Lee Bell delighted with Crewe’s finishing to secure win over Oldham

Matus Holicek’s superb stoppage-time winner sparked joyous scenes at the Mornflake Stadium, but that was arguably eclipsed by Reece Hutchinson’s first-half strike from nearly 30 yards out which cancelled out Kane Drummond’s opener for Oldham.

“We’ve got that quality in the squad to come up with two goals like that. They were really well-taken goals,” said Bell.

“Reece has shown that he can strike like that before this season and I was really pleased with Matus as he has had tough times with injuries and if we could get him on a good pitch more we’d see the qualities he has got – he has great technique with both feet.

“We had to really grind it out and pick up the second balls. It was a real intense game as Oldham have been on a really good run. Now we’ve got to match these last two performances, today’s and against Shrewsbury as if we drop below our standards in the remaining games we’ll come up short.”

It was the Latics who were rewarded for their early dominance in the game when Drummond drilled a finish past Ian Lawlor after Mike Fondop and Will Sutton combined to set up the winger inside the box.

Crewe left-back Hutchinson squared matters up with a thunderous shot, which flew into the top corner.

Holicek won it for Crewe with his third goal of the campaign, seizing on a headed clearance on the edge of the D and volleying a powerful finish past Hudson’s reach.

Defeat for Oldham put an end to their impressive 10-game unbeaten run, including five consecutive wins before their visit to Cheshire, and boss Mickey Mellon said: “We’ve lost two sensational strikes after we had a lot of ball.

“We might have done a bit better, but we created good opportunities and to lose at the end was hard to take. We showed a lot of quality and we had most of the possession in the second half, but you have to do something with that.

“We’ll dust ourselves down and go again. I don’t always agree when managers say they didn’t deserve to lose a game, but I think we were in that category today.

“We’re still in a terrific position with everything to play for. We had magnificent support here and we’ll win and lose together.”