PETER Clarke hailed the best goal of his career after his stunner put Oldham on the way to an impressive away win at Crewe Alexandra on Saturday.

The 36-year-old, who has been in the professional game for the best part of two decades, scored a long-range beauty in the first half at Gresty Road.

The defender strode forward with the ball at his feet from halfway as the space opened up and then arrowed in a perfect strike that was never going to be stopped.

His manager compared it to a Ronald Koeman strike from the Dutchman’s pomp – and Clarke was grinning from ear to ear afterwards.

“Yeah it wasn’t bad. The ball came across from Christopher (Missilou),” he said.

“To be honest there was oceans of space in front of me. First touch was okay, second one was out of my feet and I thought: ‘Why not?’ I did catch it sweetly, I think it was slightly wind-assisted but even so I caught it sweetly and as soon as I hit it I knew it would trouble the keeper and it flew past him.

“I’d say it’s probably the best I’ve ever scored.

“For various reasons I’ve scored goals and they’ve been important but in terms of technically, yeah I think that’s got to be the best.

“It’s not too bad to score as a defender, if I can chip in here and there. But I’m also delighted with the clean sheet at the other end. We’ll take goals from wherever we can. I’ve got a couple in the last two games. Two nice victories and we’ll push on to the next one.”

The Latics are now seven games unbeaten and while Clarke was delighted with his personal contribution, the most important thing was the three points that keeps them pushing towards the League Two play-offs.

“I thought it was a fantastic away performance. The conditions were really tricky,” he added.

“There was a strong wind, the rain really came down and areas of the pitch were quite tricky. It was a professional performance from us.

“We dealt with the conditions and after we dealt with them, I thought we played decent stuff at times. To go and get a second and see the game out, it was a thoroughly deserved win and a really good away performance.”