After three consecutive away games it was nice to be returning back to my seat at Boundary Park, for Micky Mellon’s first home game against an Altrincham team we’d already beaten away from home two weeks’ earlier in the FA Cup.
After the disappointment of Tuesday night’s defeat away at Fylde, Mellon sought a response from his team, making three changes with Keiron Freeman, Harrison McGahey and Joe Nuttall returning to the line-up.
Oldham bossed the early exchanges, controlling possession with some nice interplay, and they had the first golden chance to open the scoring as former Alty man Josh Lundstram broke forward with the ball, feeding Devarn Green, who saw his shot cleared off the line and the subsequent rebound was fired over an empty net by Hallam Hope from all of five yards out.
In football it’s often said you must score while you have momentum otherwise you will get punished, and unfortunately this rang true as Altrincham scored with their first venture into our half in the 15th minute.
A cross from Chris Conn-Clarke met the free head of Justin Amaluzor, who placed the ball to the side of a rooted Hudson.
Latics searched for a quick equaliser and it came just 10 minutes after falling behind thanks to James Norwood.
Some fantastic interchanging passes down the right hand side between Norwood and Freeman resulted in the talisman finding space in the Altrincham box to smash home his effort into the roof of the net.
Having just clawed themselves level controversy struck for Latics as Alty were awarded a spot kick just five minutes later, after Hope handled the ball inside the area whilst trying to win it back.
Now by the letter of the law it was a penalty as the ball did strike the hand of Hope, however the intent was not there so I believe the decision was harsh.
Conn-Clarke stepped up and made no mistake with his penalty, sending Hudson the wrong way.
Into the second half and it was a tale of constant Latics pressure as we looked for a second response, but we struggled to convert that pressure into clear cut chances.
That was until 11 minutes to go, when Nathan Sheron equalised with his second goal in three league games.
And it could turn out to be a vital point for Mellon’s men.
