Championship, here we come!

"We are going up,! " screamed the banner as fans and players alike celebrated Oldham RLFC's moment of triumph at Cougar Park on Sunday. This was ecstasy and euphoria rolled into one – the first step in the new hierarchy's vision to take our club back into Super League.

They came from all over the place to see Oldham win 20-12, to see them lift the Betfred League One title, to see their favourite team and favourite players clinch promotion to the Championship and to see the dreams of Bill Quinn, Mike Ford. Sean Long and Co take one quantum leap on the long and winding road to glory.

Frank 'Flat Cap' Rothwell, owner of Oldham Athletic, was among the legions of folk from Oldham, who turned the ancient terracing and difficult-to- negotiate seating areas of Cougar Park (for those golden oldies among us, that is) into a sea of red and white,

I also saw Oldham fans there from Kent, Northamptonshire, North Wales, including, from nearer home, former player Mickey Edwards, who gave me a hug and said: "I wouldn't have missed a match like this for the world," writes ROGER HALSTEAD.

Frank, he of Latics and Atlantic fame, waxed lyrical about Athletic's big start to the football season; about Oldham RL Club's drive up the sporting ladder; about how good it felt to back anything related to the town all Oldhamers call home .

He's a proud citizen of the town that, back in the day, had more than 100 mill chimneys; a town Joe Royle once described as 'Ice Station Zebra'; a town that gave us, among many more sporting ambassadors, David Platt and Walter Winterbottom (football), Michael Atherton, the Hilton brothers, Peter Marner and Geoff Pullar (cricket), Dorothy Shiley (athletics), Kevin Sinfield, Barrie McDermott, Paul Sculthorpe and Iestyn Harris (rugby league).

He was but one of hundreds of such Oldham citizens who wore their club colours with pride; who chanted and sang all afternoon; who broke out into spontaneous chants of 'We're going up' when the tremendously industrious George Hirst scored the try, which Kieran Dixon goaled, to give the Roughyeds a 20-6 lead midway through the second-half. It was football-type singing, swaying and generally celebrating, the likes of which we have rarely seen in rugby league.

The players loved it. Having clinched the title and having heard the inspirational lyrics of "Championi, championi" coming from the Terry Hollindrake end, they congregated in front of the masses, returned their waves and gestures of goodwill and sat down next to the banner that said it all, in order to take a well-earned breather.

In writing about rugby league for more than 60 years I don't recall ever seeing anything to compare with the enthusiasm, togetherness and sincerity of what happened when hundreds of Oldham fans converged on the space behind the posts at the bottom end of the ground in the second half.

Oldham were not at their best in the second half.

"Sometimes you have to win ugly," said a delighted Sean Long. "This is a great day for the club," added Mike Ford. "We never thought we would have come so far so soon, and that is partly due to you, the fans, who have been great and given us terrific support. We were not at our best in the second half when they got under our skin a bit, but we won and that's the main thing in a match like this."

It was a match that had everything and, as such, was befitting of a promotion final. We even had a second-half stoppage because an Oldham fan was taken ill in the crowd. Thanks to all who helped. The patient was taken to hospital by ambulance and we can happily report he is on the mend.

Oldham won thanks to two tries by former Keighley man Mo Agoro, one by PLT, another who also played for Cougars in a previous life, a fourth by the outstanding George Hirst and two goals by Kieran Dixon.

PLT linked up beautifully with Jamie Ellis to create Agoro's two tries in the corner. Despite one howler, he played well; serviced mighty Mo intelligently; scored a good try himself; and laid claim to the best-player award . He could have got it too had it not been for a truly inspirational show by the energetic Hirst, the youngest forward in the Oldham pack.

SO FAR, SO GOOD. TWO TO GO AND THEN THE TOUGH STUFF REALLY KICKS IN.