Micky Mellon praises influence of Joe Garner in comeback win over Cheltenham

Oldham manager Micky Mellon praised the impact and influence of Joe Garner in their 2-1 comeback win over Cheltenham.

Latics trailed in the 26th minute after Donervon Daniels fouled Jake Bickerstaff in the box and Jordan Thomas converted from the penalty spot.

Garner led the fightback, scoring the equaliser in the 45th minute with a header from Ryan Woods’ corner, before setting up Kai Payne to score the winner on the hour for the on-loan Wigan Athletic midfielder’s first goal for the club.

“Joe’s a huge player for us. He leads the line well and he leaves nothing on the pitch. He absolutely gives you everything, as all the players did today,” said Mellon.

“I think that’s the first time this season we’ve turned it around when we’ve been behind, so that’s a positive and the boys deserve a lot of credit.

“I thought it was a gritty performance, workman-like performance.

“Maybe we looked a bit rusty after the lay-off and we will want to be a bit better with the ball.

“But we got a valuable three points and that’s a huge positive after going a goal down and battling back and winning 2-1.”

The result moved Oldham up to 12th in the table, leapfrogging next weekend’s League Two opponents, Barnet.

It could even have been more comfortable had second-half substitute Joe Quigley not been denied by the post in stoppage time.

At the other end, Latics had goalkeeper Mat Hudson to thank for securing the win, which stretched their unbeaten run to six games.

“Their goalkeeper has made some big saves in the second half,” said Cheltenham manager Steve Cotterill.

“We could easily have scored five goals in the second half, but we haven’t. There is no way we deserved to lose that game.

“Nothing happened today that we haven’t worked on this week, nothing. For me, that’s slightly disappointing really.

“A lot of work has been put into it and then a lot of work has been put into it by the players, but in some of the moments, we have got to do better, and there were a couple of them today, and we haven’t done well enough in them. What’s happened then is, the ball has ended up in the back of our net. Then you have a mountain to climb.

“I said we’d get to 70 minutes on the clock and we’d dominate the game. That’s exactly how it’s panned out.

“We started the game slowly and finished it strongly.”