The early minutes suggested we were about to witness a contest with a good deal more enterprise than the goalless draw played out between the teams at Boundary Park last month.

In the opening quarter-hour, Cresswell swept a dangerous low ball across the Oldham goalmouth and Ian Thomas-Moore, turning on Craig Curran’s pass from the right, fired a low shot just beyond the target.

At the other end, Dean Furman sent Luke Daniels sprawling with a 30-yard shot aimed towards the bottom corner.

But as the creeping fog arrived just after the half-hour, Tranmere began to lose their early cohesion.

Oldham put in a decisive burst of attacks just before the break.

Ian Goodison had to make a resourceful clearing tackle to deny the burly Abbott a shooting opportunity 10 yards from goal on 40 minutes. But Abbott then found a yard of space from the resulting corner, delivered to the near post by Dale Stephens, and glanced a header into the net. When Abbott wriggled past Tranmere’s retreating defenders a minute later, he lashed a hurried shot over the bar from a dozen yards.

Oldham carved out another great opportunity six minutes after the restart when right-back Jim Goodwin swept in a cross and Danny Whitaker powered in a header that Daniels touched over at full stretch.

Oldham had decided to concentrate on safeguarding the lead by the time Rovers offered a serious counter-threat.

Cresswell was no more than a foot wide of the right-hand post with a crisp, low free-kick on 78 minutes. Then Sordell cleverly releasing Charlie Barnett on the right, took the substitute’s return pass on the edge of the six-yard box. His initial effort was blocked by goalkeeper Dean Brill and a firmer shot from the rebound drew a second, sharper stop.

Five minutes of added time saw more pressure from Tranmere but no real scares for Oldham.