CHARLIE Jolley made for an unhappy Boundary Park as Tranmere snatched a late winner to leave Latics in the bottom two.

Oldham had been on top for much of the game - and even had the ball in the net on the half-hour only to have the goal chalked off over a disputed corner.

Managerless Latics will consider themselves unlucky, who have now played Tranmere three times and only once in the league. This was the fixture that mattered the most.

But after dominating possession and chances, Tranmere responded with late pressure and Latics succumbed to it.

While the result was bitterly disappointing, the performance was not.

Fans had condemned the side for a lack of effort at Salford City in their last league outing - Selim Benachour’s first as interim head coach.

The mood was lifted by last week’s Papa John’s Trophy win at Sunderland. And in Benachour’s first home game at the helm it seemed as though that momentum would be carried through.

They certainly started brightly enough.

The game was barely 30 seconds old when Zak Dearnley got his head to a Nicky Adams cross and won a corner, from which Benny Couto got on the end of Adams’ delivery and forced a save from Ross Doohan.

There was only just over a minute on the clock but already it was significantly better than their last league outing at Salford, in the first game of the post-Keith Curle era.

Everything stopped on six minutes when players and supporters united in a touching tribute to murdered six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

Once play resumed after a moment’s applause, Davis Keillor-Dunn saw a sublime right foot shot from the edge of the box bounce off the crossbar, following Hallam Hope’s neat lay-off.

And the openings kept coming.

Nicky Adams made his 650th career appearance after being favoured at right back in a fluid formation, with teamwork key to how well it functioned.

When Adams was able to get forward, Jamie Bowden tucked in to cover. Similarly when Benny Couto was able to advance down the left, holding midfielder Ouss Cisse was on hand, while captain Carl Piergianni shifted along the back line to plug gaps.

There was similar co-ordination and organisation up front.

One minute Dearnley was the focal point, the next it was Hope, with Keillor-Dunn occasionally coming in from the left to pick up a more central attacking role if the occasion allowed.

Everyone seemed to know their jobs, and that was key to establishing attacking momentum in the opening minutes, and combined with a high press in which Hope was influential.

Although the forward has yet to add to his only goal this season - scored in October - his work-rate off the ball could not be faulted.

It almost paid off on the half-hour, when he won a corner following Jamie Bowden’s marauding efforts down the right.

Couto curled a corner to the far left post, Dearnley guided it on and Josh Dacres- Cogley diverted it into his own net.

But Tranmere vehemently disputed the corner, and after referee Andy Haines went across to consult with his assistant the goal was chalked off - the strong wind that swirled around Boundary Park seemingly blowing the ball out of the quadrant before Couto kicked it.

The let-off lifted Tranmere and a succession of corners came from their spell of pressure, but their momentum was quashed when they lost danger man Josh Hawkes to a head injury.

Latics picked up where they left off in the first half as Dearnley had a shot saved on the line early in the second, and they had two penalty appeals turned down.

Dylan Bahamboula came on to add fresh legs and another dimension to the attack, and Vaughan was a constant menace for the 79 minutes that he was on the pitch.

But the longer the game went on there was a growing sense that Latics would suffer, and so it transpired.

Tranmere’s substitutes were more effective and Kieron Morris had two long range efforts, hitting the post with one and bringing a good save from Leutwiler with the other, before Tranmere caused havoc with a last minute corner that Jolley converted.

LATICS : Leutwiler; Adams, McGahey, Piergianni, Couto; Cisse (Whelan 52); Bowden, Hope, Vaughan (Stobbs 79), Keillor-Dunn; Dearnley (Bahamboula 71). Unused subs: Southerington, Diarra, Hart, Luamba.

TRANMERE: Doohan; Dacres-Cogley, Davies, Clarke, MacDonald; McManaman (Morris 80), Spearing (O’Connor 78), Foley, Hawkes (Feeney 45); Jolley, Nevitt. Unused subs: Murphy, Watson, Maynard, Duffy.

Attendance: 4,303 (812 Tranmere fans).