Oldham Athletic 2-4 Wednesday

Wednesday progressed to the second round of the Capital One Cup thanks to a 4-2 victory over Oldham Athletic on Monday night.


The Owls were 2-0 down at half-time, and missed a penalty, but battled back with an improved second-half showing to see off their lower division rivals and put their names in the hat for the second round.


Former Latic Jermaine Johnson pulled a goal back in the second half following first-half strikes from Jordan Slew and Jean-Vyes M’Voto before a Chris O’Grady brace and Michail Antonio strike saw Dave Jones’s men through against tricky opposition.


Jones gave competitive debuts to a number of players, including Nejc Pecnik, Anthony Gardner, Chris Kirkland and Chris Maguire, but it took Wednesday time to settle and that allowed the hosts to grab a hold of the game early on.


Paul Dickov’s men enjoyed the best of the opening exchanges and their reward was Slew’s opener less than seven minutes into the contest. James Wesolowski broke free of his man to provide the cross for Slew to smash Athletic into the lead.


It was all Oldham deserved and they pushed to double their advantage following the breakthrough. A second finally came just before the half-hour when Lee Croft provided a pin-point ball for M’Voto to head home from close range.


Wednesday suffered a further blow when Gary Madine was taken off and then Chris Maguire, who’d flashed a low shot just wide of goal, also exited the pitch as Jones made two substitutions before half-time. Chris O’Grady and Giles Coke were introduced respectively.


The Owls did have a chance to get back into the game just before the break after Croft gave away a penalty for a foul on Antonio. But Pecnik drilled the resulting penalty high over the bar to bring a woeful 45 minutes to a close for the Owls.


Half-Time: Oldham 2-0 Wednesday


Wednesday could do no worse on the resumption and they started the second half the brighter of the two teams.


Despite that, the hosts could still have found themselves further ahead had Kirkland not made a superb save to deny Croft.


Three minutes later, however, Wednesday got a lifeline when Johnson drilled home from the edge of the box with a little bit of help from Latics goalkeeper Cisak.


it gave the visitors a huge boost and they were soon on level terms. Miguel Llera launched a superb free-kick into the box and O’Grady rose high to plant a perfect header into the back of the net.


The comeback was complete not long after when Johnson linked with Pecnik and the latter provided O’Grady with the ball to add his second of the night to turn the game on its head and put the visitors ahead.


Antonio added a fourth later on with a neat, curling solo effort and the former Reading man could have added a fifth before full-time but sent a powerful effort high and wide with the goal at his mercy.


Full-Time: Oldham 2-4 Wednesday


Oldham: Cisak, Grounds, Wesolowski, M`Voto, Tarkowski, Croft, Furman, Slew, Simpson, Byrne (Smith 82), M`Changama (Hughes 75). Unused substitutes: Brown, Bouzanis, Taylor, Millar, Winchester.


Wednesday: Kirkland, Buxton, Gardner, Llera, R Johnson, Antonio, Pecnik, Semedo, J Johnson (M Jones 85), Maguire (Coke 40), Madine (O`Grady 29). Unused substitutes: Bywater, Beevers, Mattock, Prutton.