Barrow boys

REVENGE MISSION: Gareth Owen will be out to make up for his red card against Barrow last time out.

GARETH Owen and George Tyson will need no motivating in preparation for Oldham’s big game against Barrow on Sunday.

When Roughyeds and Raiders went head to head at Craven Park in May, Owen was sent off near the end, with home half-back Liam Campbell, after rival players exchanged punches in an ugly free-for-all.

On further examination by the sport’s match review panel, Tyson and dual-reg team mate Josh Johnson were also charged. Owen, Tyson, Johnson and Barrow’s Campbell received two-match suspensions, Oldham expressing surprise that three of their men were banned to Barrow’s one after what appeared to be mass shindig involving both sets of players.

Johnson, one of seven Huddersfield Giants players to turn out for Roughyeds before the signing deadline kicked in, didn’t play for them again, while Owen and Tyson were forced to sit out two of the toughest games of the year — Keighley away and North Wales at home.

While a 32-24 defeat at Keighley and a 38-28 loss at home to Crusaders couldn’t be attributed solely to their absence, it didn’t help.

One way or another, and perhaps tenuously in some respects, Barrow have been associated with each of the less positive aspects of what has otherwise proved so far to be an amazingly successful season for the League One pacesetters.

Sunday’s third meeting this year is bound to be one in which hooker Owen and centre Tyson will have special reasons to perform at their best in pursuit of their side’s 11th successive win. A home win would put Oldham within two games of finishing top of the division and giving themselves the best chance of going on to win promotion. For a one-off game with such a huge prize for the winners, you can’t ask for more than home advantage.

That’s why so much is riding on Oldham’s final three games of the regular season against Barrow, Swinton and Oxford.