After a 3 year exile from the Football League, Oldham Athletic secured their return with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Southend United after extra-time in the National League Promotion Final.

Understandably, Oldham boss Micky Mellon was ecstatic after earning his third promotion from the National League following successes with Tranmere Rovers and Fleetwood Town. He spoke to the BBC after the final whistle to give his thoughts on the Latics’ success;

“It’s an unbelievable achievement to turn it round and get a result from where we were. It’s a fantastic moment for us.

“This club is a monster. We were under a lot of pressure because we have a great family that back us – we needed to go up.

“It makes so much difference to everything about Oldham as a football club, we can really build forward behind the scenes now.

“It’s massive, it’s monstrous to get us in. Everything changes now for the club.”

Indeed, Mellon was quick to highlight the significance of their promotion, but he also took some time to acknowledge the challenges of getting out of the league and promote the National League‘s push for 3 teams to be promoted.

“There are some really big clubs in the National League who have been allowed to stagnate.

“York should have gone up automatically. You can’t win that amount of points and not go up automatically. It should be three up, three down. Teams like York and Southend would make the EFL better.

“I think the EFL has got to hand an olive branch out to its original members who are struggling.

“I’ve been in League Two and there are teams there who are not as ambitious or as big as those in the National League. It’s got to change.”

When Mellon achieved promotion to the EFL with Tranmere Rovers back in 2018, he then took them on a run through League Two that saw them earn back to back promotions up to League One.

Understandably, the prospect of repeating the trick is one that would excite Oldham fans. However, Mellon was much more coy on the matter, as he admitted that preparations for next season had not yet started.

“In terms of recruitment we are so many weeks behind. It’s crazy. We’re going to have to be back training in about four weeks. That’ll be tough but we would certainly have taken it.

“We’ll need to sit and organise properly but it’s something I am not too disappointed about having to do.

“We recruited a lot of these boys because we believed if we went up we’d be OK – we have a lot of league players there.

“We have been doing little bits behind the scenes, guys we’d have brought in anyway, but it does open things up a bit because a lot of people say ‘I want to be in the league’ so maybe it opens up a recruitment pull and makes it a lot better for trying to move this club forward.”

Following on from the BBC’s interview, Vavel had the privilege of talking to him about his expectations for the upcoming campaign, and Mellon seemed upbeat in his insights for next season, despite the lack of recruitment preparation;

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t be competitive at the top end. I believe that we have the capability and the backing to be able to have a go at the top end.”

With Mellon’s record in the division, comments like that will give Oldham fans plenty of belief that their success can continue.

For now though, Mellon will celebrate the success with his team, as he has successfully restored one of the founding members of the Premier League to their.

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