Maamria hails improving Oldham after win over Morecambe

Oldham boss Dino Maamria said his side are “growing all the time” after they secured the double over Morecambe with a 2-1 win at the Globe Arena.

Desire Segbe Azankpo and Mohamed Sylla scored the goals, with Carlos Mendes Gomes on target for Morecambe.

After seeing his side clinch back-to-back wins for the first time this season Maamria said: “It was a fantastic win for us.

“Morecambe have been doing well at home lately and had a terrific win here at the weekend against Newport but I always thought we were in control and when we scored the winner the reaction of our fans gave me goosebumps.

“I feel we have been growing and getting better and better every game. We have a settled side now and we have some cohesion in the team.

“We have been playing a particular way for some time now and have been doing a lot of work. I’m not the sort of manager who likes to change things all the time and I like to give players a run of games and we have a decent squad that is a very good that is together and growing all the time.

“Looking at this game overall I always felt we were in control. Apart from a poor start to the second half I thought we were on top and should have scored two or three in the second half.”

Azankpo opened the scoring after keeper Mark Halstead parried Filipe Morais’ long-range strike straight to him.

Mendes Gomes levelled after Ajay Leitch-Smith superbly controlled a long ball and laid it into his path, but Sylla grabbed the winner after the impressive Jonny Smith had a shot blocked.

Morecambe boss Derek Adams felt his were unlucky not to get anything from the game.

He said: “I felt we had the better share of the play for large parts of the game but just lacked that killer instinct today.

“We started the game really well and I thought we were on the front foot and created a good number of early chances but went behind to their first real shot on goal against the run of play.

“That deflated us for a while but then we picked ourselves up at the start of the second half and that set us on the front foot.

“Our strikers looked like they would put us ahead but we missed a great chance and they scored a scrappy goal late on. They put a cross in and we couldn’t clear our lines which gave them a chance to score a second and unfortunately we couldn’t get the goal back we needed.”