Friendly fire as fists fly

BREAKING THROUGH: Oldham’s Josh Crowley tries to squeeze between Swinton defenders. PICTURE: TIM BRADLEY

Swinton 26, Oldham 24

OLDHAM RL head coach Scott Naylor declared himself happy despite seeing his team edged out in their first warm-up fixture of 2015 at Swinton Lions.

Roughyeds gave a good account of themselves against their soon-to-be Kingstone Press Championship One rivals as they rallied from a 20 points to four deficit minutes into the second half.

Adam Clay scored a hat-trick of tries for Oldham, while Danny Langtree and Gareth Owen also went over.

The game was marred by a mass brawl midway through the second period, after which Roughyeds pair George Tyson and Nathan Mason were sent off alongside Swinton’s Mike Morrison.

Naylor was less than impressed with the performance of match referee Johnny Roberts and spoke to the official after the final whistle, but aside from the fisticuffs, the Roughyeds coach was satisfied with an encouraging start to the year.

Naylor said: “We certainly looked like our fitness was bang on track, and overall I was really pleased with what happened. It’d be interesting to play that game in another two or three weeks. It’s a shame the match was so poorly run, but we’ve got what we wanted to get out of it.”

Naylor was without skipper Lewis Palfrey following hernia surgery, while David Cookson and Phil Joy were also not risked due to slight injuries. All 20 players named on the teamsheet went on to play some part.

In bright Spring-like sunshine at Sedgley Park’s tidy Park Lane ground, the Roughyeds were clearly a little rusty in the first half, though rallied from an early 10-0 deficit handed to the hosts.

The visitors struck back after half-an-hour when the lively Langtree dived over from close range, though Steve Roper missed the conversion attempt.

Clay nailed the first of his late trio of tries to get Oldham within two points of their hosts in the end, though the contest was spoiled somewhat 10 minutes from time courtesy of the brawl which saw three players handed red cards.

Owen had also touched down for gutsy Oldham as they produced a stirring late comeback which will offer Naylor plenty of heart ahead of the next warm-up contest at Leigh on Sunday.