Former Super League star Sean Long says he has shrugged off the disappointment of his exit from Featherstone and is focused on the even more ambitious task of steering Oldham back towards rugby league’s top flight.

One of the most decorated players of his generation, who won five league titles and five Challenge Cups with St Helens, Long finds himself plotting a route which will include stops in the likes of Cornwall and Colwyn Bay next season.

But the 47-year-old, whose stellar on-field success was often matched by lurid tales of his exploits off it, insisted he had lost none of his enthusiasm and was determined to restore the good times to a club that had languished in the lower reaches since they last exited Super League in 1997.

“I’ve never lost my appetite for it,” Long told the PA news agency. “I loved my time as head coach at Featherstone and when Oldham came in for me, I was over the moon. I like challenging myself and the vision for the whole club really appealed to me.”

If leading Featherstone back into the top flight appeared a near-certainty for much of last season – until they flopped in the play-offs with Long long gone – the task of resurrecting Oldham’s fortunes is a far greater one.

Having languished in League One for each of the last two seasons, a takeover backed by former player Mike Ford in October has dramatically restored the club’s expectations, heralding a return to Boundary Park and a clear and stated intention to return to the top level of the game.

For Long, who recalls playing against Oldham in his early days with Wigan, the expectation will eclipse that at Rovers, whose decision to dispense with his services in March, when they led the second tier by eight points, caused surprisingly little bad feeling.

“Anything can happen in sport – one minute you’re in a job, the next you’re not,” shrugged Long. “These things happen and I’m going to keep doing things my way.

“This club’s been in the doldrums a bit but it’s got some big long-term ambitions. We’re not counting our chickens, because things can happen in rugby league which you aren’t prepared for and my job is to keep the standards high every week.”

The extent of Oldham’s ambition was emphasised by the close-season signing of Joe Wardle, a 32-year-old with plenty of Super League experience who was playing an integral role in Leigh’s return to the top flight until his campaign was curtailed by injury in September.

For Wardle it was a surprisingly easy decision to swap Super League life for the prospect of long road trips to face the likes of Midlands Hurricanes and North Wales Crusaders and he sees a comparison in the way his former club also re-invented themselves as a successful outfit.

“I’ve been part of a rebuild club before and I’ve seen how well it can work,” said Wardle.

“When I spoke to Mike, it just fitted the bill. Everyone asks about me moving two leagues down, but I can see the vision of this club. The plan is to get back to Super League and that made it a pretty easy decision.

“It was hard to leave Leigh because I had some great times there, but I definitely see similarities. Leigh are the kind of club everyone should be aspiring to learn from. I’m here for the start of the journey with Oldham and hopefully it’s going to be a successful one.”

Newport manager Graham Coughlan praised his side for a “professional performance” as they beat Oldham 2-0 at Rodney Parade thanks to two goals from Shane McLoughlin to progress to the FA Cup second round.

The defender opened the scoring as he drilled into the bottom corner after 20 minutes and settled any late nerves with a second goal, a long-range piledriver, 10 minutes from time.

Coughlan is pleased to be in the hat for round two, but he admitted that it was not a game to live long in the memory for anyone other than McLoughlin.

“We got the job done,” said the Exiles boss. “We know how important the FA Cup to the history and tradition of this football club, not to mention the financial side of it.

“It’s probably best described as a good, solid, professional performance.”

Coughlan felt his side should have won more comfortably with Declan Drysdale going close on two occasions, Aaron Wildig seeing an effort cleared off the line and Omar Bogle failing to hit the target with several chances before McLoughlin settled the contest.

“I sound like a broken down record because we seem to have these conversations every week; we need to be more ruthless, more clinical in the final third,” said the Irishman.

“Nick Townsend pulled off two good saves for us as well. They tested us, they asked questions, and it was a tough afternoon.

“We’re really pleased to get through because Oldham are a good team with a good manager, and we’re happy with our afternoon’s work.”

Townsend denied Joe Nuttall with a superb save just before half-time and also prevented substitute Alex Reid from levelling on the hour, while James Norwood wasted an early chance after a poor back-pass from Scot Bennett.

Oldham boss Micky Mellon, taking charge of the Latics for only the fourth time, was disappointed by the quality of the match and by his side’s timid performance.

“We had an opportunity of trying to get a result in the FA Cup,” he said. “We’re a non-league team at the minute, but Newport weren’t going so great and it was an opportunity to show that fight and fire to try to get a result, but it was a very flat afternoon.

“There was little or no atmosphere, it was a bit dead. And we couldn’t string two passes together. We looked nervous, for some reason. I don’t know why, but we took too long to get going.

“We were lacking in qualities against a Football League club and we need to be better.

“We huffed and puffed a little bit in the second half, but, all in all, we went out with a whimper.”