Paul Hurst hails 'hard-fought' victory for Shrewsbury Town

Jon Nolan's second-half winner added to Stefan Payne opener for Town, who made it seven wins from eight.

Town's fans celebrated wildly at full-time as the side weathered a considerable storm thrown at them by the Latics, who created endless chances.

Town climb five points clear at the top ahead of huge league games against Blackburn, Doncaster and Scunthorpe.

"It was very hard-fought," said Hurst. "I think both teams had moments where they looked the better side.

"They'll be wondering how they didn't take the lead at the beginning of the second-half when Doyle hits the post.

"That was one we got away with but we gradually got back into it in the second period."

Town flew out of the traps and deservedly led but lost momentum after their goalscorer went off with a cut face following his brave finish.

Oldham had gone into the game on the back of an encouraging point at Fleetwood and a win at Bristol Rovers.

The boss added: "I was pleased with how we started. For some reason we didn't quite win the second ball and we took our foot off the gas a little bit.

"We'd said at half-time that the game was there to win but we did come up against an improving Oldham side.

"In Craig Davies and Doyle they'll give anyone a tough game defensively if they get the service.

"The lads defended well at times and other times could've done better.

"But overall I'm not going to be too critical of coming here, when they've had two good results, to go away with the points is excellent."

Nolan scored his second goal in two games with the winner, an accurate finish into the corner after he met Alex Rodman's cut-back.

The boss had asked for more goals from his midfield maestro.

"We know he's got that in his make-up, to score more goals and it's down to him because he's got the energy to go up and down the pitch," added the boss.

"He had a couple of other positions when he was up there and it didn't quite happen.

"He's a good footballer but we came up against a team that can mix it up very nicely, they hit a lot of diagonals to Davies, while they also got the lad Byrne - an excellent footballer - to make things happen in midfield."