Micky Mellon had barely made it back to his technical area after celebrating James Norwood’s equaliser when Kian Harratt delivered Oldham Athletic’s redemption.
Two goals in two extra-time minutes at Wembley had flipped last season’s National League play-off final on its head and, in astonishing fashion, secured the Latics’ emotional return to the EFL.
The 21,000 fans who had made the pilgrimage from the North West to London had been through so much. Their club, who in 2022 became the first former Premier League side to drop out of England’s top four leagues, had suffered years of misery and unrest under their former owner Abdallah Lemsagam.
Four years before Harratt’s cross somehow evaded the Southend United defence and crept into the net, supporters, dressed as grim reapers and clowns, had marched outside Boundary Park carrying coffins emblazoned with the words ‘RIP OAFC’.
It all came to a head with 14 minutes left in the match that consigned them to relegation in April 2022. The Oldham faithful had seen enough, stormed the pitch and, a few months later, Dubai-based Lemsagam sold the club to local businessman Frank Rothwell. But the rot ran too deep to stop the immediate slide.
Under John Sheridan in their first season in the National League, they muddled to a 12th-place finish. His successor, David Unsworth, fared no better and was dismissed after a seven-game winless run. It was time for a promotion specialist, a man with a track record of dragging clubs back from the brink. Enter Micky Mellon.
Micky Mellon led Oldham back into the Football League with a 3-2 win against Southend United in last year’s play-off final
The Latics scored twice in two extra-time minutes to secure an emotional return to League Two
Mellon – whose side’s 3-2 win last June marked his third promotion to the EFL and his sixth overall as a manager – said at the time that the seismic result would awaken this ‘monster of a club’.
But how does he reflect on that summer’s afternoon, where the attendance of 52,115 was the highest in history for the National League play-off, now that Oldham are in the thick of a League Two season?
‘It was just a really special day. A brilliant day,’ the Latics boss tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘To get all your family there as well… incredible moments that you never forget.’
Mellon has not only written himself into Oldham folklore but has weaved himself into the fabric of the town, too. We speak as he arrives home after a day spent with alternative provision pupils at a local school.
Visiting places like Northern Moor, just five miles out of Manchester city centre, reminds him of his own upbringing in Glasgow. And the joy – even when the youngsters say they’ve seen him on video games and that his stats are only ‘all right’ – brings ‘no better feeling’. ‘In the morning I deal with dressing rooms, in the afternoon I deal with classrooms,’ he laughs.
Despite the teachers telling him not to because ‘it would be a scene from West Side Story‘, he lets the kids play football. ‘They can’t quite believe that I’m the manager of Oldham. It’s quite novel for them,’ he says.
Such tales are emblematic of the feel-good factor now coursing through the club and the town, but Mellon is keen to first acknowledge the work of others.
‘David Unsworth started the turnaround,’ he stresses. ‘He came in and was the first manager that worked with the (Rothwell) family. It was just unfortunate that he couldn’t get the results to keep the wolf from the door.’
Fans stormed the pitch in April 2022 to protest their former owner after dropping out of the EFL
Supporters also took to the streets in September 2021 with a coffin emblazoned with ‘RIP OAFC’ – now, under Mellon, the club has been resurrected
Mellon was brought into the club in October 2023 and had to hit the ground running – not least in his first game against local rivals Rochdale.
But in a game that produced 16 minutes of stoppage time, Oldham emerged 4-3 winners in an exhilarating, cathartic comeback.
That never-say-die attitude has come to define Mellon’s side in recent years, and is surely what propelled them to Wembley in his second campaign at the helm.
‘The first season was tough,’ he admits. ‘But we managed to get through the summer and to a stage where we felt this was our time. The rest, as they say, is history.’
Securing promotion to the Football League was not only special for the club, but for Mellon too, who is now just two promotions off Neil Warnock’s record of eight.
‘I think (records) are for when you finish and you look back,’ he says. ‘I know how good promotions are and I want to try and get more.’
