Bulldogs snarl as Oldham wilt

INTO CONTACT . . . Centre Tuoyo Egodo is tackled low by a Bulldogs defender

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WHO let the dogs out ? Somebody did, that's for sure. They were mean, hungry (no Fox's biscuits for them) and aggressive.

They barked as early as the eighth minute when prop Alex Rowe smashed a hole in the Roughyeds midfield defensive line and winger Mikey Hayward got with him to send in full-back Dave Scott for the opening try.

They snarled midway through the half when, on the back of four penalties in a row, the irrepressible Joel Farrell was halted just short and hooker Alistair Leak scored from dummy half close in.

They growled only six minutes later as stand-off Pat Walker's beautifully-judged cross kick to the corner was plucked out of the air by Hayward for the third Bulldogs try.

And they showed their teeth just before half-time when Hayward turned on the razzle-dazzle up the touchline to register try number four.

Remarkably, all that happened when Bulldogs were playing up their infamous slope.

Any perceived geographical advantage in the first half was with Naylor's men, but despite that and despite getting the first three penalties of the game they were unable to crack a solid Bulldogs defence.

Prior to the first Batley try, Roughyeds were almost camped out in enemy territory. They couldn't score and when Bulldogs opened their account with comparative ease on one of their first raids into the Oldham half there was a strong hint of things to come.

The home side stretched their interval lead to 30-0 when Oldham failed to defuse a Brambani bomb, allowing Walker to hack-on and score a fifth try.

There followed a token gesture of a comeback when Michael Ward and Richard Lepori scored consolation tries for the hugely out-of-sorts Roughyeds.

TOUCHES

They quickly proved to be no more than that as Batley put the finishing touches to their best performance under Matt Diskin's command with another 20 unanswered points in the last 18 minutes.

Farrell, crowning a man-of-the-match performance, Smeaton, Leak and Gledhill took the home try tally to nine to complete a thoroughly miserable day for Oldham.

Having failed to turn early pressure into points, a much-changed side appeared to lose its self-belief and its composure.

Penalty after penalty went Batley's way - seven in a row in the first-half alone.

That's bound to sap huge reserves of energy and resolve out of any side.

If Roughyeds don't rid themselves of this costly habit of inviting opponents into their own half with penalty kicks they're going to suffer.

TALLY

The final tally was 12-6, but given that the first three were Oldham's, the Bulldogs had a massive advantage of 12 penalties to three over most of the game.

Add to that the greater physical presence of their bigger and more aggressive forwards and it's easy to see why Oldham were up against it for long periods of the game.

Farrell and Brown, in particular, had huge games in a Batley pack that got well on top after the first 20 minutes or so and thus allowed home halves Walker and Brambani to control the game.

They used their outside backs intelligently, scoring several tries - and missing two gilt-edged chances in the bargain - down Oldham's suspect-looking left side.

With Tuoyo Egodo, Dave Hewitt and the dual-reg Mikey Wood on that side in defence, Oldham had neither the experience nor the collective strength to cope with Hayward, Smeaton and Harrison.

Behind a pack that was second best for all but the first quarter of an hour, Scott Leatherbarrow was on a hiding to nothing.

He even had a touchline conversion attempt waved away when he was convinced it had gone in - not a day to remember for either him or Oldham.