PETE Wild believes Oldham Athletic’s young players provide hope for the club despite the confusion currently surrounding the Latics only being added to with a 2-1 defeat at MK Dons.

A pair of penalties for the Dons put paid to the Latics’ hopes of claiming a first win since New Year’s Day, despite Tom Hamer pulling one back for Oldham with 25 minutes to go.

And with Paul Scholes still in limbo as rumours abound about his impending appointment as Oldham boss, Wild chose to keep his council when discussing the club’s state.

“I’ve got my own opinions on why things haven’t been going well of late, but we need to gain a little more confidence and be more ruthless inside the box,” he said.

“We dominated the ball tonight, which was pleasing to see but we need to improve.

“I thought the back four played well and a lot of the young players didn’t look out of place – we’ve got some good young players at Oldham.”

He added: “I was frustrated with their first penalty because it was never a free-kick in the build-up, which the referee gave – I told him what I thought of that at full time.

“We lacked any real conviction in the box all night and if people had been a little braver we may have ended up with a point, which is what we deserved I thought.”

Ill-discipline cost the Latics dear as Christopher Missilou hauled down Dean Lewington in the box with less than 15 minutes gone – Chuks Aneke making no mistake from the penalty spot.

Urko Vera came close to equalising for the visitors twice before the Latics were made to pay for their misses when substitute Jose Baxter felled Alex Gilbey in the area.

Aneke did not get the chance for his brace with penalty duties going instead to Kieran Agard, who duly converted, before Hamer’s emphatic volley proved to only be a consolation.

Latics now turn their attentions to the visit of lowly Morecambe to Boundary Park on Saturday, where a win could see them climb as high as 10th.