Josh Lundstram is hoping to achieve a career first this weekend and reach the FA Cup second round.

The midfielder was on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline against Swindon the season before last, when he was at Crewe, while last season with Altrincham he missed out on the first round proper completely.

This year, after helping Latics knock his former club out of the competition at the fourth qualifying round stage once more, he is looking to progress again.

Newport County stand in Oldham's way. And while a trip to south Wales is not the most favourable tie they could have had, Lundstram is looking at the opportunities it offers.

"It will be interesting, and it will be good to test ourselves against a team from the league above because that's where we want to be next season," said the midfielder, who also has a personal incentive.

"I've never won a game in the first round of the cup.

"To be fair last season we didn't get to the first round, and I did see a stat that Oldham had never not been in the first round so it was a good job we won at Altrincham.

"The other previous time I was involved in the first round with Crewe we lost to Swindon so hopefully I can put that right and get into round two for the first time.

"And if we can get past Newport you never know who we could get in round two. There will still be teams lower down the pyramid than us, if you get one of them all of a sudden you're into round three and that's when you could draw anyone in the country.

"We'll be aiming to stay in this competition for as long as we possibly can."

It might not be a road to Wembley, but knowing how close Latics came to that in their relatively recent history proved to be inspiration for the players as Paul Murray prepared them for their fourth qualifying round tie at Altrincham.

Ahead of his only game in interim charge before new boss Micky Mellon's first day at the club, Murray spoke to the squad about just what was at stake.

"He really got into us and you could tell the passion that he has for the club and he wanted to put that over to us as players to make us realise that this is a big competition for Oldham to be in," Lundstram explained.

"When you listen to older people talk about the memories and the moments this football club has had you think 'How on earth are we in the National League now?'.

"It's important for us as players to know that when we're on the pitch we're Oldham, we need to be in the FA Cup first round, which is what we did."

The 24-year-old added: "I was aware of the history of the club, but as a group before the game to get across just how much it means to the fans and the whole club for us to do well in the FA Cup, Muzza really brought that across for that game."