Ballard has his eye on title

ANDY Ballard gave those Roughyeds fans present at the Leigh Sports Village a tantalising taster of what they can expect this season.

The 22-year-old winger impressed throughout, picking up a pair of well-taken tries as well as kicking two goals on his first Oldham appearance since signing for the club.

For the first, the former Salford City Reds speedster and dead-eye goal kicker kept pace with Danny Halliwell to offer his centre partner good support on the inside, while on the second he somehow managed to rush in and scoop up Thomas Coyle’s kick to the in-goal on the half-volley before sliding over — all in the blink of an eye.

Ballard isn’t going over the top about it, though. He also maintains that even though the result didn’t ultimately count for anything, the 28-20 defeat — which came about after Oldham held a 16-12 lead at the break, thanks to Ballard’s 12-point haul — was difficult to take.

“It just bounced up right and went straight in,” said Ballard, the first of the club’s new signings for the 2009 season, of his second against Leigh.

“If it had bounced any other way I wouldn’t have got it.

“We should have won the game. I don’t think it was that we were tired in the second half, so it is difficult to say why we lost.

“If you look at their tries, they came off an interception and two kicks so they were lucky tries, really.

“It was only our second game — it was my first one back — so we are still in the stages of getting things together.

“I think that by the time we go to play Widnes in a couple of weeks’ time, with a load more field sessions behind us, we will be ready for them.

“I think we can even go there and beat them — I hope so, anyway!”

Ballard developed his game within the junior ranks of his home-town club Wigan, along with fellow Roughyeds Thomas and James Coyle and David Allen.

After subsequently progressing from the Under-21s set-up at Salford, where he was voted player of the year in 2007, he seemed set for a bright future within the first team at The Willows under Shaun McRae.

But a double hernia operation ruined his campaign after a promising start, restricting Ballard to a total of only 13 appearances, featuring 11 tries and 63 goals.

After failing to force his way back into the first-team picture on recovery, he was released by the club at the end of the season and joined fellow Reds star Paul Highton in making the short trip across to Oldham.

Despite the drop down to Co-operative Championship One, it wasn’t a tough choice to make to join the Roughyeds and Ballard is fully expecting a successful year.

“A lot of my mates I had played with at Wigan like the Coyles and Dave Allen plus others from over there were at Oldham so it made it easy for me,” Ballard added.

“If I hadn’t known anyone, maybe it would have been different.

“We have got loads of good players here and to be honest, we should walk that league with the talent we have got.

“I just want to play as well as I can this season. I have only got a one-year deal so I have to earn another deal — hopefully in the division above.”