Winger's return boosts Oldham

Photo: Darren Robinson

Adam Clay

OLDHAM RL expect to field a stronger side at Barrow on Sunday (2pm) than the one beaten 32-14 in their first pre-season game at Swinton Lions.

Winger Adam Clay will be back and there's a possibility that Danny Grimshaw may play some part in the game, said coach Scott Naylor.

He confirmed, after training last night, that Danny Langtree will be out for three to four weeks after pulling a hamstring in the first minute at Swinton.

"It's a setback, obviously, but if it has to happen, better now than once the Championship season has started," added the Roughyeds coach.

'HAMSTRING'

"He's had hamstring issues over the last few weeks and we need to get to the bottom of it now so it doesn't go again when it does matter."

Naylor, monitoring the progress of trialist winger Harry Warburton, said the Folly Lane youngster did well at Swinton, where he scored a try and had another disallowed in his first game at that level.

Looking ahead to Sunday's game in Cumbria, he said: "We are looking forward to fixing the things we didn't do well last week.

"I think we all know that the Oldham we saw against Swinton wasn't the real Oldham.

"As a defensive work-out it was brilliant because we were tackling for 70 per cent of the game.

"As practice for playing the sort of rugby we want to play it was extremely poor. We can only go one way from here.

"Swinton played well, but we didn't put them under any pressure until the last ten minutes because we kept making mistakes and giving them the ball back.

"The score accurately reflected the game, but its early days, very early days."