Charlie Raglan feels the FA Cup is the perfect platform for Oldham Athletic to begin the recovery from a first home league defeat.

Latics let slip a nine-game unbeaten run, including five wins on the spin in all competitions, when they went down 3-2 to Solihull Moors at Boundary Park on Saturday.

Attentions turn to the FA Cup this weekend with the visit of National League rivals Halifax Town in the fourth qualifying round (kick-off 3pm).

And while it might seem a distraction to ambitions of winning promotion back to the Football League, having climbed into the play-off positions last month, Raglan says he is proof that league and cup form can work in tandem.

For his old club, Cheltenham Town, came within nine minutes of pulling off a major cup shock against Manchester City in the fourth round, before going on to win the League Two title.

"Unfortunately it was in the Covid season but we had a lot of success at Cheltenham that year, and part of that was getting to the fourth round of the FA Cup.

"Cheltenham were definitely a small club but that year we went and won League Two and it coincided with FA Cup games and we had comebacks and extra times and that led us to the Manchester City game where we took the lead.

 

"There was a lot of press around that and suddenly the place was bouncing.

"If the game was 83 minutes long I think we'd beaten City, but they have good players so we got beat in that game.

"But it was a good memory for me and they (league and cup) can definitely go hand in hand."

And Raglan feels the competition still holds moments of magic.

"It does for me. If we'd beaten Newport they got a big club in the next round, so there are things like that," said the defender.

"You never know. You've always got to approach it with the right mindset and it's an opportunity for us.

But he admitted that returning to winning ways will be at the forefront of the players' minds this weekend, regardless of the competition.

"We weren't probably going to win every game to the end of the season so there is a bigger picture, but it doesn't take away from being bitterly disappointed and we have to look at why it happened.

"Maybe there was a lack of urgency in the first half and it came late when we were rallying, but we should never have been in that position.

"The first half especially felt comfortable from a defensive point of view and most of the second half really, it was just those three moments that came out of the blue and cost us dearly.

"Maybe a change of competition is a good thing for us. But it's just another game, another home game another important game for us, and we have a responsibility to react, and that's what we'll do.

"We've got a good group of senior players who have been around it and the best teams do react."