Nine Man Oldham Hit For Six

EFL League Two: Mansfield Town 6-1 Oldham Athletic

Oldham Athletic suffered an embarrassing defeat away at Mansfield Town after conceding six goals and finishing the game with just nine players.

In an unfortunate turn for the Latics, Nicky Maynard scored a hattrick for Mansfield against them just days after club director Barry Owens claimed the club had tried to sign the striker but he wanted too much money and “Isn’t pulling up any plants at Mansfield”. 

It was a game that Oldham started poorly as Mansfield were close to taking the lead on several occasions in the opening 20 minutes with Danny Rose forcing Gary Woods into a number of good saves. 

On the 31st minute, Maynard got his first of the game for Mansfield as the frontman headed in from close range unmarked after a pin-point cross found the former Bury FC attacker from the right.

He made it 2-0 three minutes later, this time tapping home from close range after Otis Khan had got to the left by-line and drilled the ball across the face of goal.

Then Oldham seemed to press the self-destruct button as they received two yellow cards in as many minutes. An already-booked Filipe Morais went in late on Neal Bishop, whose pass reached Mal Benning as the referee initially played advantage, and Tomas Egert slid in a second later with a woeful challenge on Benning for a straight red, while Morais received his second yellow.

Surprisingly the nine men of Oldham pulled a goal back through Tom Hamer as he tucked the loose ball away to make it 2-1 and reduce the deficit but - moments later - Maynard raced away onto a Conor Shaughnessy through-ball in stoppage time and rounded the goalkeeper to complete his hat-trick on the stroke of half-time.

It got worse for Oldham in the second half as Mansfield went 4-1 up on the 56th minute after David Wheater scored an own goal after a cross hit the defender and bounced into the goal. Then ten minutes later it was five for Mansfield as the Stags countered with speed through Maynard who found Dapo Afolayan who duly accepted the offer of sliding the ball home despite being under pressure.

Oldham's misery continued as substitute Dylan Fage was carried off on a stretcher before teenage substitute Jimmy Knowles bagged his first league goal with a cool penalty after Hamer had brought down Afolayan with six minutes remaining.

Oldham’s defeat was confirmed, and it capped off a miserable week for the club.

After the game Oldham boss, Dino Maamria said, "My emotion. I'm quite touched with our fans, they were absolutely outstanding. I keep reminding my players that this is Oldham Athletic. A club with history, with tradition and we had some glory days in the past.

"We are a League Two club right now, but if we carry on doing what we've been doing for the past couple of years probably, certainly the past six weeks, seven weeks anyway. I think we won't even be in League Two.

"So we've got to earn the right to that and I think it's a wake-up call really. I think it's probably, the biggest thing I'm going to take from it, it's a proper wake-up call for everybody. Certainly the players."

He added: "I've seen it and I've spoke about a lack of discipline from day one when I came in. A lack of discipline goes everywhere off the pitch, on the pitch you've seen it. 

"And if we have people with a no-care mentality I think they're going to get found out sooner or later.”

Photo By: Eddie Garvey