Bad day at the office

Ian Hodson (Left) and Mick Nanyn stop a Barrow attack in its tracks

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BARROW 32, OLDHAM 12

WEARY Oldham’s automatic promotion hopes took a hit after a comprehensive defeat at Craven Park.

Bonus point-less and beleaguered, this was one of those evenings where very little went right for Steve Deakin and his side.

For starters, regular full-back Paul O’Connor and impact prop Said Tamghart were ruled out of playing because of injury.

Then, playmaking stand-off Neil Roden hobbled off in the opening minutes with a back injury, soon to be followed by concussed captain Rob Roberts.

It left the visitors facing an uphill battle and their chances of overcoming adversity weren’t aided by a steady stream of mistakes in which the ball was coughed up early in the tackle count.

Yet still this was a fairly even contest right up until the 49th minute.

Though the home team had gradually begun to take control of the game by that stage, with loose forward Dave Armitstead and second row prop Brett McDermott in particular enjoying themselves, the score was only 10-6 in Raiders’ favour.

When the try came Barrow’s way, it arrived completely out of the blue. On the last tackle, James Coyle placed a neat kick into the bottom left corner to turn around the home defence and the follow-up chase was a good one from Oldham.

However, the out-of-form Lucas Onyango was at fault in letting opposite wing Mike Backhouse evade his clutches and streak up the touch line. With speedy centre Liam Harrison supporting, a length-of-field try from nothing was a crushing body blow to the Roughyeds’ chances of gaining from the game.

Heads went down and the end result was then almost inevitable.

The remaining half-hour of the game was played out almost exclusively in the Roughyeds’ half, as Barrow — getting the defeat at Hunslet the previous week out of their collective system — began to turn on the style to celebrate the gaining of three points which edges them closer to the National League Two title.

While the loss of the those points alone isn’t disastrous for Oldham, given the number of games left against other promotion chasers, one of the main tasks for the coaching staff now will be wiping this match clean from the players’ memory banks.

That, plus getting key players as fit for battle as possible.

Darren Holt kicked Barrow into an early lead with a fourth-minute penalty, awarded for a high tackle by Roberts on Mick Cassidy.

The visitors then got on the score board almost immediately. An inch perfect James Coyle kick off was claimed by Brad Nichols, but the scrum-half carried the ball out of play in plucking it from the air.

From the resulting set, Roden found Ian Hodson and the second row stormed over the top of an attempted tackle and twisted and turned with the ball over the line before touching down, Mick Nanyn converting.

With the outstanding Armitstead increasingly at the hub of things, the speed and trickiness of Barrow began causing some problems, which were added to when Roden limped out of the action.

And as Raiders built a head of steam, they finally broke the Roughyeds’ resistance.

A lovely give-and-go in the centre of the pitch saw Armistead create room for himself and the ball was worked wide to James Nixon, who stepped neatly back inside to surge across on the left on 27 minutes.

The final scoring action of a compelling opening half came when Phil Joseph was penalised for holding down the lively Brett McDermott a couple of seconds too long, Holt stroking over a penalty three minutes before the interval.

Following the huge blow of the Harrison try, the Roughyeds’ evening was summed up when Gareth Langley — who had a stinker — made a mess of catching an unsuccessful Holt drop-goal attempt, spilling the ball when trying to get a quick re-start going.

A drop-out followed and Holt soon made up for his miss, driving over from close range.

The veteran stand-off repeated the trick on the hour mark after good work from Armitstead and Backhouse, aided by some poor defence on Oldham’s part.

Danny Halliwell stopped lively hooker Andy Ellis going over with a superb tackle, but by this stage Oldham looked out on their feet.

Adam Hughes, who didn’t have much of an influence in the game, then got on the scoresheet after a horrible mix-up in defence, in which a bouncing ball which should have been hacked clear wasn’t, and a 18th try of the season for James Coyle on the final hooter was only of small consolation in a third league defeat of the season.