Head Coach Pete Wild was a proud man after being appointed in charge at Oldham Athletic until the end of the season.
His first task will be to take on Grimsby Town this Saturday at Boundary Park, but Wild couldn’t hold back the excitement of being back in the hotseat.
“It's another step and something that is a really exciting challenge for me.” He said.
“Obviously, it was caretaker last time and to be announced as Head Coach of the club that I've grown up supporting is a fantastic opportunity for me and the staff.”
Wild was in caretaker charge just over a month ago and he says stepping back in has been a smooth transition.
He admits he’s learnt from his first spell and he’ll try to do certain aspects of the job a little differently this time around.
“I've not had that long away, so it was a case of getting back into what I was doing.” He commented.
“I've been to most of the games as well, so one thing I've got on my side is I know the players, I know their strengths and areas to develop which will help me.”
Wild took his first full training session this morning with players returning from International Duty.
He says that training has been solely focused on stopping the threats of Grimsby and he pointed out that’s how his training sessions will work leading up to games.
“We had all the lads in this morning, obviously everyone is back from International Duty and we'll take it one game at a time.
“Everything we've done on the training ground is relating to what we'll do against Grimsby on Saturday and that's how we'll take things come 3pm.”
It’s been 18 days since Latics had their last Sky Bet League Two fixture with the games against Tranmere Rovers and Newport County both postponed.
Wild believes that the extra break has not only freshened up the squad but allowed him to get some messages across in training.
“It's given us time to rest and prepare, but it's also given us time to get our thoughts and opinions across to the players.
“We have a certain way of working and we're keen to get that message across this time.
“It's not like last time where it was game to game, we know we're here until the end of the season to get our style across.
“We've had time to get it into the players and hopefully you'll see that on Saturday.”
The big news coming out the club this week was that central defender George Edmundson was named in the Sky Bet League Two team of the season.
Wild worked with Edmundson in the academy and he felt the young defender deserved to be apart of that team.
“For him personally it's excellent.
“It shows his development, it shows he's taken to League Two fantastically and he's played a lot of football.
“I think with all our young players you see better results the more they play.
“He's made mistakes, but these lads should be in our environment to make those mistakes and when he does well then great.
“I think it sends out a clear message to everyone that if we're patient with our young players then look what they can achieve.”
With Wild’s academy background more of Latics’ youth players could be given an opportunity before the season ends.
Wild is confident that the club’s academy will continue to produce players who can step into first team football.
“We'll see how things go, but in terms of the academy it's one club and we should want to produce our own and take pride in seeing our own out there on a Saturday.
“It's really important we remain as one club and we've had some of the second years training with us during the off period.
“We're really keen in getting them in and around the first team and how they handle men's football, so we can then hopefully produce more.
“For the club and the academy, it's a fantastic achievement because he is one of our own and he's somebody that has got better because of the trust put into him.”