All is not Well as Latics draw a blank

RICHIE Wellens was left frustrated as his Oldham side failed to find a way to break through at Gillingham, whose unbeaten run is now seven games in all competitions.

Top scorer Eoin Doyle and Queensy Menig both went close at Priestfield in a contest Oldham shaded before a late charge from the hosts.

Gills defender Luke O’Neill went within a whisker of winning it in added time at the end of the game, only for Latics goalkeeper Johny Placide to tip his goal-bound free-kick up onto the underside of the crossbar, leaving Wellens in some ways relieved to earn a point.

“We were comfortable and up to around 75 minutes, there was only one team looking to score,” Wellens said.

“We should have been a couple of goals up but in the end, they gave it a really good go and we could have lost it.

“Queensy went around the keeper and it should be a goal and there were five or six really good chances.

“The positives are we kept a clean sheet and in the end, it’s frustrating not to win.”

Home skipper Lee Martin was carried off the field on a stretcher early on after taking a nasty blow on the head from Kean Bryan’s clearance.

Doyle forced a sharp saved from Tomas Holy when his 20-yard swerving shot threatened to deceive the goalkeeper, while at the other end O’Neill’s inswinging cross almost crept in the far post.

Oldham went close in the second half when Menig was slipped in on goal by Jack Byrne.

The Dutch winger did everything right in stepping around Holy and firing at goal, only for Mark Byrne to race back and produce a superb goalline clearance.

O’Neill almost won it at the death, but Placide and the bar were able to intervene, and ultimately Gills manager Steve Lovell had to be content with extending the club’s unbeaten run to seven matches.

Lovell said: “Sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposition.

“In this game, they passed to the people in space and we did well to stop them from scoring against us

“I thought it was an entertaining game, for a 0-0.

“There was chance after chance, but I think a point is a fair result at the end of it.

“It’s one defeat in ten now for us.

“We haven’t lost and that is a positive we have to take.

“We’ve got a clean sheet and we now prepare for the next game, which is Carlisle.”