DAN Gardner looks set for a return to Oldham Athletic after playing in the club's first friendly as a trialist.

The former Chesterfield midfielder made over 70 appearances for Latics in all competitions between 2017 and 2019 before a season with Wigan Athletic.

The 32-year-old is available on a free transfer after coming to the end of his contract with Doncaster Rovers.

And a return to Boundary Park three years after his departure looks likely, although the speed of which it goes ahead could be dependent on the club's takeover.

Gardner played as 'Trialist A' during the first 45 minutes of Latics friendly with Bamber Bridge on Saturday, which ended in a goalless draw.

And although defender Liam Hogan was disappointed not to at least score against the Northern Premier League side, he said it was important not to read too much into the result at this early stage of pre-season as they build up to the opening day on August 6.

"It was the first chance to get on the grass as an XI and find out what the other lads are about and the pictures that we created on the pitch," said the summer signing.

"In terms of the opposition they'd had a couple of games and had been together a little bit longer, so for us it was more a bit of a feeler test, get your stats up in terms of the running and the rest of it and a bit of pitch geography in getting back in your position. There has been some hard work on the training ground with the ball at your feet and running.

"To get on a nice surface at Bamber Bridge and have an early test, see where we're at, see what we need to work on, as we probably would have known anyway there's stuff to do, which is normal.

"Obviously the result we should be looking at trying to get some goals against teams like this but all credit to them they worked really hard, they had patterns of play and they looked like they had an identity.

"For us I think now we can go away and look individually at ourselves and collectively as a group on certain areas that we're going to progress because we've still got a decent amount of time before we go into that Torquay game.

"The characters that we've got in the building will ensure we're ready to go for that game."

Former Salford and Stockport captain Hogan added: "It's about building up relationships in all areas from back to front, and when the ball's in motion in training in the 11-a-side set-ups we'll start to see more of an identity of what we're going to be about, play to our strengths and first and foremost be competitive; be a side that wants to run, run well and compete well and do the basics, and that sets you up then for players that we're going to have who have that quality to hopefully put that ball in the back of the net to hopefully get us on a winning run."