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Oldham’s Danny Halliwell looks inside as Graham Holroyd gets in a tackle.

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AS AN exercise – or exorcise, perhaps – in restoring confidence, Oldham were partially successful at Boundary Park.

The ghosts of Dewsbury past were banished to another realm, at least as far as the attacking side of the Roughyeds’ game was concerned. While last week, the home side failed to make it past a stout Rams rearguard action, this time the pace, invention and strong support play from Tony Benson’s men proved far too much for injury-ravaged Swinton to cope with.

On the other side of the ball, though, there were still a good handful of moments that will haunt Benson’s sleep.

While scoring nine tries through as many different players can only be considered as a team triumph, Oldham shipped in six themselves, many of which were sloppy efforts from a defensive standpoint.

Moving up two places to second in the Co-operative Championship One table, the Roughyeds boast 218 points in the ‘for’ column – the highest total in the division – but have 156 ‘against’.

Only London Skolars and Workington have thus far proved to be more porous at the back.

Still, at least no supporter can have left games this year feeling short-changed.

Oldham took a stranglehold of this game early on and despite the Lions clinging on to their coat tails, the result was never really in doubt from the moment Danny Halliwell added to Lee Greenwood’s opening try after just six minutes, following good work by the irrepressible Dave Allen.

Swinton found their feet after that and soon began to look dangerous. Hooker Alex McClurg came within inches of touching down after a weaving run before veteran stand-off Graham Holroyd’s pass found full-back Richard Hawkyard bursting through towards the corner after picking a good angle from 20 metres out.

Then Allen again played creator, picking up a loose ball to send away Paul O’Connor on a 60-metre dash to the line before Lions centre Matt Ashe was harshly denied a score for what appeared to be a phantom obstruction.

Oldham then gave the scoreline a slightly lopsided look when Thomas Coyle produced a moment of magic to dummy, and then throw a deft pass, to Allen close to the line just after the half-hour.

The Lions responded by winning back possession from their own kick-off, Dave Hull the beneficiary of an all-too easy score, before Stevie Gibbons answered in kind by driving low from dummy-half to add a fifth of the half for the Roughyeds.

Ahead 28-12 at half-time, Oldham improved that lead when Jamie I’Anson piled over from close range and then had a Luke Menzies effort disallowed for a forward pass.

Mike Wainwright then went in under the posts for the visitors, before more good work from Allen in broken play set in hooker Gary Sykes after 57 minutes.

Craig Ashall was the next to notch a short-range effort for Swinton, Andy Ballard replying with a penalty on 65 minutes to give Oldham a 40-24 lead.

Tommy Goulden increased the gap by going over on the left, before the Roughyeds came up with the finest team try of the afternoon.

A fine offload from Danny Halliwell found Ballard on the touchline and the former Salford star shifted the ball back inside to the supporting Thomas Coyle to round off a slick, pacy score.

There was still time for a spot of fisticuffs, Neil Rigby appearing to lash out at James Coyle as the two held each other following a tackle – no sanction was taken against the Lions’ second row – and two more Swinton tries.

The first came about from slick work by Martin Moana, creating one for Andy Saywell with some skilful ball movement, while Gareth Hayes went over down the middle for yet another try Oldham would have to be unhappy to have conceded.

One peculiarity on the day was that Andy Ballard was not among Oldham’s nine different try scorers, though the winger added eight goals from 10 attempts with the boot to make up for it.


Defence now the key for Benson
TONY Benson was delighted with the way his side’s attacking game came to the fore against Swinton.

Though the Roughyeds failed to turn territory into points against Dewsbury, it was a very different story against the Lions at Boundary Park as the home team ran in nine tries to inflict a first league defeat of the season on Paul Kidd’s injury-hit side.

While defensive worries persist, Benson is confident they can be overcome on the training paddock.

“It was far from comfortable but at least we might get some sleep this week,” said the Oldham coach.

“There were some very good tries scored and the pleasing thing for me was that a lot of the tries came about from things we have been practising in training.

“Confidence is probably back up there, but the thing we can’t seem to do is just be happy with a win.

“We are into each other about our defence and realise that it needs to improve.

“We know we can score tries, so we are scoring a couple and then letting them have one or two by being a bit soft and light on them.

“So we have got to address that and possibly the structure we are using, which we aren’t doing quite right.

“We let them back in with things like kicking the ball out on the full, dead from kick-offs, or giving away a penalty at a crucial time.

“I don’t think we will have to work too hard to get our defence right, but we will have a good look at our shape and structure anyway and see how we can do it better.

“Luckily, we have a week to work on it.”