A draw against the soon-to-be champions, Chesterfield, was no less than Oldham deserved on Saturday after a superb performance of grit, determination and good football.

This was a team on Saturday who wanted to win and wanted to show that they could match the best in the division, if not dominate them.

Having taken a two-goal lead, the only disappointment really was not holding onto that, especially as the performance overall was worthy of three points and we squandered a number of good chances as well as being unlucky in hitting the bar.

However, now is not the time to dwell on those. Now is the time to praise Latics for doing exactly what the manager and the fans have been crying out for, and that I have mentioned regularly in this column, showing a mentality of wanting to go out and win every ball, a mentality of wanting the ball and being attacking with it with precision and skill and a mentality of playing for an Oldham team looking for promotion.

They were led from the front by Andy Dallas and the utterly outstanding James Norwood, who formed an excellent partnership creating a number of chances, especially for Dallas, with Norwood of course scoring the first from the penalty spot.

In midfield, Tom Conlon wanted the ball and used it positively throughout alongside the returning Josh Lundstram, who was reinvigorated after his recent spell out of the side. Dan Gardner scored the second and fully deserved his ovation from all sides of the ground when he was substituted.

With the defence looking largely solid (save for a couple of silly errors leading to their goals, including the soft penalty given away) and backed up by Mat Hudson as ever, this was probably the best all-round team performance of the season.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time with seven games to go and Latics sitting just outside the play-offs.

Every game now is massive, with rivals Altrincham and Halifax on the horizon but Saturday away at Dagenham could be key with four of the six sides in the mix playing against each other.

There is a guarantee therefore that we can make up some ground on those above us and climb back into the top seven.

Another performance like the one last weekend will give us victory, there is no doubt about that, and the challenge for the lads is to replicate that again in London.