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Harratt completes comeback to sink Southend and fire Oldham into EFL

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

Two goals in the second half of extra time turned things around for Mickey Mellon’s side, after Leon Parillon’s header had given the Shrimpers control of the match. A piece of striking flair from the journeyman forward James Norwood, followed by a freakish series of events that saw a cross go all the way into the Southend net was enough to overstimulate the blue half of a 52,115 crowd, a record for a National League playoff match.

After three years outside the 92, 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 football league. For Southend and their clearly heartbroken players, there will – in the end – come the realisation that they too are on the way back following the dozens of winding up orders that nearly led to the club’s extinction before its takeover last year.

The clash in styles between the two teams was visible from the off. Oldham had already lofted a few set plays into the Southend box, some from their own half, before the Shrimpers took an early lead in the fifth minute. Tom Pett, Oldham’s reliable midfield anchor gave the ball away to Gus Scott-Morriss who immediately lofted a ball for Charley Kendall to chase. The Southend forward couldn’t get there, but he did enough to unsettle defender Manny Monthé into beating him to the ball with the tip of a toe, a touch that went past his own keeper.

In the 17th minute the Owls should have equalised through teenager Vimal Yoganathan when he placed a header wide at the far post after being found in space. That routine was one Oldham then went for time and again. Joe Garner saw an effort cleared off the line by Cav Miley on the half hour. A minute before half time and Oldham’s biggest chance came to Mike Fondop as he chased down two Southend clearances and burst through on goal only to look to lift the ball over goalkeeper Nick Hayes with his left foot, an effort that span wide by a yard.

The momentum was all with Oldham and they carried on where they had left off after half-time. Their intense press unsettled Southend again and a corner just a minute after the restart was aimed at Monthé who was hauled to the ground by Ben Goodliffe. The referee, Elliot Bell, pointed to the spot and James Garner, the former Ipswich and Nottingham Forest forward, stepped up coolly, sending Hayes the wrong way.

The game slid back into equilibrium after that, with Southend producing decent patterns with the ball and Oldham perhaps struggling to maintain their earlier intensity. Fondop had a shot on the spin saved on the hour mark and Keenan Appiah-Forson had a big shout for a penalty turned down after he wriggled his way past Charlie Raglan. The best openings of the half, however, only came in added time and both opportunities falling for Oldham; first a low drive from Mark Kitching that went just past the post; then an air kick from substitute James Norwood where any connection would surely have sealed the match.

Then came extra time and a period that resembled delirium. In the first half Southend reclaimed the lead with a wicked cross shot from Scott-Morriss that Hudson could only parry into the path of Parillon, who duly headed home. In the second, they nearly doubled their advantage when winger Josh Walker cut in from the right to this time force a good save from the Oldham keeper.

Then Norwood made the game’s decisive intervention. Tussling with Goodliffe for a long ball he threw the defender off him decisively, advanced on goal, lifted the ball over the onrushing Hayes while skirting him and then finished coolly.

“This is my house!” Norwood screamed at the crowd and the atmosphere, already wild, jumped up another level. Within 60 seconds Oldham had the lead, when Kian Harrat’s left footed cross from way out went under the legs of the sliding Goodliffe and somehow past Hayes too.

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