talking-to. But Mellon has a long memory, and Latics’ tired performance in the second period of the half was evidently a key theme of his half-time team talk.
Mellon’s ruse at half-time was to bring on Mike Fondop for Luke Hannant. Fondop went up front and Kane Drummond, who caused Cheltenham problems all afternoon, went out wide on the left.
Latics were on it. Kai Payne brought a good save out of Day.Garner drew an even better save – Day got a fingertip to a fierce shot from distance that was dipping under the bar.
Day couldn’t do anything about Paine’s goal on 59 minutes. Mike Fondop hooked a ball from the left high to the far post, where Garner beat his man to the header, knocking it back towards the penalty spot. It bounced up nicely for Paine, who absolutely walloped it home. To give you an idea of the ferocity of Paine’s strike, Day would have had to move only a few inches to his left to save it.
Latics looked nervous after Garner and Drummond went offon 76 minutes and they moved five yards towards their own goal en masse. As you’d expect from a Steve Cotterill side, Cheltenham came on strong in the final minutes of normal time to force an equaliser, but Mat Hudson, who’d had a couple of shaky moments in the half, made two brilliant saves – from Jordan Thomas and Josh Martin – to add to his hefty collection of points-gaining stops this season.
Latics looked the more likely on the counter in the five minutes of stoppage time. Quigley hit the bar when he should have scored after being gifted a chance by the selfless Fondop, and Pett harvested a foul rather than playing Fondop in at the death.
Oldham Athletic: Mat Hudson, Tom Pett (c), Donervon Daniels, Manny Monthé, Ryan Woods, Joe Garner (Joe Quigley 76), Kane Drummond (Josh Hawkes 76), Luke Hannant (Mike Fondop HT), Jake Caprice, Jamie Robson, Kai Payne
Subs not used: Tom Donaghy, Kane Taylor, Kian Harratt, Dynel Simeu
Cheltenham Town: Joe Day, Jonathan Tomkinson, Robbie Cundy, James Wilson (c), George Nurse (George Harmon 86), Luke Young, Ben Stevenson, Arkell Jude-Boyd (Liam Kinsella 72), Jake Bickerstaff, Jordan Thomas, George Miller(Josh Martin 86)
Subs not used: Mamadou Diallo, Darragh Power, Willcox, Tommy Backwell
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