League leaders Barnet cruise to Boundary Park victory
Reporter: Paul Rooney
Date published: 01 March 2025
Latics were thumped 3-0 at home by Barnet
Latics’ dismal 2025 home record was again laid bare on Saturday afternoon when league leaders Barnet came to town and went home with a 3-0 victory.
Micky Mellon’s team now haven’t won at BP since December 14 last year (when they recovered from two goals down before eventually beating Wealdstone 3-2) and this was the third successive home when they’ve failed to score.
Mellon made five changes to the side that started last time out at Dagenham and It all began so brightly in the first half for Latics as they started very much on the front foot, going head to head with their visitors who came close to opening the scoring early on only to be denied by Tom Donaghy’s flying one-handed save.
But Latics had chances themselves as half time approached with Joe Pritchard blasting over and Mike Fondop saw his shot parried round the post for a corner.
But two Barnet goals within a minute soon after the restart completely changed the game.
On 50 minutes Zak Blunt managed to dance past three would-be Oldham tackles on the edge of the Latics penalty area before smashing the ball high into the net.
And within seconds of Oldham kicking off again, Callum Stead curled a beauty past Donaghy for his 12th goal of the season.
Latics struggled to recover from that double setback and only had a snap shot from skipper-for-the day Jordan Rossiter which was easily kept out by Evans in the visitors goal, before Adebola Oluwo wrapped things up for Barnet six minutes from time, slotting home at the far post from a corner that wasn’t cleared.
After the game, gaffer Mellon was philosophical in defeat.
He said: “The first half was ok.
"But in the second half we gave away a cheap goal and just folded.
"We deserve all the criticism coming our way. But it’s really disappointing.
"Very poor and bad goals to give away.
"It’s not a lack of confidence or concentration.
"I’m not making excuses about injuries.
"We are not making good decisions and we weren’t good enough.
"We all take full responsibility and the game ran away from us.
"I like to think that a team that plays for me has a lot more fight than that.
"We need to show more character, pass better.
"We’ve let a lot of people down.
"The fans were good to me and we’ve let them down.
"We are trying to bring in new players but it’s difficult.
"It’s not just about strikers. We need defenders to defend properly.”.
Latics are now on the road for the next two games – Boston United tonight (Tuesday) followed by a trip to Tamworth next Saturday – before returning to Boundary Park Tuesday, March 11 for a clash with Eastleigh and then the local derby with Rochdale on Saturday, March 15.
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