Oldham Athletic Youth Team Manager, Tony Philliskirk has praised the performance of his side, despite a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield Town.
The Stags are now three points ahead of the young Blues at the top of the Youth Alliance North-East Division.
Philliskirk said: “I couldn't ask for more of the lads, at the end of the game we shook hands with the staff from Mansfield and they said ‘that was the toughest game’ they’ve had this season. They admitted on the day the best team probably didn’t win.
“We played so well, I was quite critical of the players at time after the Lincoln game but this was a total role reversal, I thought we dominated the game, apart from a little spell five minutes before half time and 10 minutes after half time when they got the goals I thought we dominated.
“Our reaction to going down was superb ,we just came up against a defence and in particular a goalkeeper who was totally inspired, he made four or five absolutely outstanding saves over the course of the game.”
Despite the result, Philliskirk still believes his side have a very good change of winning the league: “At the end of the game the lads were obviously disappointed, but all the staff were trying to accentuate the positives and say ‘the pressure is back on mansfield now.’
“The response of the lads has been great, they’re obviously disappointed but we keep trying to get across it’s not over theres a lot of football to be played between now and the end of the season and one result either way changes things again.”