SELIM Benachour says he was too busy to sleep after being asked to take interim charge of Oldham Athletic, which is just as well because the situation the club is in is the stuff of nightmares.

Latics were not just booed off after a derby defeat at Salford City, supporters berated them with expletive-filled chants and suggested they were “not fit to wear the shirt”.

Up until now Abdallah Lemsagam and his sporting director brother, Mo, have been the subject of fans’ anger for their role in the club’s decline under their stewardship.

With positive results hard to come by Keith Curle ultimately copped for it too from some - an increasing number towards the end of his eight-month reign.

But throughout it all Latics supporters have, by and large, got behind the players. Until now.

There have been games where they have been booed off at half-time, and occasionally full-time. But fans, no matter how frustrated by a performance, have always acknowledged the effort. However, at Salford on Saturday, a sell-out away following felt that endeavour - the very least that the paying public expect, no matter what - was sadly lacking, and they let the players know in no uncertain terms, which made for an awkward post-match scenario.

Benachour had decided that regardless of the final score he was going to gather players and staff together in the centre circle in what he hoped would be a show of unity; an opportunity for them to display a togetherness that would help to galvanise them for the fight ahead. At least that was the plan. All it served to do was send mixed messages, with some assuming that he was giving the players a dressing down, while others were simply bemused, questioning what the purpose of the exercise was.

They were even more baffled by some of Benachour’s post-match comments, which inferred that he was not so much a stop-gap until a permanent (if there is such a thing under an owner who has made 10 managerial changes in four years - with not one of them lasting a full season) but in it for the longer term.

English, of course, is not the Parisian’s first language, so things can easily get lost in translation. But there was talk of projects and philosophies and how time would be required to turn things around. Oldham Athletic simply do not have the luxury of time if they are to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first former Premier League club to be relegated from the Football League.

If there is a plan for life after Curle, it has yet to be communicated from the top. In the meantime there is confusion and deep, deep concern about the future of football club. And on Saturday there was carnage when a handful of flares in club colours were thrown onto the pitch from the away end, causing a brief stoppage in play.

No-one wants to see such scenes, but you suspect they will be more and more frequent, and potentially more disruptive, the more Lemsagam's heels are dug in.

And yet the afternoon had started quite positively. As the away end was filling up and the players had finished their pre-match warm-up they lined up along the halfway line then ran towards the fans and to a good reception.

Following much criticism of Curle’s back three Benachour had favoured a back four, with Zak Dearnley operating as a lone striker.

Salford were unbeaten in November in all competitions but Latics made the more positive start, with chances falling to Davis Keillor-Dunn - two in the opening three minutes - Dearnley and Jamie Hopcutt, but none of them could stretch goalkeeper Tom King, and Carl Piergianni was increasingly called upon to keep his old club at bay.

Benachour had only two days to prepare Latics for the game and the longer the game went on the more it showed with players unsure of their jobs, leading to Matthew Lund having a free header for the opener, from a free kick routine. A sucker punch on the stroke of half-time.

Latics had even more defending to do after the break.

They almost equalised through Jack Stobbs moments after he had come off the bench. But when the winger’s shot crashed off the crossbar, Salford quickly got up the other end, got the ball into the box courtesy of a long throw-in that was flicked on, and Brandon Thomas-Asante obliged on the volley.

Piergianni and Jamie Bowden went close in a goalmouth scramble from a late corner but by then Latics were clutching at straws.

A late winner for Carlisle compounded their misery as it thrust them back in the bottom two.

Latics might have had a change of leadership but it has not changed their fortunes. At least not yet.