During his former days with West Brom and Coventry City, Lee Hughes always seemed to score goals against Crewe Alexandra and now that he trying to resurrect his career at Oldham Athletic following a spell in prison, the prolific striker carried on where he left off with the winning goal this afternoon. Hughes did look to be in an offside position when converting the chance five minutes before the half-time interval but the assistant referee kept his flag down and the goal was enough to decide this FA Cup tie.

Amazingly, Crewe's best chance of a game came in the opening 30 seconds when Ryan Lowe dragged a good chance wide of the target after Simon Church had sent him clear. Crewe huffed and puffed and generally improved in the second period, but didn't create that one real good chance which could have forced a replay at Gresty Road.

Oldham are in the hat for the third round draw as number 47, but for Crewe our involvement in the cup competitions are over before Christmas.

With Julien Baudet and Daniel O'Donnell deemed not fit enough to return to action from their back injuries, and with Manchester United not granting us permission to play David Gray at right full-back, Crewe's first team coach Steve Holland put his faith in the inexperienced Mat Bailey at centre-half. Bailey had previously made a couple of brief substitute performances away at Swindon and at home to Northampton a couple of weeks ago but this FA Cup tie was his first senior start. Gray's forced absence meant Danny Woodards moved back to right-back after his outing in the centre last weekend at Nottingham Forest.

Nicky Maynard is awfully close to a return from his ankle injury but had to make do with a place on the bench, alongside fellow striker Cedric Baseya.

Crewe had a golden chance to take the lead in the opening 30 seconds of the match! Bailey made his first contribution with a powerful header, which found Simon Church and although he was impeded during his run forward, he still managed to pass the ball onto his strike partner Ryan Lowe. He was clean through on Mark Crossley's goal but screwed his low shot wide of the right hand post.

That early scare for the home side prompted them into life and they began to impose their neat passing game on the proceedings. They certainly began to apply some pressure in the Alex half and created their first chance on seven minutes. A passing sequence in and around the Alex penalty area eventually saw Neil Kilkenny force Ben Williams into a fine save. He got down exceeding well to turn it around his left hand post for the first corner of the afternoon.

Oldham also forced Ben Williams into another smart save after Kilkenny had picked out Deane Smalley, but his ambitious flick was well held by the Crewe number one on his line. Moments later Reuben Hazell met a Kilkenny corner head on but unfortunately for the defender, his effort was deflected over the Alex cross bar by his own player Craig Davies.

Oldham were certainly making better of use of the ball than Crewe and looked the most likely side to create a chance. Crewe were finding it difficult to find their front players and were rather hasty with their passing and that encouraged Oldham to keep making inroads into our half.

Williams was not being tested too often but he was called into action to deny a decent enough shot from Davies and then he had to leave his line to deny Lee Hughes as he attempted to get onto a long clearance.

On 27 minutes, the Crewe defence were really exposed for the first time. Hughes latched onto a lack of concentration from Bailey, to set up Gary McDonald and his powerful shot was hit too centrally to really test Williams. It was too fierce to hold though and from the rebound Smalley tried to turn it back into the six-yard box only for the well-placed Woodards to whack it clear.

Crewe were giving the ball away from too cheaply and that was encouraging Oldham to pile the pressure on. Hughes swung and missed a decent chance in front of Ben Williams and the former West Brom forward then deflected an effort from Smalley onto the top of the goal netting.

Just after the half-an-hour mark Hughes also tried his luck from 25 yards out. He kept it down enough but Williams again read it well to catch his effort in mid-flight. Mark Allott also thumped one just wide, as Crewe began looking towards the clock and the comfort of the interval. We didn't quite manage it.

The pressure finally told with five minutes of the first half remaining and shock horror it was our old nemesis Lee Hughes turning in a Taylor ball into the box from close range. To be fair to the Alex defence, Hughes looked a least a couple of yards offside when he gobbled up the chance. The Alex defence certainly looked towards the referee's assistant but he was on his way back to the half way line. It will certainly be worth looking at again on the DVD. For their efforts Oldham certainly deserved to go in at the break ahead and Steve Holland had some work to do to get more from his side.

It was no great surprise that Maynard came on at the interval for Ryan Lowe to get 45 minutes under his belt. He pressed forward to give Church some much needed support.

Hughes and Bailey enjoyed an early clash but the referee handled it relatively well and let both players off with a telling off rather than a card. Bailey was soon in the opposition penalty area trying to turn in our first corner of the afternoon. Church did well to win the first header and Stefan Stam blocked Bailey's shot on the turn. At the other end of the pitch Davies shot wastefully over the bar.

Just before the hour mark, Bailey was back on defensive duty denying Hughes a clear shot at our goal after he had tricked his way past Chris McCready. Bailey came across covering for his defensive partner and blocked the shot for a corner.

Crewe certainly looked more of an attacking threat with Maynard and Church linking up pretty well as a partnership but Oldham's vastly experienced keeper Mark Crossley wasn't being tested enough.

Oldham were not carving out that many chances either and with time running out Gary Robert made way for Elliott Bennett. Ben Rix moved into the centre of midfield.

With 15 minutes remaining, the influential Kilkenny side-footed tamely into the arms of the well-positioned Ben Williams.

Holland's last throw of the dice saw the towering Frenchman Cedric Baseya replace Moore. With just over ten minutes remaining, Crewe had nothing to lose and were prepared to go longer if needs be. Baseya tried to make an instant impression but his first shot was tame and easily collect by Crossley.

Maynard's only real sight of goal saw Crossley smother the ball as the Alex striker tried to hurdle the former Welsh International goalkeeper. With a minute left on the clock, Church shot well over it and with it Crewe Alexandra's involvement in the FA Cup looked as good as over.

In stoppage time, Crewe had one last chance to save the day with Billy Jones' wicked free-kick nearly reaching Mat Bailey at the far post. It wasn't to be a dream debut for the big man.