Ford focused on more heroics

Oldham's top try scorer last season Jon Ford won't give up his crown without a fight.

Still a teenager this time last year, Ford finished with 21 tries from 15 games: only Rob Massam of North Wales Crusaders scored more with 25.

Twelve months on, wingers Mo Agoro and Dale Bloomfield are hogging the Whitebank limelight on 13 and 12. Last year they finished with Bloomfield on 11 and Agoro on nine.

Agoro has come on in leaps and bounds this season and is in sizzling form - but to be fair to Ford, Agoro and Bloomfield have played in all 14 games while Ford didn't join the club until mid-May.

In the six games so far he has made seven tries. Agoro has nine from his last five, but Ford is giving chase.

An opportunist with an instinct for anticipating opponents' passes and timing his attack to perfection,

Ford can be expected to score many more times over the coming weeks.

‘The ball just seems to come my way," he said. “But rugby league’s like that; you never know what a game is going to throw up.”

Agoro and back-row forward Josh Crowley are included in the Championship One team of the week.

Team: Thomas (Gloucester); Agoro (OLDHAM), Ford (York), Cowburn (Gloucester), Dent (York); Reynolds (York), Connick (Oxford); Barron (Gateshead), Cook (Gloucester), Brennan (York), Crowley (OLDHAM), Backhouse (York), Fairbank (Gloucester).

Roughyeds, meanwhile, will be seeking their eighth win in 10 games when they take on Tony Benson's Oxford at Iffley Road on Sunday.