A battling performance from Altrincham earned them a point against an Oldham side which looked the far better side for the opening 23 minutes.

It was at that stage that the Latics took the lead when they gained possession off Osborne deep in the Alty half on their right flank. The ball was worked inside to Norwood and, with Ross out of his goal, he had the simple task of netting from a central position.

But the Oldham goal had the effect of instilling some resilience into the home team, who had made three changes after their defeat at FGR. Into the team came new loan siging Jake Bickerstaff, midfielder George Wilson and defender Tylor Goden, with the unavailable Joe Nuttall, as well as Lewis Banks and Kahrel Reddin dropping out.

With little help from referee Yates, particularly towards Justin Amaluzor who was repeatedly challenged robustly, Alty suffered a blow when captain Lewis Baines had to be substituted just before the interval.

In the second half, Altrincham were unable to create any clear chances before Oldham made a triple change on the hour-mark.

Neither keeper had been troubled for the first twenty minutes of the second half but three fouls by Oldham in barely ninety seconds were to prove their undoing.

Alex Newby, who had replaced Osborne in the 64th minute, sent in the third of this series of freekicks from the right, from which a stooping Reagan Linney glanced a header across the keeper and into the net to level the score (69 mins).

With parity restored, Altrincham enjoyed more forward momentum but were grateful to three instances of profiligacy from Latics substiute Fondop. His most glaring miss came in the second added minute when a quite dreadful sideways pass by Golden set the substitute striker running at keeper Ross. But the Alty keeper blocked Fondop's effort to the relief of the home support.

There was still time for Amaluzor to have a chance at the other end but he blazed wide to leave the points shared.

SCORERS:

• 23 mins: James NORWOOD (ALTRINCHAM 0 Oldham Athletic 1)
• 69 mins: Regan LINNEY (ALTRINCHAM 1 Oldham Athletic 1)

Altrincham had signed striker Jake Bickerstaff on loan from Wrexham and he started today, as Joe Nuttall was prohibited from playing against his employers.

Oldham had also made a recent signing in the shape of Pakistani international Otis Khan but he was not involved in this match.

Oldham were unchanged and, as in their most recent game, they included three ex-Altrincham players in their squad. Reagan Ogle and Josh Lundstram started, whilst on the bench, was Callum Dolan.

LINE-UPS:

ALTRINCHAM (Red & white striped shirts, black shorts and white socks): 1. Ethan ROSS, 3. Eddy JONES, 4. Lewis BAINES (c), 16. James JONES, 23. Tylor GOLDEN, 6. Elliot OSBORNE, 22. Tom CRAWFORD, 19. George WILSON, 11. Justin AMALUZOR, 9. Regan LINNEY 29. Jake BICKERSTAFF. Subs: 2. Lewis BANKS, 5. Jake COOPER, 10. Alex NEWBY, 14. Matty KOSYLO, 21. Max HAYGARTH, 20. Kahrel REDDIN, 30. Harvey RANDLE (gk)

OLDHAM ATHLETIC (All blue with orange trim): 1. Matthew Hudson, 2. Reagan Ogle, 5. Shaun Hobson, 16. Charlie Raglan, 6. Emmanuel Monthe, 19. Dan Gardner, 7. Harry Charsley, 8. Josh Lundstram, 10. Tom Conlon (c), 17. Jesurun Uchegbulam, 30. James Norwood. Subs: 3. Mark Kitching, 4. Liam Hogan, 9. Mike Fondop, 18. Callum Dolan, 20. Jake Caprice, 27. Oliver Hammond, 35. Scott Moloney (gk).

Two defeats in a week had put a dampener on Altrincham's start to the season and only scoring three goals in five outings had raised serious concerns.

A small number of police were in attendance and, before kick-off, they seemed to be videoing the away spectators from a vantage point near the main stand.

On a sunny afternoon and on a superb-looking pitch, Oldham kicked off towards Golf Road, defending the end crammed with their vocal supporters.

Alty deployed Bickerstaff as their striker with Amaluzor on the right and Linney on the left, a scheme allowing both to cut in onto their preferred foot.

The Latics soon began to get the upper hand and it took a flying one-handed save by Ross to divert a Conlon shot, to his right, for a corner on the Oldham left (7 mins). This led to a second corner, which was tipped out by Ross for another corner, this time from the visitors' right side (8 mins).

Even at this early stage Amaluzor was coming in for some robust treatment from Uchegbulam but referee Yates who went on to allow numerous fouls to go unpunished, merely awarded a freekick rather than booking the offender for his second offence on the same player.

Young Wilson was battling well in midfield and he went on to have a fine game in his first start of the season.

Next, Crawford seemed to have won a corner but Mr Yates over-ruled his linesman and awarded a goal-kick before Norwood felled Baines (10 min)

After Baines had then been judged to have fouled Conlon, Gardner put the freekick well over the bar (12 mins).

