But it was a slow start.

In a first half of few chances, Hornets dominated possession, but couldn't turn their obvious dominance into points. Again the much-publicised half back situation meant that the ball was slow away from the ruck area and the back of the scrum, leaving the Hornets forwards to drive the ball in order to make any real progress.

And it's something they did to great effect - Matt Sturm leading the charge as a willing Hornets pack pushed the Oldham defence backwards at every opportunity. But Oldham defended in numbers, lying on every tackle for as long as possible - three at a time at times - in order to slow the game down.

And, for 40 minutes it worked - Hornets frustrated into gaining ground yard by yard. The only respite in a gruelling first half were two freak-show tries. Hornets were first onto the score board on the quarter hour: A Firth dink into the in-goal pin-balled off Oldham defenders and Lee Patterson loitering by the loose ball to touch down.

Oldham's response came on the half hour: a grubber to the line ricocheting off a post; wrong footing the Hornets defence and leaving Percival with a short-range walk in. Bizzare stuff.

The only other real chance of the half was a Hornets touch-down from another Firth grubber, struck off by an eagle-eyed touch-judge who stood his ground when ref Hewer looked happy to point to the spot.

The half ended with Tommy Goulden sent for a ten-minute breather after he failed to pull out of an attempted charge-down on a Svabic bomb. Ah well...

And so it was: four-all at the break and defences on top.

Hornets started the second half with significantly more purpose. An early kick-through forced an Oldham drop-out. The tantalisingly bouncing kick was snatched from the fingertips of the onrushing Oldham defence by Dave McConnell whose deft pass sent Mark McCully back under the posts with the ball.

The introduction of Phil Cantillon from the bench was the catalyst for Hornets to swipe the game beyond Oldham's reach. His punishing scoots around the play-the-ball caused havoc in the Roughyeds' defence - and his industry at acting half gave Dave McConnell the time and space to open up the Oldham defence almost at will.

Having been held up over the line just before the hour, his impeccable 'show and go' minutes later unzipped the defence and his slick pass sent Lee Patterson 60 metres for a superb try.

McConnell repeated the feat on 70 minutes; ghosting through flailing tackles to sprint 50 metres. Under close scrutiny from Oldham full-back Barber, he had the foresight to lay the ball back for Giles to gather and take it under the posts. McCully goaled: game well and truly over.

Oldham worked a well-taken consolation try at the death: Percival again capitalising on a Svabic chip, but it was a minimal contribution to a second half bossed in all departments by a Hornets side unrecognisable from the first half's effort.

Ultimately, any win at Oldham can't be sniffed at, but there's little doubt that this Roughyeds side is a pale shadow of the teams that held the upper hand in our corner of East Lancashire for so many years.

Certainly, the Oldhamers in the crowd of just 756 were deeply unhappy about their side's performance - and not too optimistic about the future: particularly as Keighley's win over Halifax saw the Roughyeds slump to the bottom of our Northern Rail Cup group.

But with five from five, winning is a good habit for Hornets to get into. And Darren Abram was pleased with his team's work-ethic: "We were very solid," he said: "Derby games are full of passion and this was no exception. The game was a good advert for the sport at National League level - and I felt our defence was superb."

Indeed, qualification for the knockout stages of this competition gives Abram a great foundation to build on for the coming season.