OLDHAM ATHLETIC found themselves knocked out of the EFL Trophy on Tuesday after being thrashed 6-0 at home by a fresh Wigan Athletic side. 

The League Two club’s lacklustre display saw the Tics score four goals in the first half and two in the second, before home fans demonstrated against their owner with a pitch invasion.

Wigan fielded a strengthened side for the encounter, leading to a mauling of their north-west rivals, who had a number of first-team faces out.

Wigan manager Leam Richardson’s men opened the scoring in the 28th minute with a Tom Naylor header. Then Will Keane, leading the front line on his own, added a second from a corner on 34 minutes. Another set-piece put the away side three up two minutes later, Max Power, phenomenal throughout, thumping a long-range free-kick into the stanchion. Gavin Massey ensured it would not be a game of two halves as he made it four on 47 minutes, before Gwion Edwards netted a brace on 64 and 67 minutes to pile on the humiliation for Oldham, who are at a nadir.

Just a few minutes after Edwards’s second strike, home fans stormed the Boundary Park pitch in protest against owner and chairman Abdallah Lemsagam. Stewards managed to herd the demonstrators off after a few minutes and the game resumed, with no further goals before the final whistle.

Oldham manager Selim Benachour said that Covid cases and fatigue had not helped his team’s cause. “It was difficult. It was their night,” he said. “They were full strength and they had not played for three weeks, so they were fresh. I changed the team a bit. We need to have some fresh legs, I played some young players.

“We have some Covid cases, we have some injury and tiredness, so I made some changes but I take [responsibility] for this defeat — it was their night. They have a budget, four, five or six times bigger than us. They are stronger than us and faster than us. There is no comparison.”

The cup exit probably won’t cause too much of a stir among Oldham fans, who set more store on survival. The club stand bottom of the league with 18 points from 24 games.

No doubt the departure of Lemsagam would appease them as well. The relationship between the Moroccan owner and fans is non-existent and things have grown toxic this season. A petition was launched in September, signed by 3,000 people, for him to sell the club after a poor three-and-a-half years in charge. Fans have demonstrated numerous times, with invasions and even chucking tennis balls onto the pitch, but to no avail.

Oldham recently overturned the bans issued to three supporters alleged to have “promoted their dislike” with the way the club is run, while a club director claimed on national radio that fans opposed to the ownership were being harmful to the club. “What the supporters are trying to do is kill the club.”

Last month, in an unprecedented move, the EFL offered intervention by the way of the services of an experienced executive, but the proposal was rejected by Oldham.

Stuck to the bottom of the fourth tier, the Latics, once of the Premier League, look destined to drop out of the Football League for the first time in their history.

Wigan, meanwhile, have made it 13 games unbeaten in all competitions with their win at Boundary Lane. They will find out their opponents in the quarter-finals on Thursday morning.