Richie Wellens hails belief in Oldham squad

Posted Sunday, March 04, 2018 by PA

Oldham boss Richie Wellens believes his side’s late victory at Scunthorpe shows the level of belief currently in the Latics squad.

He is also pleased with the depth of talent at his disposal, after Patrick McEleney and Eoin Doyle came off the bench to score in the final 12 minutes and fire the visitors to a third win in four matches.

He said: “There’s a real positive feel in the dressing room and the good run we’re on has filled us with belief. But the biggest positive is that everyone worked as a team.

“It was important the starting XI gave us a real base to work from, but now when I look at the bench there’s some real positive players on there.

“Things are looking a lot healthier than they were around Christmas time.

“The first goal was fortunate. If you watch Patrick McEleney train, he scores brilliant goals, but it doesn’t matter how they go in.

“I was frustrated in the first half that we didn’t penetrate them enough or get shots off. I shouted to Jack Byrne to take a strike, because someone of his ability and technique, if you take a shot, you don’t know what’s going to happen.

“The keeper can make a mistake or, as happened, it can come off somebody’s back.

“It was a fortunate way to go ahead, but in terms of our overall performance, I thought we deserved the win.”

Scunthorpe had just about had the edge of a scrappy opening hour which produced little in the way of chances at either, but three changes – which included the introduction of McEleney and Doyle – turned the tide in the Latics’ favour.

Former Dundalk midfielder McEleney knew little about his debut strike in the 78th minute, with a shot from Byrne looping up off the Oldham man before spinning into the top corner.

Doyle found the bottom corner after being put clear inside the box four minutes later.

Having now won just once in 10 games, Scunthorpe boss Graham Alexander admits the play-off chasing Iron are starting to feel the pressure.

“It’s a difficult period for us,” he said. “We’ve drawn games that we should have won, without a shadow of a doubt.

“The difficulty is getting a breakthrough and getting three points to settle everyone down.

“It becomes a difficult game when something like the first goal goes against you, but we’re in a position to take advantage of – we can’t let that go to waste.

“I don’t think the performance was that bad. It wasn’t a game of great quality, but at 0-0 we had chances to take the lead.

“We’ve got a good record with regards to comebacks, but sometimes you take a bloody nose which is what happened with the second goal, we got caught on the counter.”