Patrick McEleney has had to wait more than two months for his Oldham debut, so having sent so long kicking his heels, he wasted no time in making an instant impact.
McEleney came off the bench in the 58th minute this afternoon for his Oldham bow, and within twenty minutes he was wheeling away to celebrate his first goal for the club. While McEleney made the scoring of outrageous goals at Dundalk routine in a kind of one-man validation of the licence fee, this was delightfully scrappy. A shot by Jack Byrne deflected off McEleney's back to hand Oldham a valuable lead against Scunthorpe.
Another former League of Ireland man went on to double Oldham's lead, as Eoin Doyle beat two defenders to rifle a shot past the goalkeeper.
Satisfyingly, McEleney's goal was scored almost concurrently with Seani Maguire's first for Preston, as he made an emphatic return from injury with a brace against Bolton.
