OLDHAM’S Callum Lang believes the Latics deserved the full three points as they battled to a 1-1 draw against high-flying Lincoln City on Tuesday despite Ishmael Miller’s red card.

The hosts played with 10 men for the second half as Miller saw red before the break.

Oldham went ahead after the interval through Mohamed Maouche’s excellent strike, but Lincoln hit back minutes later as Michael O’Connor slotted home after a misfired free kick.

Lang admitted the belief in the squad was growing all the time, despite missing out on a win against the Imps.

“It was definitely a tough one,” said Lang, with Oldham now lying 13th in League Two.

“It was a lot harder going down to 10 men and we proved how much belief there is in the squad, we didn’t stop working until the very end and on another day we might nick it.

“We had two or three chances where we possibly could have scored but I thought the team was great throughout.”

The Imps registered the first real chance of the game – John Akinde dinking past keeper Daniel Iversen but striking the bar.

Oldham midfielder Dan Gardner was then forced to leave the pitch on a stretcher in some discomfort after appearing to twist his knee.

Just before the interval Miller made a clumsy challenge on Lincoln keeper Josh Vickers, with referee Ben Toner showing the big striker a red card.

Four minutes had passed in the second half when Maouche let fly from the angle of the penalty area and found the top corner, leaving Vickers grasping at thin air, only for O’Connor to level on 54 minutes.

Lang, who went close to winning the game for the hosts late on, admitted losing Gardner was a blow, but called on his team-mates to pull together through a busy run of games.

Lang added: “We were unlucky and it is hard but the main thing is we have took a point away from the game.

“We keep on picking up points and we go again.

“We’ve had a season of ups and downs, we’ve had patches where we haven’t been good enough and patches where we should have took more points away but losing Gards to an injury [is big] for us.

“We’ve got Jose (Baxter) out at the minute and it’s tough with the games coming through thick and fast, we’ve just got to keep working.”