Gutted!

If, at quarter to three, someone had said to me that I'd be walking away from Borrowed Park gutted at a two point defeat in a game we should have won I might have questioned their sanity.

But Hornets' huge-hearted effort and the bitterly disappointing denouement to the game showed that Hornets are far from the makeweight in NL1.

For close on half an hour, both sides showed sterling effort on defence. For the first time this season, Hornets' pack took the game to the opposition with props Ball and Price leading the way. There was a noticeable steel in defence too, with Hornets putting in shuddering tackles across the park as Oldham moved the ball around in search of an opening.

The only reward for such determination was an exchange of penalties betwen Rich and Birdseye.

On 26 minutes, Roden broke the deadlock. stepping through to score. But Hornets capitalised on their next foray into Oldham territory. From a scrum on the Oldham 20, full back Michael Platt made the extra man. he took the ball on a looping left hand run, out-flanking a static Oldham defence and skinning Barber out wide to score.

Four minutes later Hornets were in again - John Braddish broke the line and Andy Gorski was on hand to take a neat inside ball to score under the black dot. Birdseye converted. With half time approaching Hornets again took the ball upfield. Another Braddish half break found Gareth price arriving at pace; he took the pass and scattered defenders asunder to score. Birsdsey slotted the extras and - after surviving a last minute knock-on scare - Hornets went in 18-6 up to the disbelief of everyone in the ground.

Oldham started the second half brightly. Within a minute Svabic had chipped through for Barber who won the race to the ball courtesy of his offside position. Hornets capitalised on the penalty, turning good field position into points as Darren Robinson mugged Oldham with a one yard sucker try on the last tackle.

On 50 minutes, Oldham coach Steve Molloy sprawled too long in the tackle and - as he took his ten minutes on the bench - Birdseye stretched Hornets' lead with the resulting penalty.

Unable to capitalise on the extra man advantage, Molloy's return sparked the chain of events that would deny Hornets the win. Firstly, debutant mark McCuly was sinbinned for interference. From the resulting play, Dave Cunliffe intercepted and sent Chris Campbell away down field. With the cover gathering he sent the ball to fellow winger Liam Williams whose desperate lunge for the line saw the ball jolt free. From the scrum, Oldham capitalised on their extra man advantage and sent Goddard 80 metres to score. Exhausted, Hornets wilted.

By the time McCully had returned to the field, Goddard had added two more tries - each exploiting the numerical advantage - and, as Hornets fought a desperate rearguard action, Oldham had the game in their sights.

The scores were levelled in the 74th minute when Farrell produced a great reverse pass for Svabic to score out wide.

Hornets dug deep to take the ball back downfield, but the drop-goal set-up - 40 metres out in traffic - was too big an ask of Birdseye. With the game draining away - and having played most of the second half on the back foot - Hornets sucked in for a big finish.

Desperate scrambling kept Oldham at bay and - just as the Hornets faithful thought that they'd done enough - referee Richard Silverwood pulled Darren Robinson for a supposed high tackle on lanky Dane Morgan ( a bit rich given that Hornets ended the game with Darren Shaw with a concussion and Michael Platt with a broken Jaw - both incidents 'unseen'). Rich banged over the penalty and the locals celebrated like they'd won the cup.

Absolutely heartbreaking.

But in the depths of all this, there was a great sign for Hornets and their fans. Hornets have shown that, not only can we compete effectively in NL1, we have the ability to play good football in the process.

The effort, guts and determination on show were exemplary and Hornets fully deserved their ovation from the field. In fact on a day of mixed emotions, the only people to let our club down were those stay-away 'supporters' who chose to do something else with their Sunday.