Despite the gale force wind that howled around Boundary Park, it was a display of dropped ball, unforced errors poor marking at acting half and, frankly, daft penalties that saw Hornets blown away by an Oldham side that kept it simple and direct.

Indeed, it was 'ball-thru-hands' football that saw blunt instrument Nanyn crash in after 9 minutes. Hornets responded well. Dodgy fulback St Hilaire coughed the kick-off in spectacular style and, three tackles later, Martin Ainscough slotted Chris Spurr in to level the scores. So far so good.

But Hornets' passes and tackles increasingly failed to stick and Oldham's route-one technique made light of the conditions. Oldham took advantage of the possession they were gifted and scored quick-fire tries from close-range from Roberts and Roden.
Then came the evening's freak try; Coyle's grubber rebounded back off a post, hit a retreating Hornets defender and Littler seized on the bobbling ball to touch down. Nanyn added the extras and Oldham went in at the break 22-4 to the good.

No doubt inspired by a somewhat serious chat at half time, Hornets did start the second half brighter, and the first meaningful foray into Oldham's half saw Wayne Corcoran peel from the back of a scrum and jink 25 metres to score. Then Hornets battened down the hatches to frustrate Oldham with some stern defence.

But, again, slips in concentration began to reveal cracks that Oldham cheerfully prised open. Three late scores from O'Connor, Hilaire and Coyle gave Oldham their long awaited win and the Hornets faithful were left to analyse another game where 110% effort was undone by poor ball control, positional naivety and questionable discipline.

The look on Bobbie Goulding's face told the tale of his frustration - and with five days to turn this round, there might well be the odd icy blast coming at training this week.