Oldham Athletic hope Wigan change FA Cup stance on Stones

The striker scored the first league goal of his second loan spell at Boundary Park in Latics' 4-0 home win over Boston United on Tuesday night.

But while the rest of the squad will now be preparing for Saturday's FA Cup second round clash away to League One Leyton Orient, manager Mellon expects to be without Stones.

Wigan Athletic have allowed the 21-year-old to play in FA Trophy and National Cup ties that are scheduled to take place during his current loan spell, which is set to expire on January 2, 2025.

The initial loan agreement does not include the FA Cup. However, it was a similar case for Kai Payne during the his brief loan spell, with the midfielder eventually being given the green light from parent club Wigan to play, in the run up to the first round trip to Tranmere Rovers, after being approached by Latics.

Wigan have been drawn away to fellow League One side Cambridge United, after progressing courtesy of a 2-0 win over Carlisle United, so must decide if they want to risk Stones being cup-tied in the event of them progressing to the third round and the striker returning to the DW Stadium at the end of his current loan deal.

But regardless of whether he is involved or not, Stones feels Latics have nothing to fear at Leyton Orient.

"I think there are five or six teams (in the National League) that could compete in League Two to be honest with you and I think we showed that in the last round against a team in a higher league, and this round it will hopefully take it one step further," said Stones, who contributed to Latics climbing the table with a 10th league win, and second 4-0 win in a row.

"The run's pretty impressive and the confidence around the place is mega and it's only going to keep building and we're on to Saturday now."

Josh Stones showed his composure in a one-on-one with the Boston keeper (Image: Phill Smith)

And Mellon was particularly pleased to see Stones mark his second loan spell from Wigan by getting on the scoresheet in the league, having hit three goals in four games in his first Boundary Park spell last year.

"He's so honest and he works his socks off. He's that type of player that when you see him scoring a goal you think 'you deserve that' because he's all over, his all-round stuff was good," said the Scot.

"He's getting better. He came to us not really fully fit because he hadn't played a lot of games so he's building on that now and you can see him getting fitter, stronger, faster, sharper in the head as well.

"We'll keep working with him and long may his performances continue as well."

Stones, who coolly slotted past Aidan Stone to make it 3-0 in the 67th minute, added: "I cramped up when I went through one-on-one but it was nice to get off the mark.

"Nors said to me at half-time 'just relax the goal will come, don't go chasing it, you'll get it, and luckily it happened just before I came off.

"I'm buzzing. The performances lately have been really good. I think we absolutely hammered (Tamworth) and then this week we've done the same and the 4-0 scoreline shows that.

"We all said before it was a must win. They didn't start great to be fair but we started really well and we got better as it went on.

"There were times when we dropped off it but we managed to get the result."