Frank Rothwell knew the extent of the financial investment he was making at Oldham Athletic, but admits he had not bargained for the emotional one that came with it.

The Latics chairman was on the pitch at Chesterfield as he celebrated last Saturday's 1-0 win - beaming with pride and, perhaps, puzzlement as he applauded and orchestrated an army of away fans who chanted his name.

"I didn't expect any of it. Not at all," he says of the adulation that met him when last summer's club takeover was announced and has stuck with him all season, despite the ups and downs.

"That's special. That's something I just didn't expect at all. It's not often you hear fans appreciating the owner, especially those at Manchester United.

"It's a big thing."

Rothwell was on the team bus to Barnet too on Tuesday, to watch the players back up their weekend performance with an even better result in North London, where they ran out 3-1 winners and pulled further away from the relegation zone.

Both trips have produced some heart-stopping moments, with goalkeeper Magnus Norman in particular working hard to protect the points on both occasions, with point blanks and one from the penalty spot.

But as well seeing signs that Latics have turned a corner, after giving manager David Unsworth the resources to strengthen the squad and the benefit of time to transform their fortunes and their season, by the nature of the last two fixtures in particular Rothwell has welcomed evidence that his recent open heart surgery has gone well too.

"It was a huge operation. I hadn't been ill before, I had a fault in my aeorta - the pipe which takes the blood from the heart round the body - which got picked up during a medical," he explained.

"On the top of your aeorta where it joins on to your heart it had expanded like a balloon. When it expands the wall thickness gets thinner and if it gets bigger and bigger and bigger it's likely to burst, and if it bursts you're dead.

"If you happened to be in hospital at the time they can do something about it, but most people die when it happens.

"So it was something urgent that had to be done, even though I wasn't ill and I don't feel any different now.

"There was a one in 25 chance I was going to die during the operation, but I thought it was good odds that.

"I was in surgery for about six hours, and I was in hospital for nine days."

If anything is going to test his powers of recovery, it is owning a football club and the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with it - especially when that football club is Oldham Athletic, a club that is desperate to come out of a deep depression.

"I had no idea at all it would be like this," said the 73-year-old, who bought the club as part of a family venture with his wife, Judith, son Luke and daughter Su Schofield.

"It's something I'd not thought about to be honest. It was a business proposition and then we realised what it meant and that's taken over. We've all fallen in love with the club."

Knowing his heart can take the emotional strain, Rothwell soon plans to put it to the physical test.

"I've not started training for my rowing yet but I'm intending to row across the Atlantic again in December this year," he said.

"My target in life is to do that, to add to my two Guinness World Records that I have."

When Rothwell sets his mind - and heart - on something, there really is no stopping him.