DAVID Unsworth feels his side can treat tomorrow's FA Cup tie at Wrexham as "a free hit" and shake off the current shackles of the league.

Latics have struggled to find their form all season, and have won only once in seven National League games under Unsworth so far.

But after the euphoria, and no shortage of relief, of a penalty shoot-out win against Chester set up a trip to league rivals Wrexham, the Latics boss hopes his players can take the opportunity to play with freedom and impress away from the pressures of the league.

Unsworth had previously made reaching the third round his cup goal for this season. And asked what a cup win at this stage of the competition would do for his side, particularly against a team of the calibre of high flying Wrexham, the Oldham boss said: "I think any win at any level is huge, what it does to the team and the confidence for your players.

"There's going to be a full house there it's a great occasion.

"It's a free hit for the players for me. It's a chance to go and play in a big game and impress and we'll see where that takes us.

"We'll take a great following again. The following against Halifax was just amazing. Unbelievable fans and an unbelievable following. I'm very proud of that, I thank them for that and I know they'll continue to follow us, stick with the boys and we'll be working as hard as we can to give them a decent performance and result on Sunday."

Wrexham were the visitors for Unsworth's first home game in charge, and while Latics surrendered a 1-0 lead at the death to lose 2-1, the Latics boss says they can take plenty of encouragement from their overall performance going into tomorrow's cup clash (kick-off 12.30pm).

"It's another game, it's going to be my 10th game. We had a great game against them here, they pipped us at the end, which was really disappointing," he said.

"We'd put so much effort into that game, and certainly that day the players showed me what they were all about. It was a great performance, we were just hanging on in the end and our fitness levels just blew up a little bit in the last 10 minutes.

"It was a great game though, they brought loads of fans and the stadium was bouncing. It was a really good performance and we'll be looking to do the same."