Dino Maamria hails ‘brilliant performance’ as his Oldham reign starts with a win

Dino Maamria was delighted with a “brilliant performance” from Oldham after his first game in charge delivered a 3-1 Sky Bet League Two home win against Morecambe.

Maamria took over from sacked Frenchman Laurent Banide only two days before the clash at Boundary Park, but he inspired the Latics to their second league victory of the campaign.

Mohammed Maouche opened the scoring after 33 minutes as he headed home a cross from Zak Mills, who also set up Desire Segbe Azankpo to finish emphatically six minutes after the break.

Shaun Miller revived Morecambe by slotting home a 78th-minute pass from AJ Leitch-Smith and – having sacrificed two-goal leads in their last two matches – Oldham could have crumbled again.

Instead, they sealed all three points with the game entering stoppage time when Jonny Smith raced clear to score.

Former Stevenage manager Maamria said: “The players’ application was second to none. At 2-1 I wanted us to go for the jugular instead of sitting back, so I’m really pleased with how we finished it off.

“It will be a learning curve for all of us in the next few weeks. I have only just arrived, but it was a brilliant performance.

“Whether or not we played well, my absolute priority was to win the game. That’s what everyone needed and the team deserved it today.

“Hopefully that’s the start of what’s to come, but we have to build on it and just keep getting better.

“We are trying to create something special and move the club forward, so it’s really important to deliver the same again and play at full throttle.

“One of our aims is to bring the fans back. We want to show people what they are missing and win as many games as possible.”

Morecambe have now gone eight matches without a win in all competitions and boss Jim Bentley admitted: “It’s very tough at the moment.

“Our performance lacked a bit of confidence again and, for two teams who are near each other in the table, it was Oldham who stepped up better.

“We have too many under-performing players and partnerships that aren’t working. It’s not enough to have four or five who are doing OK.

“We need to get out of this run and we are finding it difficult. We came up short and I’m obviously disappointed.

“We talk a lot during the week and before games, but we need to walk the walk on a matchday and find the right level of performance.

“We got ourselves back into it and we knew the home fans would get nervy, but we were over-committed, a bit ragged and we had players streaming all over the place. We lost our shape, which is what cost us the third goal.”