Counting cost of early switch

DETERMINATION . . . Oldham's George Tyson

ASSISTANT coach Peter Carey said the loss of left-centre Danny Grimshaw with a groin injury midway through the first half had a big bearing on what happened afterwards as low-on-confidence Roughyeds slipped to their fourth defeat in a row.

There was little to split the sides when Grimshaw went off, but the Lions went on to lead 12-0 at half-time and stretch their lead to 26-0 before lively full-back Richard Lepori crossed for Oldham's consolation try near the end.

Carey said: "This was another disappointing performance, but it's hard when you lose a centre so early in the game and you've then got to switch things around in the forwards.

"We had to move Luke Adamson from left-side second-row to left centre and that caused us problems in the pack because we had to move players around.

"The commitment was there. Everybody had a go. I didn't see anyone hiding.

"Unfortunately, we made a lot of silly little errors and we needed to be a little bit smarter in execution. There was nothing wrong with the game plan, but we shouldn't be trying silly little offloads against a team like Swinton.

"Whenever we play Swinton, they're nearly always close games, so we needed to do the little things right and we needed to make sure that we were smart in possession.

"We did neither. Two of their four tries came directly off our mistakes when we were attacking at their end of the field.

"If we had kicked in the right places and selected the right plays at the right time, I doubt whether Swinton would have scored those two tries.

"When Hankinson scored his length-of-the-field try near the end we were all committed to attack and nobody was going to turn round and catch him. He's too fast for that.

"A short pass hit 'Lippy' (Lepori) on the chest and bounced straight into 'Hanky's' hands and he was off like a shot - gone.

"That's what I mean about execution. That could have been a try for us, but things like that seem to happen when a side is struggling for form.

"Everyone is doing his bit and everyone is fully committed, but we need to be a whole lot smarter."