Taking the Latics back to League One for the first time since 2018 will be tough, however, as Mellon insists the leap from the National League to the EFL is bigger than ever.
‘I couldn’t believe how big the jump was this time,’ he says. ‘The intensity, the physicality and mentality of teams in the Football League now is such a massive difference. But that makes the challenge even more appetising.’
Mellon’s promotion with Oldham was his sixth as a manager and he says he ‘wants more’
Oldham felt that jump during the first six games, with four draws and two defeats leaving Mellon bemoaning his side’s inability to be clinical in front of goal.
He knew the arrival of a goalscorer was imperative and so set about it with the help of his backroom staff. But the name that cropped up was one who quite literally could not have been closer to home.
Signing his son Michael may have raised some eyebrows. Yet this was a striker who had cut his teeth in Burnley’s academy before a series of successful loan spells. And what a decision it was.
Michael scored 11 times in 20 appearances for the club before a hamstring injury cruelly curtailed his season. The 22-year-old has now been sent back to Burnley for treatment but Mellon is grateful for what his son gave him.
‘I wasn’t nervous (about signing him) but I didn’t know what it was going to be like,’ the Oldham boss says. ‘I just treated him as a player, but I was keen to make sure that when it was dad time, I made sure he knew. We were both really good at that.’
Mellon admits that it was all made easier when Michael scored an overhead kick – on his way to a hat-trick – as Oldham knocked Northampton Town out of the FA Cup in November. ‘That made it more comfortable,’ he laughs. ‘But I always knew, I trusted my staff and my recruitment people who said, “We have to get him in”.’
Not only is it a blow for Mellon to see his son’s career put on hold, but it also leaves Oldham – who currently sit 15th but a healthy 14 points clear of the relegation zone – without their top scorer. And while he admits it will be ‘difficult’ for the Latics to bolster their squad in January, the 53-year-old remains optimistic about the rest of the season.
He is also effusive about the Rothwell family in the week club owner Frank was awarded an OBE in recognition of his work as a ‘philanthropist and fundraiser’ and charitable services to dementia research.
Mellon signed his son Michael, who scored 11 goals for Oldham before a suffering a hamstring injury
Oldham were purchased by Frank Rothwell – who was awarded an OBE this week – in July 2022. ‘The club is really well run,’ says Mellon
‘The club’s going to find its feet now,’ Mellon says. ‘It’s really well run. We’re at the budget’s ceiling, so the only way we could get players in is if we moved some on.
‘We’ve got relationships with big clubs where we can bring in some players. Hopefully they’ll help us move forward. But there’ll be no marquees for our level.
‘We’ve also had some players coming back from injury and they will be like new signings. We look like we’re getting stronger. I’m excited about the second half of the season and we want to do better than what we did in the first half. Let’s see where it takes us.’
Mellon was brought to Boundary Park on a three-year deal and, while no extension of his contract has yet been confirmed, he wants to keep on building.
‘What I’d love to be able to do is get us at least into League One,’ he says. ‘All the teams in there have big budgets and all the players are on big wages. You need to understand that when you go in there, you’ve got to go and sit with them guys. We’re working towards trying to be one of them.’
A trim from the Blades
Sheffield United fans are no strangers to the term ‘Blades’ – but this time it was taken quite literally, as the club’s stars swapped their boots for a pair of razor-sharp clippers to give supporters a trim to remember.
Thanks to bookmaker Midnite, who are United’s principal partner and adorn the front of their shirts, the TaylorTaylor barbershop in Sheffield city centre was transformed into The Blades Salon on January 8.
Blades stars Michael Cooper (left) and Callum O’Hare gave Sheffield United supporters a haircut to remember
And fans packed in as Callum O’Hare and Michael Cooper had a go at cleaning up some messy mops.
‘We were thrilled to see so many Sheffield United supporters take up the chance to get a free haircut,’ said Andrew Mook, Midnite’s head of brand marketing.
