Manager Micky Mellon highlights problems at Oldham Athletic

While the visitors celebrated safety having been in a five-way fight for survival on the final day, Mellon was left to unpick where it had all gone wrong this season.

Just one win in 14 games saw their play-off challenge fade before ultimately being killed off on Thursday night by a Halifax side who today secured seventh spot.

But Oldham had been in fourth position and were even eyeing the preferable second and third play-off spots a couple of months ago.

“I said when we first came in that I thought we may be in trouble and needed major surgery, which is ongoing. We have tried to squeeze everything out of the players. I do the best I can with the group that I have got, but we’re in the business of winning football match and haven’t been able to do that," said Mellon after the 3-2 defeat at Boundary Park in which Mike Fondop marked his return from suspension with a brace to give Latics a 1-0 lead and then make it 2-2 before Wealdstone's winner.

"We need to find players who can enjoy the level of expectation here.

“We may have built this over expectation of the group by doing well for a period, I understand there will be people who believe the dip in form falls on me. But I am saying, there is more going on and we have had a tough time since we came in.

"We have a really big squad and a really unbalanced squad and it's come up short. We haven't really been able to do much with it to help it to get along because I think anybody with a football brain would see that we're lacking in certain areas. In a lot of the pitch we're overloaded in certain areas and underloaded in other areas and that's the story of the season.

"Today we were just knackered. But over the course of the season we haven't been able to do much.

"I'd never ever stand here and make excuses but we looked knackered and the longer the game went on the bigger the gaps became.

"If you want to extend that to over the course of the season and what's happening now it's been and is incredibly difficult."

Mellon fears there may not be much room for manoeuvre for him with the squad.

"The way it is now, everybody that's here has got another year's contract so it's difficult because everything's pretty much tied up, everything's already been spent on the group that's here and the frustrating part is the group needs a lot of help and we won't have the ability to do anything about that, even with the outgoings," he continued.

"I am a really honest football guy and I just don't understand why people don't understand. I get this impression that people don't know the size of the task here.

"It wasn't a team that was flying at the top of the league, the manager unfortunately lost his job because the team wasn't performing for him, and it's all still here.

"Maybe we did too well too quickly and built this over-expectation of a group that isn't balanced and needs quality and specialists in certain areas.

"There's more going on and we've had a really tough time here since the first day we came here to try to do something with this group in order to try to make it into something that could challenge and move towards a team that should be representing Oldham.

"It's not even been difficult, it's been close to impossible, but we've just kept our head down and we haven't spoken about this until today because I didn't think it was right because I want to keep supporting the boys, and I'm not even having a go at the boys here.

"But I said weeks ago this needs major surgery and I said on game two when we played Fylde at Fylde, I said to people 'I think we're in trouble. I think I've taken over something here that could be in trouble, and I mean at the other end'. Because we weren't blowing anyone away and that night at Fylde we went 'wow!' and I could see why the manager had changed.

"So that's what it's been like, it's been up and down and we've been trying to squeeze every last ounce out of it. We've got players who are playing out of positions to be fair to them, but that's more of a necessity because we don't have players in that position. And we can't play the brand of football that we want to play because we don't have the type of player that we want to try to play that. I don't see why anybody wouldn't understand that.

"I don't have the players that I would require to play the way that I want to play. So I just do the best I can with the players I've got, who are a good honest group of lads - I couldn't speak highly enough of them on a personal level, a great group of guys, I'm really fond of them, but we're in the business of winning football matches and we haven't been able to do that. And I'm saying 'we - me and them' - so before the idiots jump out and say 'oh Micky's doing this', we - me and the guys there - haven't been able to put the type of football together that I want to put together for this football club, so it's been really difficult.

"So I'm saying now we're kicked the can down the road, which is a saying in Scotland that means we've just move the problem further down the road but it's still here.

"When I first came here I understood job that Oldham is going to be a difficult job, so that's not something that's just been revealed to me now, we knew it was going to be a huge challenge.

"The owners of this football club and Darren Royle are absolutely fantastic, unbelievable people. People that I couldn't speak highly enough of. Absolutely terrific people. But this, what's been put together at the minute, isn't matching up to what needs to be done in order to win games of football at this level.

"I could probably stand here beside anybody because I've won this league how many times now, I understand what's needed. I'm not stupid, unlike some of the shouts that come out of the crowd.

"I see it as well and a lot of the things I don't do, but it is what it is and the staff here are made of strong stuff, we are not weak, so we will stay strong but I'm telling everybody out there that cares to listen, that's the situation that we inherited and that's the best that we're trying to do with it."