Stevenage fought back from behind once again to take back a share of the spoils at Oldham's Boundary Park...
After a positive first half which saw Stevenage strike the woodwork and create a whole host of chances, the Latics struck early in the second and held onto their lead until added time when Kurtis Guthrie rose to meet Ilias Chair's corner and draw Boro level.
The drama wasn't quite over as Chair would then go onto rattle the crossbar in the dying seconds, with a chance to take all three points.
Dino Maamria named just one change to the side that lost out to Northampton six days earlier, replacing Jordan Gibson with Arthur Iontton.
Both sides got off to a rather tentative start to proceedings and it took until the 10th minute for the first real chance of note to come about. Dearnley blasting over the bar from a prime goalscoring position as the Latics swarmed forward in numbers.
It was about as good of a chance that Oldham would have throughout the opening period as Stevenage slowly got on top of the game, nullifying the opposition’s threat whilst creating the better chances going forward.
Luke Wilkinson had a golden opportunity to take the lead when connecting to Byrom’s free-kick on 15 minutes. Unmarked from about 6 yards out, the centre-back couldn’t direct his effort goalwards.
Ilias Chair was lively as usual and came a superb Daniel Iversen save away from making it 1-0 a few minutes later. After Makasi was felled right on the edge of the box, Chair’s effort seemed destined for the top corner if not for Iversen’s heroics. Following the save, play was recycled and Wilkinson again headed wide from a decent position.
Prior to the game, Callum Lang was earmarked as Oldham’s biggest attacking danger but aside from a header which he skewed wide, the Wigan loanee saw little of the ball inside the first half.
Maamria surprised supporters with a substituion on 28 minutes, bringing on Kurtis Guthrie for Joel Byrom which saw Makasi fall back into midfield alongside Timlin and Iontton.
As the half began to come to a close, Stevenage upped the ante and had a number of good opportunities in the ten minutes leading up to the whistle. Guthrie headed wide on 40 minutes before the best chance of the game fell to Revell, who forced a superb stop from Iversen with a half-volley from the edge of the area that crashed off the crossbar and out.
Oldham came out of the blocks quickly to start the second half and soon punished Stevenage for being wasteful prior to the break. Jose Baxter, in a rich vein of form, fired in from 25 yards after just a minute from the restart.
Lang should have doubled the visitors advantage after 55 minutes as he came inches away from latching onto a low cross that flashed across the 6 yard box.
It took a while but Boro began to grow into the second half, helped by the introductions of Ronnie Henry and Emmanuel Sonupe into the fold. Alex Revell hit another ambitious half-volley towards on 70 minutes, this one not troubling the goalkeeper as it flew into the away end.
Ilias Chair led a dangerous-looking counter charged five minutes later and with both Revell and Guthrie in support, he opted to lay it out for Revell whose cross towards Guthrie was well cut-out.
Gevar Nepomuceno brought the best out of Paul Farman with 10 minutes remaining, firing a rocket of a shot towards the top corner as Boro were caught on the break, which Farman did brilliantly well to get across and push wide.
The Latics could have wrapped up the victory as they bombarded the box for a five minute spell towards the end of the game, but Boro held out to allow for another blockbuster finish.
With just three minutes of added time displayed and after a glutten of corners and free-kicks throughout the game, Kurtis Guthrie finally made it count as he met Chair's corner to send the Stevenage fans wild and Oldham fans into despair.
There was still time for Chair to crash an effort off the crossbar with the last action of the game, a dipping free-kick from the edge of the box that had Iversen beaten.
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