OLDHAM are growing in confidence and ready to take on one of English football’s top-flight sides according to Chris O’Grady, who sealed a 2-0 win against Maidstone in the FA Cup second round.

Faced with a tricky trip to non-league Maidstone, and their 3G pitch, the Latics produced a thoroughly professional display, with Peter Clarke’s opener followed by a fine individual goal for O’Grady six minutes from time.

And, having avoided a potential banana skin to make the third round, O’Grady is happy to face a Premier League side next after the Latics were handed a trip to top-flight Fulham.

Speaking prior to the draw, he said: “I think everybody wants to get a big club away – I’d like that myself.

"Normally I’d like an easier one so we’ve got a good chance of progressing but it would nice to experience that here, especially so the players have a chance of seeing what we can achieve against the big boys."

Commenting on the win at Maidstone, O'Grady added: "The performance says something about the progress we’re making.

"A few weeks ago we might have come unstuck in a game like this.

“We’re solid, we’re getting clean sheets and we’ve picked up a convincing win.

"Winning breeds confidence; the more games we believe we can win in the cup, the more we can take that approach into the league.”

There were some hairy moments for Oldham in the second half, as Maidstone pushed hard for an equaliser.

However O’Grady’s fantastic individual goal, that saw him turn Will De Havilland before beating Grant Smith from a tight angle, sealed the win, much to his delight.

He added: “That was very pleasing overall – in the end.

"This is the type of place where you could get an upset. We did a good job in the first half to get ahead; second half we did really well to ride out the onslaught. There were a lot of long balls into our box but the game went according to plan. I think it’s the perfect sort of performance.

“The goal capped off the team performance. It’s a turn I’ve done a few times over years but I’ve never scored from it. The turn always comes off, so it was all about the route to the goal; I aimed straight for it and put it in. Any chance I get to play I want to contribute to the team – if we’d have won and I didn’t score I wouldn’t have been bothered.”