KEITH Curle has encouraged Latics owners, board members and senior club staff to open lines of communication with supporters in the hope of bringing an end to their feud.

Oldham's Carabao Cup penalty shoot-out win over Accrington Stanley was overshadowed by the demonstration that took place in the fifth minute of the game, when play was halted after tennis balls were hurled onto the pitch from a section of the crowd.

Protests continued after the game, both on the pitch when a number of supporters gathered in front of the directors' box with banners and chanting for owner Abdallah Lemsagam to quit the club, while demonstrations continued in front of the main stand once the stands had emptied.

There had been similar scenes on the pitch at the final whistle of last Saturday's defeat at home to Colchester United, which left Latics rooted to the foot of the League Two table.

Supporters groups have united with calls for a meeting with the Lemsagam brothers - owner Abdallah and his brother Mo, the club's sporting director - in an attempt to bring to a head the potential crisis facing the club, and reiterated calls for them to sell.

And Curle says he feels communication between all parties would be a step in the right direction.

"Mistakes have been made and lack of communication has been identified and is something that the football club are well aware of, and they are of the mindset that they value the opinions and those lines of communication have got to be opened up again," said Curle.

"I think lines of communication are vital.

"Obviously I've got daily contact with Mo, he's the sporting director so my line of communication is directly with Mo on a daily basis.

"Abdallah I've spoken to a few times on the phone.

"Karl Evans the CEO, Michael Beech the secretary, I go down to the ground four times a week and we have face-time communications and we talk everything - all football matters, all football club matters that are going on, so that we are all in the loop, which is vitally important."

With regard to fans' calls for Abdallah Lemsagam to sell the club, Curle add: "I think something got mentioned by Simon Jordan on talkSPORT that just because supporters start shouting and screaming they want supporters out, business wise it may not be the right thing for this football club at this particular time.

"Have the football club made mistakes? I think they have openly owned up and said if they had another opportunity they would do things differently, but ultimately their desire to improve this football club hasn't waned in any way."