Latics were hit on the break in the first half, with a mistake by Luke Hannant contributing to the only goal of the game, scored by Daniel Kanu.

Walsall had just defended an Oldham corner when they hit the hosts on the counter, Hannant’s loose back pass was seized on and Kanu rounded goalkeeper Mat Hudson to slot the ball into an empty net.

Joe Quigley had earlier been cruelly denied by the woodwork.

But, despite creating a few opportunities in the second half in their search for an equaliser, Latics could not do enough to test Myles Roberts and Walsall ran out 1-0 winners.

“It was definitely a League Two, with all due respect, damp, drab affair low on quality. We gave away a really poor goal,” said Mellon.

“He’ll feel it, and it’s cost us, but we still had a lot of time to try to find a way back into the game.

Joe Quigley was denied by the woodwork (Image: Phill Smith)

“It’s difficult to say that we were anywhere near outplayed by top of the league, it was just a kind of grind and we’ve absolutely shot ourselves in the foot.

“We’ll always keep going and having a go but in games like that you’ve got to make sure that you give nothing away because there’s not going to be a great deal of creativity.

“We maybe, thinking back, had some decent chances we’ll be disappointed haven’t gone in and I don’t think we conceded any. I think the only one was the back pass.

“It’s a hard one really because against a team at the top of the league you’re coming away and you’re thinking in a game really low on quality we’ve made a mistake that’s determined the result.”

Mellon added: “The goal summed up what type of game it was. And there was a lack of quality from both teams.

“The two teams just couldn’t seem to find any kind of rhythm in order to try to create many or any chances.

“There’s nobody that could come here today and say there was a gulf between the two teams but I’m talking about my team and what I want to see, and I want to see more quality from them and I want to see a bit of consistency from one performance to the other from them as individuals really. We didn’t quite get it tonight but we keep going.”