PETE Wild fumed at referee Martin Coy as Oldham Athletic were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Swindon on Richie Wellens’ return to Boundary Park.

Coy penalised George Edmundson, who had earlier opened the scoring, allowing Michael Doughty to score from the spot and level the score at 1-1 on the stroke of half time.

Swindon went on to take the lead through Kyle Bennett, and despite Johan Branger-Engone’s fine late volley, Oldham had to settle for a point, leaving them all but dead and buried in the race for the play-offs.

And Wild was adamant referee had made a mistake that turned the tide of the game.

He said: “Let’s talk about the penalty because I’ve seen it back. It never sniffed of a penalty. He has hit the deck so easily it’s ridiculous. It’s not a penalty for me first and foremost.

“From the referee’s angle he has got a decision to make, but for me it was never a penalty so I am disappointed.

“I have to praise the subs because they changed the game. If it hadn’t been for the subs, we would have got beat.

"They changed the game and looked lively and gave us an impetus to get something out of the game.

“We’re four unbeaten, so I can never fault the lads for their application and their desire to implement plans.

"They didn’t look their usual fiery selves and that’s food for thought going into the Easter weekend.”

Wild named an unchanged side from the trip to Colchester, but the visitors started brightest when forward Keshi Anderson narrowly volleyed wide.

But just five minutes later the Latics were ahead when Callum Lang was fouled on the edge of the area allowing Mohamed Maouche to whip a dangerous ball into the box. The Frenchman effortlessly found the unmarked head of captain Peter Clarke.

He forced a diving save from Swindon stopper Luke McCormick, but he could only watch on as Edmundson lashed home the rebound.

In response, Swindon began to dominate possession and they almost levelled when Bennett’s powered header crashed off the outside of Daniel Iversen’s left post.

Yet despite near misses from Clarke and Christopher Missilou, Swindon were gifted the chance to equalise from the penalty spot when centre-back Edmundson failed to deal with a searching pass and was pinged for pulling down Theo Robinson, much to the frustration of Wild. Doughty duly converted to draw the Robins level on the stroke of half time.

The penalty proved costly in handing momentum to Swindon and after Oldham failed to clear their lines on 56 minutes, Bennett was able to cut the ball onto his right foot and drive the ball low past Iversen for the lead.

Wild’s men responded though, and when Swindon struggled to clear Tom Hamer’s looping cross and the ball bounced up to Branger-Engone, he swung his left foot and impressively volleyed into the roof of the net.

The draw leaves Oldham seven points outside the play-offs with just five games remaining, and Wild admits promotion is a long shot.

He added: “I wasn’t even looking at seventh place, so it doesn’t matter to me that. I am just looking one game at a time and we will go into the Easter weekend and try to pick up some points and we will see where that takes us.

“I don’t think we were good enough here, I thought we showed patches of what we can do. We can play, but we didn’t do that consistently enough.

“You can’t play like that for long periods of the game and expect to win football matches.”

Oldham Athletic (4-4-2): Daniel Iversen 6; George Edmundson 6, Tom Hamer 6, Peter Clarke 8, Alex Iacovitti 6; Johan Branger-Engone 8, Christopher Missilou 7, Mohamed Maouche 6, Gevaro Nepomuceno 6; Callum Lang 7, Chris O’Grady 5.

Subs: Jose Baxter 6 (for O'Grady 56), Mohamed Sylla 5 (for Mohamed Maouche 62), Dapo Afolaya 5 (for Branger-Engone 73).

Not used: Zeus de la Paz, Giles Coke, Jonathan Benteke, Rob Hunt.

Swindon Town (4-3-3): Luke McCormick; Kyle Knoyle, Dion Conroy, Luke Woolfenden, Ali Koiki; Michael Doughty, Danny Rose, Kyle Bennett; Keshi Anderson, Kaiyne Woolery, Theo Robinson

Subs: James Dunne (for Woolery 75), Ben House (for Rose 82), Jak McCourt (for Doughty 82).

Not used: Lawrence Vigouroux, Marc Richards, Tom Broadbent.

Referee: Martin Coy.

Attendance: 4,064.