Derby double

Photo: Gareth Lowe

TIGHT TUSSLE: Oldham’s Mo Agoro pushes off a defender.

1 More Image(s) In Gallery

OLDHAM 26, ROCHDALE 10
OLDHAM’S forwards rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in to give Roughyeds their second derby triumph inside a month.

All but four of their 26 points came from backs, but it was the work of the pack that reduced Rochdale to well-beaten also-rans.

Two of the men who did the business, Chris Tyrer and Rochdale-born Callum Marriott, didn’t play in Oldham’s previous Northern Rail Cup fixture at North Wales Crusaders, but they made up for it by coming off the bench to smash the Hornets forwards into submission.

Naylor’s strategy was to keep his forwards in control and wipe out the potential threat of Rochdale’s trio of midfield playmakers, Steven Roper, Lee Gaskell and Paul Crook.

Hornets boss Ian Talbot, aiming to run Oldham around, brought in Super League stand-off Lee Gaskell from St Helens.

But Talbot was to concede in his post-match summing up that Hornets were drawn into a forward battle that didn’t comply with his game plan.

“We tried to take Oldham on down the middle, and we don’t have the personnel to do that,” he said.

Oldham scrum-half Jamie Dallimore emerged as the most influential half-back, easily outplaying Rochdale’s highly-rated creative trio to take the second half by storm.

He had the advantage of playing behind the dominant pack, but he didn’t half make it count, scoring two tries and setting up another for winger Dale Bloomfield with a perfectly-weighted kick to the corner.

In the second half, Dallimore drew first blood with a smash-and-grab raid in which he cheekily took the ball out of Gareth Langley’s grasp before racing away to score unopposed.

Hornets reduced the home lead to 14-10 with a try by prop Jordan Hand after a Bloomfield handling error, but thereafter most of the play was at Rochdale’s end of the field.

Dallimore and Bloomfield added further tries, the stand-off then putting over a late penalty goal to finish with three goals.

In the last minute Rochdale’s former Oldham forward Chris Baines was knocked out while trying to make a tackle.