Latics had not celebrated a league win since late August, and boss Mellon discussed what he had observed and tried to change during that time, and his delight at the response at Boundary Park yesterday.

Here's what he had to say in the broadcast media part of his post-match press conference:

A really solid win this afternoon?

MM: Yeah, we came out of the traps really well. We deservedly got ourselves into a commanding lead and then gave away a cheap goal.

We came out in the second half when the game was a wee bit loose for our liking. And even though we've won and played really well in good patches you could tell we were a team at times that just wanted to get that win and get over the line, which is great from the boys and we managed to do that.

And we still want to improve, we still want to get better. There's a lot of stuff there that without the ball we would want to get a bit better at. And then probably a bit of stamina from our wide men and front men. We'd probably ask for a bit more from them.

But I came here today knowing it was just about getting over the line and getting a win, and we've managed to do that 4-1, so we're delighted with that.

But we're never a management staff and a team that won't want to keep going and keep getting better.

I keep harking back that we've played really well at other times and haven't got the goals that we got today, places like Tranmere and all those kind of places where we deserved much more, so it was satisfying to see us get the amount of goals that we did at good times and there was some really good play from a lot of us.

We know what we need to do better and we delivered on a lot of that today, but there's still more to come. But that's good, that's exciting.

We need to show that grit when teams are doing that and really go foot to the floor and go and play better off the ball.

But the subs that came on today I thought were terrific as well, the way they did get us back to being a bit gritty and a bit more solid, that was good.

All in all, really satisfied but the only thing we've achieved is had a good week, but we need to build on that and continue to keep putting in performances and be as ruthless as what we were today in front of goal, which is what we keep asking for. Today we were and you can see what happens when you are ruthless in front of goal.

All in all, delighted that we got the result.

You spoke about being quick out of the blocks, seemed to start really high and pin them in. Was that a conscious effort?

MM: There's never a time when I haven't asked for that, there's never been a time when I've said at Oldham 'do us a favour, sit in here and don't go and graft at the ball'. That's never happened. But what the players did today was turn up with an attitude they were going to do that, they were going to get right after the ball, every single one of them.

At the end of the day we can't see inside their heads unfortunately, we can only ask for that type of start, and we say it all the time, let's start like that, get out of the traps. Today they turned up with that attitude, they were determined that they were going to get after the ball when we didn't have it, pass it when we did, which we ask for all the time as well by the way, I have never asked us not to pass the football.

We used the midfield players well and made good decisions about when we were going to pass it, used the fullbacks well when we needed to as well, and when the opportunity came we went through the lines into front men, and that's what we want to do. And then when we got it wide to the wide men we got our overlaps in and overloads in and there was good quality going into the box, so there was an awful lot to be pleased about, an awful lot that we've asked pretty much since the season started, and last season. No magic wand was waved today, it was just a team coming together with the right attitude and going and driving and getting us a really good win.

Favour Fawunmi with his goal and Will Sutton were among the changes, they really seemed to build on their performances against Leeds in midweek. How important a role did they play?

MM: Very important. Will is a good, solid performer. I've always seen him as being able to play there for us. He's a good athlete, he's technically very good and he's a winner. We just felt today was an opportunity to shake a few things up. Fawunmi is such a talent.

What we need to work on is his stamina and when things need to be organised, I just spoke to the two experienced midfield players, they have got to manage him, they've got to tell him when to go to the ball and when to sit off because it's really important when teams are having a couple of extra passes, you've got to get to the ball from a good shape and when you get to the ball you've got to believe you can win it back.

We just became a bit stretched. It's a hard shift playing in wide areas and to do all that running and do it all the time. But imagine what they would be like if we can get the stamina levels up. We want them to be effective for 90 minutes.

Jamie Robson's first two Oldham goals, is that something you feel he can add to his game?

MM: Definitely, he's very aggressive in the box. We asked for goals from set plays. We need to go up there with the attitude that we believe we can score goals. I don't think we have. I think we've gone up there and sort of ticked boxes.

We are into them all the time saying get up there and believe you can score a goal. And today it looked like we were all fighting to try and get to the ball in the 18-yard box and Robbo came out on top, so that's good, but we need that all the time and if we get all the things that I've just spoken about all the time, we find the consistency, we look a very good team.

But if we don't turn up with the application and understanding that you've got to get going from the start, you've got to show the qualities that we've got there, because when we do we look a very good team.

Is the focus now about kicking on?

