Micky Mellon: Oldham had to dig deep against Harrogate to maintain play-off push

Micky Mellon admitted his Oldham players had to dig deep to maintain their late push for the League Two play-offs with a 1-0 win at home to Harrogate.

Jake Leake came off the bench to score a 60th-minute winner that made it nine unbeaten matches for Latics, with four wins on the spin keeping them just four points outside of the top seven, with a game in hand.

And the win meant even more to Mellon, who had signed a new two-year deal to keep him in charge at Boundary Park until June 2028.

“I’m delighted, but it’s not about me, it’s about us winning games of football and I’m delighted that we won it today and I’m delighted that I’m going to be Oldham’s manager for the next two-and-a-half years,” said the Scot.

“We definitely had to look to the bench today so all credit to the guys that came off the bench, we really needed them and they gave us that bit of energy.

“We had to be resilient and just dig in and make sure you don’t give anything away, because we feel that eventually we’ll get you.

“It was a great atmosphere at this time of the season. It’s good that we’re involved in all that now. We didn’t want the season to fizzle out and we’re in the hunt.”

It is a different story for second-bottom Harrogate at the other end of the table, but their performance belied their current position in the relegation zone.

Although Oldham had late chances to build on their lead, with Mike Fondop twice being denied by goalkeeper Henry Gray, at the other end Mat Hudson was required to preserve the points and a 17th clean sheet of the season.

Tom Hill had been denied by the woodwork in the first half, while Hudson stopped substitute Lewis Cass from equalising in the last of six stoppage-time minutes.

Harrogate manager Simon Weaver said: “To lose the game feels a bit cruel because I thought it was a very good performance, we created numerous good chances and played some very attractive football.

“We were guilty of not taking any of those chances today.

“I thought we played some tremendous attacking football but you’ve got to score when you’re on top and we didn’t.

“We kept probing and the spirit was very good, good energy throughout. I don’t think the performance was any different from the 3-0 victory (at Tranmere) the other night, other than finding the target.

“We found the inside of the post, found the keeper, we didn’t find the back of the net, which is a shame for the lads. But they can’t be too downbeat, results have gone our way.

“We still have to be upbeat and move on straight away.”