Micky Mellon’s first week in charge began with an unforgettable win at Rochdale and ended with an appalling defeat at AFC Fylde, which will hopefully be forgotten as soon as possible.

On Saturday, Oldham were dynamic in attack and could quite easily have scored more than the four which ended up being enough for the three points and, whilst defensively it wasn’t great, we fully deserved the three points.

Special mention must be made of Hallam Hope. Brought back into the fold on the recommendation of Paul Murray, Hope had an outstanding game having a hand in most of the goals including scoring a beautiful finish for the important third, which got us back on track after 15 minutes of going to sleep and allowing Dale back into the game at 2-2.

Over 3000 travelling fans celebrated deliriously when James Norwood scored the fourth and then had the nail-biting end with Rochdale attacking us at will in the 16 minutes of stoppage time, at least in part caused by a very small minority of fans’ misbehaviour which was the only dampener on a fantastic day for all involved.

Relief at the final whistle and Mellon celebrated at the front and centre in front of the away end, as he, promisingly, starts to build a relationship with the blue and white army immediately.

Tuesday saw us have over half the attendance at Fylde and there was an air of anticipation but, as Mellon himself very honestly said after the game, we simply didn’t turn up and apply ourselves in anywhere near the way we need to do if we are to start looking upwards in the league.

Even the normally reliable Shaun Hobson and Mark Kitching had off-days and when that happens, you know there’s trouble ahead.

No matter where Fylde attacked us, they had success, particularly down our right where Will Sutton struggled, as he has on a couple of occasions previously when up against a dynamic winger as he was at Mill Farm in Josh Kay.

There wasn’t any leadership or on-field organisation to speak of, and defensively we were all over the show with Mat Hudson having to make a number of saves, all of them routine but he has to make them all the same, against a profligate home attack.

Once Liam Hogan was sent off for his second booking with a foul he shouldn’t have committed, though he may well have been fouled himself first, the game was over before half-time.

Mellon will have learned a huge amount about his squad over these two vastly different away games and it will be very interesting to see where he begins to make changes, starting with his first home game, where bouncebackability will be the order of the day against Altrincham at Boundary Park.