Twenty-Three year old Mark Allott, born in Middleton, just a few miles from Oldham Athletic's  Boundary Park ground, has now got to decide whether he's going to make his first ever move in football.

His second month on loan at Saltergate is coming to an end, terms have been offered and Mark just has to decide whether he wants to follow Mark Innes to Chesterfield on a permanent basis or return to Oldham to battle for a place at the Club which allowed him to move out on loan.

Mark's Chesterfield career has started well, a debut at Brighton in the battling 2-2 draw, he grabbed the winner in the vital 2-1 home win over Notts County on his home bow and he started the amazing comeback with our first goal in the memorable 4-2 victory over his parent Club, Oldham. Since then (and this is written before the Peterborough match) he's played in the win at Colchester and the battling draw at Tranmere plus the controversial home loss against Bobby Zamora and Brighton.

Mark in Oldhams Away colours
He joined his local Club as a trainee and, whilst a Division One Club, the young striker made a number of substitute appearances, his debut was in October 1996 as an 18 year old at neighbours Bolton Wanderers as sub for David McNiven.

Oldham were 3-0 down but Mark marked his debut with a consolation goal past keeper Keith Branagan, the game ended 3-1 to Bolton. Four more sub appearances that season as Oldham were relegated to Division Two, their strike force at various times featuring Sean McCarthy, Stuart Barlow, Ian Ormondroyd and Andy Ritchie. Lee Richardson was a regular in midfield.

Mark celebrating a goalThe Latics finished mid-table in 97-98, Mark was a regular substitute, 12 times he came off the bench in Division Two games to add to 10 League starts, his first being in a 2-1 home win over Bournemouth. Two goals were scored that season, a last minute equaliser in a 2-2 home draw with Watford and he grabbed another point with a leveller in a 3-3 with Burnley, also at Boundary Park.

Mark also got his first taste of Saltergate that season, he was sub for Matthew Tipton in the Chesterfield 2 (Howard, Williams) Oldham 1 (Garnett) match. Used either as an out and out striker or as a linkman between midfield and the front men, as he was at Tranmere last week, Mark appeared in 41 of The Latics 46 games in Division Two in 98-99 when they escaped relegation on the last day of the season when Mark Innes scored first in a 2-0 win over Reading, a game Allott played all 90 minutes in.

He played in both games of the "win double" over Chesterfield, 2-0 at Oldham when Mark Williams scored a first minute own goal, and he grabbed a brace, his first ever senior two goal game, on Boxing Day when Athletic won 3-1.

Mark finished top scorer for Oldham that season with 8 goals, though he didn't manage to get the better of De Goey, Le Saux, Desailly, Babayaro, Zola and co as Vialli grabbed two in Chelsea's 2-0 FA Cup third round win at Boundary Park.
Midtable in 1999-2000, Mark started 28 games in the League and was joint top scorer (with 11) along with Steve Whitehall, he grabbed his first penalty goal in a 3-0 win at home to Brentford, he also scored from open play that day, and his habit of grabbing late goals continued with last minute winners against Luton Town and Blackpool plus he grabbed a late equaliser at Bristol City.

Last season Oldham again finished in mid-table, Mark was again a regular, though he managed only 7 goals, two of them in a 3-0 win over Brentford, shades of déjà vu, whilst this season, he scored in the first two League games at Wrexham and then in the 1-1 home draw with Chesterfield, a header from a right wing corner before "Harry" Willis levelled for us.

Further strikes against Bury (Shakers take note) and Cambridge followed before new Manager Mick Wadsworth made Mark available for transfer and Chesterfield stepped in to secure his services on loan.