Ed ruins Richie’s happy day in thriller
WITH a two-goal advantage and ten minutes remaining, you could have forgiven Oldham’s new permanent boss Richie Wellens for thinking he was about to celebrate his side’s fourth league win in five games.
But MK’s Aidan Nesbitt and Ed Upson both netted late on to salvage a point from an eightgoal thriller.
That left Dons boss Robbie Neilson counting his blessings after hearing his side depart for half-time to a chorus of boos at Stadium MK.
“Three of their four goals were individual errors from our point of view,” said Neilson.
“We’re disappointed to lose goals to individual errors but they’re mistakes that we can work on and eradicate.
“The players responded well to all of their goals and they dug deep for each other and produced the goods in the end.
“A couple of guys made mistakes but that’s part and parcel of football, I was pleased with the desire of everybody including the fans to lift us in the difficult moments.”
Meanwhile, Wellens wasn’t too downbeat at the result – providing his side follow it up with a midweek win
“If you would have said to me we’d go to Bradford (in midweek) and MK Dons and take a point from both games I would have accepted it as long as we beat Bury on Tuesday night,” admitted Wellens, who was named as permanent Latics boss this week.
“It keeps the points ticking over for us on the table, but I just want to make sure we take the three points on Tuesday now to make it a good period for us.
“I am disappointed though because the game was buried at 4-2 and we just ended up sitting too deep and not pressing high enough.”
Wellens’ side wasted no time netting the opener after just seven minutes as Craig Davies tapped in Queensy Menig’s pullback, before Alex Gilbey slotted in a close-range leveller moments later.
Menig’s cross on 39 minutes found Eoin Doyle unmarked in the MK box and his nonchalant flick flew in, before another Menig cross five minutes later saw Dons defender Joe Walsh put through his own net.
Upson fired in a freekick on 56 minutes before Oldham skipper Peter Clarke smashed home to make it 4-2.
But Nesbitt finished a fine attacking move by calmly stroking the ball into the corner on 82 minutes before a mix-up in the Latics’ back-line allowed Upson the space in the six-yard box to snatch an unlikely point.