Maamria: Oldham 'totally dominated' against Cobblers

Maamria's comments will come as a surprise to most people who were in attendance at Boundary Park given Town were in control for so much of the contest.

Matty Warburton's sixth-minute opener set Cobblers on their way as they chased a fourth successive victory before Andy Williams scored a late second.

But Scott Wilson and Jonny Smith notched twice in four minutes to rescue a point for the Latics, who nonetheless dropped a place to 20th in Sky Bet League Two.

"The draw is the least we deserved," claimed Maamria. "Take out the first 10 minutes of the game, we totally dominated. We were unlucky not to score, the second goal for them came against the run of play and hurt us.

"But everyone here is seeing the type of team we're trying to build. The character, personality and resilience of the team. This team a few weeks ago 2-0 down would've lost that game three or four probably.

"Now we're not a team that will throw two-goal leads, we're a team that will come back from 2-0 against a big, good Northampton team that have been keeping clean sheets and that's the biggest positive."

Despite his side netting in the 85th and 89th minutes, Maamria felt it was the Cobblers who were fortunate to escape with a point.

"They were hanging on for the draw," he added. "Mohamed Maouche had a brilliant chance to work inside and then outside of the defenders and then hit it with his left foot, it was going in but their defender did well to clear it.

"What a fantastic finish that would be if we win that 3-2. Overall, we've got to take from it is we're building a good team, a resilient team, a never-say-die attitude and that's what we want to see.

"It's another step forward. It was always going to be a difficult game. The last three games have been difficult games and we came away with two draws and a win, it could've been better but it's not. We'll take that though now and build on it."