Oldham Athletic's unbeaten mini-run came to an end at the hands of Halifax.

Latics were reduced to 10 men in the second half when Mike Fondop was sent off for an off the ball incident.

And from there on it felt like David Unsworth's side were up against 12 men with a succession of appalling refereeing decisions by Dave Watson, which included a free kick against Josef Yarney when he was bundled over in the box, and substitute Timmy Abraham was not only booked for winning a 50-50 challenge, he was also denied a clear penalty.

But Latics cannot just put defeat down to a dreadful refereeing performance, they simply were not at the races from the word go, struggling to put passes together and register efforts at goal.

Halifax started on the front foot, and had they been able to ask more questions of Magnus Norman then they could have done some damage to the scoreline early on.

But it wasn't until just before the break that Halifax registered their first shot on target, albeit a comfortable save for Magnus Norman as Max Wright rolled it straight at the keeper from just outside the area.

Latics needed a better tempo to the second half to make an impact in the game.

But any chance of building momentum was scuppered when Fondop was sent off for raising an arm at Jack Senior nine minutes into the second half.

David Unsworth's side toiled with 10 men, but salt was rubbed into the wounds when Halifax were awarded a penalty for a questionable handball just over 10 minutes later.

Norman saved Mani Dieseruvwe's spot kick but the former Oldham man was able to bury the rebound, condemning Latics to their first league defeat of 2023.