'Massive' day of drama for Latics as Harratt ends three-year exile

Oldham are back in the Football League, edging out Southend in a playoff final that was not just a thrilling contest in front of a record crowd, but a showcase for the strength of the English pyramid.

- Paul MacInnes

Two goals in the second half of extra time turned things around for Micky Mellon's side and after three years, and a period of torment that led to fans staging mock funerals for their club, Oldham can now look forward to returning to the fold of the 92.

"It's massive, it's monstrous to us to be able to get in there," Mellon said having taken a third club out of non-league. "We were under a lot of pressure and we needed to go up, it makes so much difference. Everything changes now."

For Southend and their clearly heartbroken players, there will - in the end - come the realisation they, too, are on the way back, after the dozens of winding-up orders that nearly led to the club's extinction before a takeover last year. For the manager, Kevin Maher, the result left him "raw" but the performance "tells you everything about the standard of the league".