The Latics kicked off last Saturday with an exciting season opener at Stevenage. The breathtaking game had almost everything including 12 yellow cards, two penalties and amazing comebacks. Jose Baxter scored two penalties, one was a follow up to a save, and the other markers came from James Tarkowski and Cristian Montano. Both of the open play goals were spectacular in execution.
The visitors had five debutants in Mark Oxley, new captain Korey Smith, James Dayton, Adam Rooney and Charlie MacDonald. The up front pairing of Rooney and MacDonald gave the large contingent of following supporters a lot of confidence for the coming season.
The first goal came a minute before the interval but it came for Stevenage through Charles. Five minutes after half-time the Latics found a deserved equaliser through Tarkowski and it was a peach! Baxter lofted a free-kick from the right and Tarkowski volleyed the ball home past former Latics' keeper Chris Day.
The Latics then went in front with the first of Baxter's spot kicks and minutes later Montano ran almost the full length of the field before finishing off with a cheeky chip over Day. At 3-1 it looked all over but with seven minutes left the score was brought back to 3-3 by the home side. The Latics could have settled for a point but just minutes later Baxter was awarded his second spot kick and he made no mistake and he stroked the basll home into the bottom corner of the net.