PRE-SEASON results might not count for too much, but performances are important, and on the evidence of their last 180 minutes, Huddersfield Town still have work to do before the real business begins.

Capital One Cup first-round hosts Preston are likely to offer just as tough a test as their fellow League I clubs Crewe, who beat Town 1-0 last Wednesday, and Oldham, who withstood everything Simon Grayson’s Championship new boys managed to throw at them on Saturday.

In all honesty, it wasn’t that much, because after a busy opening 15 minutes at Boundary Park, when Town forced five corners and four efforts on goal, a home defence marshalled by the muscular Jean Yves M’Voto coped comfortably enough.

The travelling fans – 339 of them made the trip across the Pennines to swell the crowd to 1,757 – will at least have been satisfied with a clean sheet, as new centre-back Joel Lynch completed a full 90 minutes alongside captain Peter Clarke.

There were also full-length work-outs for keeper Alex Smithies and versatile Calum Woods, who once again featured on both left and right as Grayson varied personnel and systems as he continues to search for the right blend.

Midfielder Oscar Gobern and wideman Danny Ward, who came as close as anyone on the pitch to a breakthrough goal, were the others who played from start to finish, with 4-3-3 again giving way to 4-4-2 as Town finished with Jordan Rhodes and Lee Novak together up front.

Forward Sean Scannell, who came on for the second half, showed further promise while midfielder Keith Southern, who played the first 45, continued to shake off the rust in only his second outing of the summer.

Clarke was soon busy, clearing up after ex-Town striker Robbie Simpson nipped in ahead of Smithies to nod on an upfield punt, but it was Ward who forced the first save of the game with a curling cross-cum-shot which Alex Cisak tipped onto the roof of the net.

Click below to open up a match picture gallery from the Oldham game

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The former Accrington stopper then did well to tip Kallum Higginbotham’s rising drive over, while the same player had a well-struck shot deflected wide soon after.

Dan Taylor, the teenage striker signed from Newcastle, was looking lively for the Latics, and tested Smithies with a low effort after making space for himself on the edge of the area, while James Wesolowski glanced a 34th-minute corner narrowly wide.

Frenchman M’Voto then headed over from another flag kick, and it wasn’t until the stroke of half-time that Cisak was forced back into action, pushing another Ward shot away for a corner.

Simpson, who looked eager to impress against his former club, came close with a header 10 minutes into the second half while another ex-Town man, Lee Croft, rifled in a shot from the edge of the ‘D’ which Smithies held low down.

While Rhodes worked unsuccessfully to break through the home shackles – at one stage West Yorkshire referee Jon Moss missed a clear push in the back as the Town ace shaped to shoot – Ward watched in frustration as his late looping effort was cleared off the line by Jonathan Grounds.

Town have two more warm-up games – at Chesterfield tomorrow and at home to Barcelona B on Wednesday – before the campaign kicks off with that cup-tie at Deepdale a week tonight and the big Championship opener at Cardiff the following Friday.

And Grayson will be watching very closely as he decides which XI will get the nod.

Oldham: Cisak, Byrne, Grounds, Tarkowski, M’Voto, Wesolowski, Furman, Taylor (Trialist, 64mins), Simpson, M’Changama (Trialist, 60), Croft.

Town: Smithies, Hunt (Dixon, 62mins), Woods, Gobern, Lynch, P Clarke, Southern (Norwood, HT), Clayton (Novak, 64), Higginbotham (Scannell, HT), Spencer (Rhodes, HT), Ward.

Referee: Jon Moss (West Yorkshire).

Att: 1,757 (339 Town fans).