Typically, Hornets failed to get off the ground from the whistle and, with Oldham winger Munro nicking in at the corner after just two minutes, it looked like it’d be one of those afternoons.

But Hornets, temporarily found the right gear when Sam Butterworth bounced across the Oldham line before scything through Bibey to score. McCully added the extras.

Turner added a penalty after 10 minutes to level the scores, but Hornets went back in front almost immediately: Dave McConnell’s great short pass to John Hill in space; Hill delaying his pass just enough to send Butterworth through.

But Oldham wouldn’t go away: First Johnson in at the corner (Turner slotting the extras from the touchline), then two further penalties complemented by a Hough drop goal sent Oldham in at the break 10-17 up.

With the game reduced to a series of scrappy set plays and Oldham playing the only discernible football on display, it was imperative that Hornets scored first after the break. As it was, Goddard broke through centre field and rounded Giles to score with less than two minutes on the clock. Awful.

Hornets did, eventually, shake themselves. makeshift props Dave Cunliffe and Paul Anderson began to bang the Oldham defence backwards and, on 55 minutes, neat hands from McConnell and McCully up the blind-side found Dave Alstead with enough pace to round the defence and score. McCully hit the target from wide-out and Hornets were in with a sniff.

Ten minutes later it wa McCully himself who prsed his way through defenders to score - his conversion reducing the deficit to one point.

Hornets undoubtedly had the momentum and Oldham looked shot, but another Turner Penalty gave them breathing space and they sucked in hard for the last fifteen minutes.

As it was, the Oldham defence stood resolute - and when referee King miscounted the tackles on Hornets’ last set (indicating ‘five’ after only three following a break in play while Bobbie Goulding was erroneously dismissed from the dug-out after a touch-judge mistakenly accused him of a comment), it was a done deal.

Goulding was incandescent afterwards: ‘We’ve got too many players in the comfort-zone,’ he said. ‘We made too many mistakes, had no kicking game whatsoever and had no-one bossing the game. Oldham out-enthused us.’

And, with Hornets, again, out-scoring the opposition 4 tries to 3 and still losing, we could well expect a dramatic shake-up. More of the game photos