When it comes to summing up his first 100 days in charge of Oldham Athletic, it is a case of so far, so good, for Micky Mellon. But the journey has only just begun.

The Scot reached the milestone - one that has become significant through his book The First 100 Days: Lessons In Leadership From The Football Bosses - on Sunday. And while he was frustrated by not having the opportunity to celebrate with a sixth straight away win as a frozen pitch meant Saturday's game at Eastleigh could not be played, he is encouraged by the progress being made, both in terms of league position and making the squad more his own.

"If someone had said that we would be in the play-offs zone and the position we are in from when I first came in I would have taken that," said Mellon.

"It's nice to have that 100 days around the place and to be able to get to know it better and see the direction we want to go in.

"I've got to know the building as well as what I do and everyone in it. It's about kicking on now. There's still a big job to be done. But to be in the position we are in now, with 19 games left, I'm pleased with that. But I'm pleased as in it's a good position to do more work and get as high up the table as we can."

An Amazon synopsis of the book, which Mellon wrote with Phil Denton, reads: "The First 100 Days: Lessons In Leadership From The Football Bosses is both an entertaining book for football fans and a self-help manual for those embarking on a leadership challenge of their own.

"A host of top football managers including Manchester United's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, former England boss Sam Allardyce, West Ham no.1 David Moyes and (then) Burnley chief Sean Dyche reveal the inside story of their first days in the job and explain the secret strategies that enabled them to lay the all-important foundations for success.

"The first 100 days are crucial for a new leader in any walk of life but for a football manager, get it wrong and you will be lucky to last that long."

Over the course of his first 100 days at Boundary Park Mellon has met various challenges. But, he says, the biggest of them came at the start of his tenure.

"When you come in at the stage of the season we did with an already established group in the building, trying to find a way of that scoring goals and keeping clean sheets and trying to move that ahead will always be difficult," explained the former Shrewsbury and Tranmere boss.

"You've just got to keep your focus and it's one baby step at a time, and keep moving it forward.

"We knew there was an appetite in the building to keep moving it forward.

"I hadn't recruited any of the group at that stage and trying to get new players, while playing games and getting results, that's always difficult."

After getting off to a flyer in the derby day win at Rochdale, Mellon had a prolonged wait for his first home league win in charge. But he insists he was never pre-occupied by that.

"I wasn't worried about the points tally. I don't care where I win games," he said.

"I would obviously like to be very dominant at home but we kind of know why we don't maybe perform as well as we would like to at home.

"The way we set up the team to play to get a result is more suited to playing away from home, but that's something we are looking at.

"Working forward we want to be a team that dominates the ball and to do that you recruit or try to make player in the building better.

"A lot of improvement will be made.

"It's about communicating what your vision is, the behaviour that's needed and the kind of attitude needed to be a good team, and to drive those standards.

"I'm quite calm about that and quite controlled and go about my days to make sure we keep building; building that culture."

To put his own stamp on things, Mellon has had a busy January in the transfer market, adding winger Ethan Walker, right back Sai Sachdev and striker Andrew Dallas on loan, while Tom Conlon and Oliver Hammond on permanent deals. And there are more in the pipeline.

"I've been in football for a long time. I know what I'm working towards," the Latics boss said.

"I know what the gaps are and the areas I want to improve but we're certainly moving forward."