Still raw and struggling to find a spark on attack, Hornets were dealt a lesson in speed of thought and foot as Oldham moved the ball around and racked up the points. Oldham were underway as early as the fifth minute - the Hornets defence backing off Watson (as they did all afternoon): Watson dinking through the kick; Liam Williams hesitant in defence and Roden taking advantage to touch down.

Oldham were in again in the 7th minute - Johnson’s big break; Dodd on hand to take the pass and score; Oldham ahead of the clock and Hornets yet to get out of the blocks.

Then a moment of all-round madness that gifted Oldham their third try. Anderson struggling with a head injury came to the touchline for treatment; Hornets were slow in getting blood-bin replacement Lee Birdseye onto the field By the time he got there, Hornets were stood under the crossbar - Doran having run through the hole where Anderson should have been; Hornets 12-men stretched by a searching Watson pass. Poor.

Hornets only meaningful contribution to the first quarter came from a Butterworth penalty on 20 minutes. I’m never sure about kicking into so big a deficit, but Butterworth’s effort was cancelled out by Barber just minutes later.

The penalty exchange was brief respite from the Oldham barrage. On half an hour Brennan slipped out a neat short pass for Morgan to score; 34 minutes - Johnson again slipping past his opposite number to score. Barber banged over the extras from the touchline: 28-2.

Hornets punch-drunk supporters had waited a long time for their only serious attack of the half - and when it came it paid dividends. With seconds left on the clock Tommy Hodgkinson opened up the defence, Butterworth stepped through defenders to score. Half time, 28-8 - and the travelling contingent hoping against hope that the second half might be less ‘challenging’ in its entertainment value.

Two minutes into the second half, their expectations were sent crashing. A pinpoint long pass from Southern spread the defence very thin; Johnson the beneficiary.

Johnson completed Williams’ torrid afternoon six minutes later: swift hands saw him sneak in at the corner: referee Ashley Klein and his accompanying touch judge happy that it was someone else’s foot on the line on the way. Roden slipped defenders for his second as close to the hour mark.

The only halt to proceedings came from ten minutes of rolling squabbles as both sets of players reached for the hand bags. And once tempers had soothes, Hornets found the wherewithal to produce their one moment of cohesive football as Braddish teased his way across the line to find Chris Campbell arriving at pace to score wide out after 65 minutes.

Normal service was resumed in the last ten minutes with Dodd cutting through under the posts, followed by Roden in similar fashion. Not pretty.

In the final analysis, Hornets struggled to compete in virtually every area of the game. While the big pack gamely neutralised Oldham’s six, their half backs and three quarters ran us ragged - moving the ball around virtually unopposed for most of the game.

Admittedly, the amount of possession that Oldham were gifted courtesey of a 12-5 penalty count (8-1 in the second half) was a contributory factor, but poor reaction at marker and a willingness to invite Oldham onto the defence cost Hornets in the end.

Quite simply, if you give any side room to run and move the ball, you’ll be punished. And that was this week’s lesson on what is becoming an increasingly steep learning curve.