CITY 2 OLDHAM 1

ALL aboard and strap yourselves in for an emotional rollercoaster.

It’s going to be quite the ride if City’s first taste of Valley Parade with fans was anything to go by.

From the depths of despair to the sheer, unadulterated joy of a last-kick winner in the space of a couple of minutes – welcome back to life as a supporter witnessing football in the flesh once again.

Eighteen months of being locked out of the spiritual home while the Bantams performed in a passionless vacuum were blown away by those whacky moments of added time which had it all.

Oldham, the prize provocateurs of City in recent years, looked to be at it again with the sting in the tale of Dylan Bahamboula’s deflected equaliser.

Suddenly those wasted opportunities to claim the security of a second goal loomed large in City’s thoughts.

But, no, there was one more delicious twist to come.

“I’ve tried to drill it in them to keep going,” said Derek Adams, referencing those punishing preseason slogs pounding the running track when giving up was simply not an option.

And keep going they did. Another attacking surge came to nothing but still City found the energy for one final push.

Lee Angol charged down Davis Keillor-Dunn’s clearance then carried his weary legs into the penalty area where he received the pass – and the fateful contact from Oldham skipper Carl Piergianni.

Angol insisted on taking the penalty himself and fezzed up about its lack of quality as a tired spot-kick somehow managed to find its way through an out-of-sorts goalkeeper Danny Rogers.

The striker put his second goal of the day down to something bigger than his own efforts – as if the ball was pulled into the net by sheer force of emotion from the stands.

Maybe that was the case, the ultimate plotline for a fantastic script to welcome the Valley Parade faithful home after being imprisoned in their front rooms.

A poignant silence had taken place before kick-off to remember those who had passed away during the extended absence; such familiar and well-loved faces now absent from their regular seats.

You’d like to think they would have been smiling down and cheering to at such a fitting finale. There is no better tribute for those lifelong supporters than victory achieved in such a heart-pounding manner.

There was a touch of pantomime, too, about the added minutes to the added minutes – a result of Rogers hitting the deck and staying down.

It later emerged that Oldham’s stopper had been playing with an injured shoulder since City’s first goal and had been looking to come off.

Adams, though, felt Rogers and his team got their “comeuppance” with the last-gasp drama as the Latics were condemned to only a second defeat in their last nine Valley Parade visits.

For his own team, this was a mental barrier cleared because, make no mistake, the pressure of winning this special occasion had been all-consuming.

City may have tried to play it down but the stakes were huge on a day built up by the club throughout the summer.

The attendance fell 700 short of the club’s biggest at this level but was still almost double the second highest in League Two over the weekend.

In fact, only Sheffield Wednesday drew more in the bottom two divisions – and City’s crowd figure topped half of those in the Championship.

Adams had talked about feeding off the atmosphere but was only too aware of the many pitfalls of that huge level of expectation.

He even mentioned the mascots being interviewed by announcer Darren Harper and asked for their score predictions.

I’m not sure little Jordan saying City would win 10-0 really cranked up the heat but in the manager’s eyes it only added to the sense that nothing less than three points would suffice for his first home game in charge.

There was no hiding place for a team in which all bar Richard O’Donnell and Callum Cooke had never experienced a full Valley Parade home crowd before.

In terms of mental strength, victory however hairy could prove a significant building block. The win was all that counts.

Oldham will feel short-changed after a typically maverick response in front of 1,100 travelling fans who made themselves heard throughout.

They are a tricky opponent; unpredictable, hard to pin down, fluid going forward and often just as open in reverse.

Adams matched up his midfield in a four-man square with Gareth Evans, seeing his first action under the boss he once publicly criticised at previous clubs, an effective replacement for Levi Sutton until a jarred toe from blocking a shot forced his early exit.

Oldham looked to bomb down the flanks and that made for another demanding game for Finn Cousin-Dawson, who had little support to combat left winger Jack Stobbs.

But again, as he had done at the City Ground, the young full back stuck to his task manfully while he continues to deputise for Oscar Threlkeld.

It was helter-skelter stuff played at a breakneck speed; the tempo and temperature set from just 10 seconds in when Andy Cook clashed with Oldham defender Sam Hart.

Evans should have scored with a free header and Angol missed with another. It was one of several chances scorned by the striker but he never let that put him off.

And he raised the roof with City’s season-opening goal just after half an hour.

An enormous punt from Richard O’Donnell nudged on by Cook for the unmarked Angol to drive past a culpable keeper from the corner of the box.

O’Donnell denied Oldham instant payback with a point-blank block from Keillor-Dunn and tipped away a cross-shot from Jamie Hopcutt, the winger with the Tyler French bleached blond cut who had signed only the day before.

Those were reminders that the Latics carried a threat. A second goal would be required.

It should have come at various points through the second half. Good chances came and went – the best tending to fall Angol’s way.

But the lead remained tenuous with each opportunity scorned and Bahamboula’s influence, growing considerably as the game wore on, was highlighted in the first of the minutes added by referee Steve Martin.

This time, though, the bogey man was being taken down and City buried their Oldham jinx with the afternoon’s final action. Life being a fan can feel wonderful again.