Packing a punch

Date published: 08 April 2015


STEVE Roper’s assertion that he and Lewis Palfrey are playing behind the best pack in League One will be put to the test against North Wales Crusaders in tonight’s iPro Sport Cup semi-final at Whitebank.

It’s going to be a mighty battle for forward supremacy as the packs collide.

Oldham’s forwards have taken four wins from five ganmes but this will be their toughest challenge yet, against a Crusaders pack many pundits believe will complete a 2015 cup and league double.

Cool heads and self-discipline will be essential ingredients of semi-final success — and Adam Neal, Phil Joy, Josh Crowley, Danny Langtree, Liam Thompson, Michael Ward, Nathan Mason et al will have to be at their best to get Roughyeds into the final in Blackpool on May 23.

If the side can snap out of its slow-start habit and play for 80 minutes like they’ve been playing this year for the final 60, they must be even-money to preserve their 18-month unbeaten home record.

Neal, the most experienced of Oldham’s forwards and immense in defeat at Sheffield, will take the lead and carry his fellow starting prop, Joy, with him. He will be key to the way Oldham’s forwards shape up and he and Joy will lay down a marker for Ward and Mason to come off the bench running.

Behind the props, Liam Thompson is having his best spell since joining the club, while Josh Crowley and Danny Langtree have still to find the stunning form that made them one of the best second-row pairings in the division in 2013 and 2014.

‘Langers’ is fighting his way back after hamstring trouble and Crowley scored twice at Rochdale to show he is moving in the right direction.

No better time than a Whitebank semi-final for these two talented back-rowers to come good again and light up the night sky.

Hang on to your hats. It's going to be a cracker!