A far cry from former selves

Photo: Dave Murgatroyd

I'VE GOT MY EYES ON YOU . . . Luke Adamson looks to sidestep a Swinton Lions defender

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OUT-OF-SORTS Oldham struggled again at Swinton Lions where they were already 26-0 down when Richard Lepori scored their only try six minutes from the end.

It was their fourth defeat in a row - the last two by teams immediately above them and below them in the Kingstone Press Championship table.

A Naylor-fashioned squad that was once a mirror image of the boss in his playing days, tough, resilient, proud, determined to play at full throttle for 80 minutes win or lose, appears to have lost many of these qualities.

Oldham under Naylor have never been flamboyant and free-flowing, but they've always possessed lorry loads of passion, team spirit and self-belief with the inner strength to overcome setbacks and adversity.

The Roughyeds squad we knew and loved not all that long ago would have made mincemeat of Swinton at Heywood Road yesterday instead of leaving supporters wondering what the heck was going on.

The Lions were more inventive at half-back; infinitely better in the tactical kicking department; quicker and smarter with ball in hand; and superior in providing a quick and accurate service from dummy half.

Two-try centre Chris Hankinson was the home side's official man of the match but, well though he played, it was difficult for this observer to look beyond half-back Chris Atkin as the most influential player on the field.

Forget his five goals from five shots. That was merely the gloss finish. His biggest value to Swinton was his ability to seemingly kick the ball to whatever square metre of the pitch he wished to target.

His boot controlled this game from start to finish and, to be honest, neither Scott Leatherbarrow nor David Hewitt was in the same street.

FORTUITOUS

Richard Lepori's inability to clean-up at the feet of the onrushing Rhodri Lloyd and Liam Carberry led to a fortuitous opening score for the Lions, but the Oldham full-back was still head and shoulders above any of his colleagues.

He regularly cleared his line impressively and it was fitting that he should score Oldham's only try near the end by busting what was by then a lazy-looking Lions right-edge defence.

Others to show up rather more than the rest were the usual few - Adam Clay, George Tyson, Adam Neal, Kenny Hughes, Michel Ward. You could also add Jack Spencer, who worked tirelessly in the front-row.

It was a serious blow to lose left-centre Danny Grimshaw with groin trouble midway through the first half, but that's the sort of setback that seems to blight teams that are going through a bad patch and need a break.

Nothing seems to go right and the harder you try the worse it becomes.

Oldham have been going through that demoralising process for the past few weeks and the deeper it gets ingrained the tougher it becomes to scramble free.

They did nothing to inspire confidence that they had the skill, strength or guile to open up a stout Lions defence; this despite overwhelming territorial advantage in the second half and time in possession in the home half.

Of the 12 second-half penalties, nine were awarded to Oldham, yet the visitors were still restricted to a try at the end when it mattered very little.

It was tit for tat in the first quarter, but Swinton got a lucky break when Leatherbarrow's kick for touch rebounded at speed off a defender and shot away on course for the Oldham line.

Lepori seemed to have it covered as he tracked across the field on the angle. He and Carberry went down on the ball, but it squirmed out, leaving Lloyd with the simple job of picking up and going over.

Oldham had their best spell after that but they failed to make it count and then Hankinson scored his second try in the corner after slick approach play by Ben White and Jack Murphy.

Oldham resumed for the second half in determined mood, but it was typical of their misfortune that, having made a clean outside break, Danny Langtree lost his footing and slipped.

Liam Bent then forced a Lions error and the home side was penalised for a high shot on Tyson as Roughyeds went in search of their opening score. They needed to register the first points of the second half and they were up for it.

Lions were relieved to get a penalty when Clay was offside chasing a Leatherbarrow cross kick.

Hard as they tried, Oldham couldn't break down the home defence. And when Atkin stroked home a long-range penalty to stretch the home lead to 14-0 in the 65th minute, Roughyeds heads visibly dropped.

After that, Lever and Atkin set up a third Lions try for Murphy and worse was to follow when another Oldham attack broke down and Hankinson collected to race almost the full length of the pitch for his second try.

In the last few minutes Swinton's Barlow and Murphy were sin-binned for separate offences either side of Lepori's consolation try, but their yellow cards did nothing to ease the pain of another off-colour performance by the visitors.