Neither incident, which led to Kai Payne being dismissed in the 14th minute or Kane Drummond seeing red on the half-hour seemed to warrant the punishment they were given, in a game that Crawley went on to capitalise on their two-man advantage and win 1-0.

But Mellon said the reaction from his players and the Oldham supporters restored his faith in the game, and reinforced his belief that he is at the helm of "a brilliant football club".

"I love football, I really do, but that was very difficult this afternoon. Very difficult. When you think that you work all week and you put everything into a performance and then you are, without being over dramatic, your sort of faith in the game gets really tested," said the Latics boss.

"But look at the qualities we showed as a football club, that's the important thing.

"Look at how the players responded.

"What more can you ask of a group of players to deal with what got flung at them pretty much all day.

"They kept their integrity, they kept their professionalism and they concentrated on their jobs, and they did their jobs well and they kept running and fighting. And but for a wee bit of magic or something we might have got something out of it.

"But only positives from the guys, and we will not allow anything else that happened today to put any kind of shadow on that kind of performance. That's for other people to hopefully deal with."

Of the red cards, Mellon added: "I don't think there was anybody in the stadium that expected that, and I even spoke to Kevin (Blackwell), the manager of Crawley, who is a good guy, there wasn't even a challenge in the game that was worth thinking about.

"To come out the game with all that you'd think it was a serious battle today.

"If you looked at the amount of cards and all that you must have thought that was a real ill-disciplined battle, and it's a shame because that doesn't mirror anything that happened today. If anything it was quite a tepid affair early on.

"It's sad to think that the game's been influenced by a guy who didn't even play. I would love the game to be decided by the players. That's what football is surely all about, it's about players deciding who wins a game of football, and that's what you would like to see. But that didn't happen."

Mellon added: "We'll be possibly a bit disappointed we don't do more with some of the chances, and that's on us because they were good chances, so that's something that we will look back on. And if there's anything else we can work on we will. But I'm very, very proud of them, very proud to stand there and hear the supporters get right behind the players in very trying circumstances.

"The energy from everybody was amazing and the positives are we showed what a brilliant football club we are today, because we are, and the players responded to that emotion from the supporters, and it was good to be a part of that. And that's the positive stuff, and we'll take that forward with us."