Oldham were beaten 48-10 at Batley Bulldogs where they were forced to play without several senior forwards, for various reasons, and then suffered the early loss of Danny Bridge with a knee injury.
Bridge, hurt in the first tackle he had received during Oldham's first set, went off, never to return, after quarter of an hour -- and only ten minutes later centre Ben Heaton followed him with a damaged ankle.
Gareth Owen, also hurt in the early stages, was taken out of the firing line at half-time in a bad day at the office for Matt Diskin's men.
Oldham went into the game without Phil Joy, Martyn Reilly, Shaun Pick and Liam Kirk and to lose Bridge so early as well proved a blow too many.
A goal in the first five minutes and another one six minutes from time were enough to see Ashton safely into the second qualifying round of this year's FA Cup and a home tie against Scarborough.
After squandering a two-goal lead at home to Prescot Cables on Saturday, Hyde United spared their FA Cup blushes with a 1-0 win in Tuesday’s First Qualifying Round replay.