At the moment, every Latics game seems to be exactly the same — great work from the forwards being undone by defensive and goalkeeping errors.

Once again Conor McAleny showed why keeping him at the club after the January window was important, bagging a brace and coming close to making it a hat-trick.

His contract is up at the end of the season and it is difficult to see a way in which he will stay at Boundary Park next year having already amassed 16 goals in all competitions.

Kewell’s tactical shift complimented the way in which McAleny plays and is something which could work going forwards.

Changing to a 4-4-2 formation allowed the striker to flourish, no longer pegged down by the fact he had to play out wide.

The changes were largely the correct ones. Marcel Hilssner sat deeper in the game against Newport County and, in doing that again, his ability to dictate play came to the fore.

Davis Keillor-Dunn, Alfie McCalmont and Dylan Bahamboula injected life into the midfield and provided the greatest threat going forwards.

Bobby Grant’s role was one which largely worked.

He held up the ball well for the faster players around him in the final third, working well with the long balls which captain Carl Piergianni seems to want to play from back to front.

Yet despite scoring three and providing one of the best attacking performances of the season, the defence equally had one of their worst outings.

Latics were caught out though simple errors – failing to jump for the ball in the box, failing to block off crosses.

If fit, then Harry Clarke would do a much better job at the back than Sido Jombati.

Andrea Badan may have been good going forward, his pace dangerous down the left flank, but his qualities as a defender left much to be desired.

Oldham were left open far too often on that wing and it gave Forest Green a chance to break through — Cameron Borthwick-Jackson would greatly help with that when he returns.

Ian Lawlor, too, was at fault just as he has been before this year.

Again, it was a lack of the basics which proved costly. With the ball dropping into the box, he failed to get a hold of it or even punch it away, allowing a simple second goal from a position which should have been easy to defend for Latics.

In the league, Latics still only have one clean sheet and have conceded a staggering 50 goals.

More needs to be done to rectify this, or the gaping hole at the back will continue to undo all of the hard work in front of goal.