Fans spellbound by McNamee's wiggle! (From Swindon Advertiser)

Fans spellbound by McNamee's wiggle!

7:25am Monday 7th April 2008 in Sport By Andy Cryer

SIMON Cox may not be a fan of Anthony McMamee's wiggle' but you will not find many Town fans complaining if the exciting winger replicates Saturday's wizardry.

While the likes of Cox, Lee Peacock and Jon-Paul McGovern deserve their share of the plaudits for helping Town end a disastrous run of results in real style, there was only one name on everyone's lips after a stunning exhibition of wingmanship.

McNamee had struggled to settle in at the County Ground after a confidence-sapping last few months at Watford but his Oldham destruction will prove what many had expected for a while - a natural-born entertainer is in Wiltshire to stay.

While his assist for Lee Peacock's timely 49th-minute opener was straight forward, his exquisite slide-rule pass for Cox to end his goal drought just three minutes later was sublime to the extreme.

That was far from the whole story though as the 5ft 5ins left-winger tormented Town's play-off chasing visitors all afternoon - with some late show boating thrilling the crowd and rubbing salt into the Oldham wound.

Cox's brilliantly worked third goal from 20 yards, after some clever interplay with McGovern, put the seal on Town's first win in six and McNamee insists its importance can not be underestimated.

He said: "We were just glad to win the game because we knew we had to.

"We knew we were getting dragged into a relegation battle and we really needed the points.

"This club should not have been talking about relegation but if we had lost on Saturday it would have made things very difficult.

"We are just glad to get three points and we can look forward now.

"I enjoy putting crosses in, that is what I am there to do as a winger. I love creating goals."

There was no sign of Saturday's second-half demolition in a nervy first half that left a sparse County Ground crowd fearing the worst.

With lowly Gillingham taking the lead at Millwall, all knew there could be just two points between themselves and the drop zone come 5pm, but Maurice Malpas' men responded with huge character.

Malpas should take a bow for a brave decision of restoring Peacock to his former striking role, in the place of the unfortunate Billy Paynter, and the gamble paid off through his opener.

There was a slice of fortune in it, as McNamee's drilled shot hit Peacock to divert into the net, but there was no luck in the free-flowing display of football that followed to suggest real hope for the future.

Both sides has missed gilt-edged chances in a poor first half, Cox for Town and Chris Taylor for Oldham, but once Peacock had settled any nerves there was only ever one winner.

McNamee said: "We need to win the five games and take it on to the next year.

"We can't end the season poorly because that sometimes means you start the season on a poor string of results.

"But if we can keep the squad together we have a really good chance next year."