MM: It is but I haven't forgotten and I absolutely understand that we lost some big, personally, important games to the supporters and the football club. We lost derbies, and I don't like losing them. I don't like losing any game but I don't like losing big games, and we managed to do that. So quite expectedly the frustration comes on.

But I'm an experienced manager and I accept that, I accept what goes along with that, but it doesn't affect me. I concentrate on my job and I concentrate on knowing what this team is capable of and I'm focused on that and I know that if we did do all the things that we've decided we're going to do as a team that we do it.

But I haven't forgotten, and I'm a bit peed off that we lost the big games for people because it's important for Oldham that we win those games. But we live to fight another day and we will learn from it and we will speak about it and the next time that we come up against those types of games the players will know in no uncertain terms, like they did anyway, but they'll know we need to do more and do better in those games, and not be so sloppy.

But today, superb. A good win, lovely to see smiles on the supporters' faces and we can all go and have a good weekend, which is nice, and we start work again tomorrow. We'll enjoy this evening but it will be about showing the same qualities on Tuesday night. That will be expected now. And we'll learn from the bits that I spoke about at the start of the interview, but you can see that I'm very clear in what I want this team to do and what it takes to win games of football.

Have we finally seen a result that matched the performance?

MM: My job as a manager is to look at performances and ask why we haven't got results, and I looked into that, and we have to be more ruthless in front of goal. That was it. Some of the performances have been very good and some of the chances we created had to be goals. Some of the defending to give away some of the goals wasn't of a standard that we have set here, but some of the refereeing decisions that have gone against us are beyond ridiculous, that were in critical moments in games that would have undoubtedly changed the way the game was played. I had always kept an eye on that and I had always spoken about our performances knowing that an awful lot of stuff that we'd done was good, and it's important that you do that as a manager because a lot of the time everybody forgets how well you've played. So what's important is I keep a lid of things and I go 'no, no, no, you've done a hell of a lot right guys, just be more ruthless in front of goal; when the opportunities come slot them' and then on the other side of it we need to stop making individual errors that are killing us.

I can't affect the referees. There were another two decisions again against Accrington - a hair pull that's jack-knifed one of my players, something that the referees made a big song and dance about when we went to the EFL buildings in pre-season that they were going to do that and showed countless videos of people getting their hair pulled, less than that by the way, and we were told they'd be sent off. And then the first one that we see, we don't get it. And then we get a penalty claim, his hands were outside his body, above his head and we clip it in and we don't get it.

So they're disappointing and frustrating, and that's what the performances have been. Nothing else. We haven't been dreadful.

Probably the most disappointing performance was Accrington where I thought we didn't even look like scoring, but we were solid and we dug in and got a clean sheet and I thought 'we'll go and build on that, we'll get something now'. We'd got another game on Tuesday and we'll try to get another win and lift the dressing room and the players that played on Tuesday gave us that, and then we bounced off the back of that and got another good result today.

It's about doing all the things I just said and growing it again.

You certainly created the chances today, and no exaggeration it could have been more?

MM: It could have been more, and we have created chances like that since the start of the season and today we were ruthless and took a lot of those chances and scored goals at good times and all that kind of stuff that you need to do, so really pleased with them.

How much does it give everybody a lift at the football club when you've had a result like that?

MM: Winning's what it's all about. Football's about winning. You develop players towards knowing how to win a game of football with the qualities that they have, because that's what it's all about. And when you win it changes your world. A goal changes that world. That's how mad football can be. All of a sudden you've scored a goal and everyone's all happy and good again, and you're good again. That's what you've got to understand, with the experience I have in football I get that. I just kept saying to the players 'get a goal and build on it', and they got a goal and they built on it, and that's all we did. And we'll do the same on Tuesday night, we'll try to get a goal and go and build on it, or if we don't we'll make it very difficult for anybody to score against us, and that's football.

The goalscorers will take a lot of the plaudits but everybody played their part, the goalkeeper (Mat Hudson) made some good saves as well.

MM: Some really good saves. I want my goalkeeper to not have to make saves, if we're getting it right people aren't getting crosses in and people aren't getting shots in and we're being first in the 18-yard box and that's the standard that we want to drive things to. It's not me being picky or anything like that, it's about aiming for the top performance and a top performance for us defensively. But my goalie denied him, so we have to drive towards that. But we're very, very grateful that we've got a really good goalkeeper who made a couple of really good saves.

Walsall is another game that won't be easy but at least you can go into that now on the back of a very good result.

MM: We have to build on it, and it will lift spirits all round the place. Like I say, football's about winning. We got the win today and we'll enjoy it this evening and we'll have to go down to Walsall and show the same qualities that we did today.