Gareth Ainsworth hailed Sam Vokes after winner at Oldham

Gareth Ainsworth hailed the finishing prowess of veteran striker Sam Vokes as his Gillingham side rose to the top of League Two with a 1-0 victory at winless Oldham.

Vokes met Max Clark’s corner to head home the decisive goal in the 72nd minute with what was a real sucker punch to an Oldham side dominating the second half up to that point.

But while the home side failed to make the most of their numerous chances, Vokes seized his after coming off the bench in the 63rd minute.

“We found a way today, and that’s the sign of a good side,” said Ainsworth. “We probably got away with a couple of Oldham chances, they’ve got to stick them in the goal. They’ve missed from a yard and then they’ve put a couple into the side netting. But when we were asked to, we hit the target.

“Sam Vokes has scored a lot of goals in his career, all he needs is one chance.

“It was brilliant for the fans because this was a very tough game on a massive pitch and we didn’t seem as at it as we have been in recent games. But we found a way, rode our luck at times and Sam has managed to put the ball in the net.

“The way we defended for that last 15 minutes was imperious. We had to see it out. I said to the lads before the game, coming to Oldham everyone will look where the teams are in the table and think it’s going to be an easy game. But this was probably our toughest game yet, they are going to beat teams here, without a doubt.

“Mickey Mellon changed formation and they really came at us in the second half, they were rolling inside us and causing a few problems. So we changed formation to a 4-3-3 thinking we may be able to get more pressure higher up the pitch and fortunately it worked out for us.”

Kane Drummond headed against the crossbar for Latics while Joe Quigley failed to make the most of three good openings and both Oli Hutton and Josh Hawkes fired off target from promising positions.

Latics boss Mellon said: “We didn’t take our chances and that’s the top and bottom of it. I always felt the game was there to be taken. We started well and completely dominated the second half but we weren’t good enough to put the ball in the back of the net.

“It was soul destroying to concede when we did, from a corner where we should have been more physical and aggressive. To be fair to them, Gareth is a good guy and he said to me at the end they had got away with one. But we can’t keep saying that, we need to be more ruthless.”