Holden hails key duo

Oldham boss Dean Holden praised the influence of Anthony Gerrard and Joel Coleman following his side's 1-0 win over Crewe.

Conor Wilkinson came off the bench to fire a 74th-minute winner, but stubborn defence led by Gerrard, signed on loan this week from Huddersfield, and young goalkeeper Coleman, making his first full appearance, kept out desperate Crewe. "Anthony Gerrard has come back in and it looks as though he hasn't been away from it," said Holden. "He was winning his headers and keeping everyone organised, but it was nothing we didn't expect of him. "The clean sheet was fantastic for Joel on his (full) debut and Conor has come on and got the goal with cool, calm finishing, which he will get all the glory for. "But everyone to a man gave absolutely everything - they ran every single blade of grass. "We needed to bounce back after our last couple of performances and put some pride back into that shirt. "The fans turned up in their numbers and I think they'll be go home happy with that win." Rhys Turner went close early on for Oldham after he tore clear and forced an excellent stop out of Crewe's former Latics goalkeeper Paul Rachubka. But a scrappy game, in which both sides seemed paralysed by their lowly positions, offered little quality. Nicky Ajose's lob over Coleman, which landed on the roof of the net, was a rare moment of ingenuity. Oldham offered more as an attacking force by taking a direct route helped by the pace of Jonathan Forte, who showed his power when he outmuscled Harry Davis, although his shot on the turn was off target. Defender Jon Guthrie's header from a Jamie Ness free-kick, was cleared off the goalline by Oldham skipper Adam Lockwood. But it needed a really good finger-tip save from Coleman to keep out a blockbuster from Anthony Grant after the break. Ness was inches away from applying a final touch at the near post and James Jones forced Coleman down to save. But after Danny Philliskirk's effort was pushed around a post by Rachubka, Oldham made it count from the resulting corner when Wilkinson was set up by Philliskirk to drill a low effort into the far corner. Crewe boss Steve Davis said: "The manner of defeat is what hurts as we didn't do as well as we could have. "It became a real battle and Oldham made it into one with a lot of long balls. "We should have stuck to our game-plan and played football. But we ended up hitting a lot of long balls too and relying on knockdowns, but nothing dropped for us. "We still have games left to do it and there are a lot of teams that can be involved. "We'll keep fighting and we'll keep rolling our sleeves up and giving our best."