Former Alty defender Ogle's long throw was now back-headed by Raglan with a back-pedalling Ross just succeeding in pushing the ball over the bar for a corner (16 mins)>

The freekicks continued as Lundstram blatantly pushed Wilson in the back (22 mins).

Altrincham had not laid a glove on Oldham's defence before Osborne was caught dwelling on the ball in the left-back zone. He was dispossessed via a shoulder-charge and the ball was fed inside via Gardner to Norwood who, with Ross having left his goal, duly passed the ball into the unguarded net (23 mins).

Remarkably the goal, rather then prompting the visitors to impose their superiority further, had the effect of stimulating Altrincham to raise their game and Oldham to slacken their tempo.

Indeed, Altrincham won a corner, almost immediately after falling behind, when Bickerstaff was played into the area, right of goal (24 mins). The corner was badly overhit by Eddy Jones but the ball was recycled and Wilson embarked on a great run up the middle before feeding the overlapping Golden to his right.

Golden returned the pass and the midfielder's goalbound shot was deflected over the bar by a defender for a corner. From the corner Amaluzor was grounded in the box but play was waved on by Mr Yates (28 mins).

Alty now had the upper hand with Linney getting into the box before being halted (30 mins). The home side's improvement continued when Amaluzor drifted inside, from the right, to feed Linney for a shot which went narrowly wide, across the face of the Oldham goal (32 mins).

Next, a fine run forward by Crawford led to a corner, won by Bickerstaff (36 mins), before anoher corner was earned by Golden (38 mins).

When Uchegbulam upended Amaluzor for the third time, even Mr Yates was induced to book the recurrent offender (39 mins).

As half-time approached, however, Alty were indebted to James Jones for clearing a Norwood effort off the line following good work from Charsley (42 mins). Following this goalmouth scramble, Alty's captain Lewis Baines went down and received lengthy treatment before going off to be substituted by Cooper (45 mins).

Elliot Osborne assumed the captain's role as three added minutes were proclaimed. Alty then scorned a great chance to equalise when Wilson harried an opponent and won the ball which he fed to Linney.

Inexplicably the Alty forward hesitated rather than shooting and the chance was lost, a corner being the only consolation (45+2 mins). Following this, a Bickerstaff shot was cleared.

Before the interval arrived, James Jones lay prostrate on the pitch and needed treatment before recovering.

After kicking off the second half, Alty won an early corner but Osborne's kick went straight to Hudson in the Oldham goal (46 mins).

Crawford, who picked up twelve yellow cards playing for Hartlepool last season, now picked up his third successive caution of this season (53 mins) before a Norwood foul on Wilson gave Alty a freekick.

Already Amaluzor had been upended another twice since the interval (54 mins) before a spat in front of the technical areas earned yellow cards for Linney and Gardner (55 mins).

On the hour, Oldham made a triple change with ex-Alty man Dolan replacing Gardner, Fondop replacing Norwood and Kitching coming on in place of Uchegbulam.

Almost immediately Dolan made a fine run into the right side of the box to feed Fondop who skied a good chance well over the bar from about 10 yards.

Altrincham now made another change thmselves with winger Reddin replacing Bickerstaff who had had a quiet game on his debut (61 mins).

Next, Newby replaced Osborne (64 mins) and the captain's armband found its third owner of the afternoon in substtiute Jake Cooper.

By midway through the second half, Altrincham had not troubled Hudson since the interval.

However, Oldham then committed three minor fouls in less than two minutes; Reddin, Golden and Newby being on the wrong end of these offences.

Newby took the third freekick from the right side, delivering the ball towards the middle of the box where a stooping Linney glanced his header into the far side of the net to level the score, despite Hudson getting a hand on the ball (69 mins).

Alty soon won a corner through Amaluzor (70 mins) before Fondop's foul on Reddin saw the Oldham sub's name added to the referee's book (71 mins)>

The hosts were now looking the more likely winners before the already booked Crawford rode his luck with a routine foul.

It then took a fine tackle by Crawford to halt a Dolan advance as the visitors began to get forward once more (84 mins).

Alty withdrew Linney in the ninetieth minute with defender Banks coming on in his place to safeguard the point.

Four added mionutes had been computed by Mr Yates, who was watched this afternoon by Premier League referee Anthony Taylor. In the first of those minutes a foul on Crawford allowed Newby to test Hudson from the freekick and win a corner from his diving save.

Alty then almost threw the game away as Golden's misjudged pass inside, from the right near halfway, was intercepted by Fondop who raced up the middle towards the unprotected Alty keeper Ross. Fondop's shot was briliantly blocked to his left by Ross and Alty survived (90+2 mins).

At the other end Amaluzor was played into the left side of the box but his shot went comfortably wide as the game ended in a draw which was probably a fair outcome.

Oldham had dominated the opening quarter but had failed to press home their lead whilst Altrincham had raised their game after that and more than matched the visitors.

Ultimately a draw was a fair outcome.