LATICS boss Ronnie Moore made a thinly-veiled threat to his players after they threw away victory at Vale Park on Wednesday.

Having led twice through Luke Beckett and Chris Killen goals, Moore was furious they allowed substitute Chris Cornes to equalise with his first two goals in league football - the second coming in the 90th minute.

While accusing his players of being unprofessional, he also criticised his defenders for dropping deeper and deeper as the match progressed and inviting Vale onto them.

Moore raged: "If they're as hungry as me, they're going to be sick because I feel like someone's put a knife in me. I've said that if they don't feel like that, they can go.

"Richie Wellens, where was he? We need him on the ball. If the defenders had gone any deeper they would have needed a snorkel.

"At 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go, we should see the clock out but we didn't."

After a day-long downpour which left surrounding areas resembling an Olympic swimming pool, Latics suffered an early setback when Mark Bonner sustained a broken arm when colliding with team-mate Rob Scott in trying to clear a cross.

Having started the brighter of the two sides, Latics took a 15th minute lead when Wellens' through ball was cut out by George Pilkington, only for it to rebound to Beckett 10 yards out and he duly beat Mark Goodlad.

Without a goal in four-and-a-half hours, Vale huffed and puffed around the Latics penalty area but were mainly restricted to long shots, most of which were off target.

When they did manage to get inside the box, Vale saw Latics players blocking efforts left, right and centre with Terrell Forbes and Richard Butcher both getting in the way of goalbound shots.

It was a ricochet that gave the Valiants their best chance of the half when, after Wellens tackled Danny Sonner, the ball looped up for the normally prolific Billy Paynter who screwed a volley well wide.

With the Oldham defence dropping deeper after half-time, it was the hosts who enjoyed the better chances as Chris Day was forced to claw a Sonner header behind and George Abbey drilled a 25-yarder over.

The equaliser arrived on 71 minutes when Mickey Bell's corner found its way to Sam Collins at the far-post. He drilled a shot back across goal for Cornes to stab home from six yards.

However, it looked as if Latics would head up the M6 with all three points when they retook the lead with 10 minutes remaining.

Andy Liddell's corner led to a scramble in the six-yard area which ended with Killen driving the loose ball into the corner.

Back came Vale though and their pressure told in the 90th minute when Cornes rose above Forbes and Rob Scott to head through Day's legs and leave Moore looking visibly upset.

He added: "They can't be scoring on the back post, Scott's got to take everything. Two crosses to the back post have caused us problems and have done so all night. I've asked if it hurts them enough because sometimes you wonder."

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