‘We were awful’ — Benson

COACH Tony Benson apologised to fans, on behalf of club and players, after a dreadful performance by Oldham in a 14-4 Northern Rail Cup defeat by Whitehaven at Whitebank.

The Roughyeds' mistake-riddled offering on a heavy, sticky pitch was their third defeat in a row in this competition, but their first loss of the season on home soil.

"We were awful," said Benson, "and what we came up with in the first half had to be our worst showing of the year so far.

"We were off colour in the previous two games and I think some of the players were trying too hard to get things right in conditions which demanded a more cautious approach.

"We got ourselves into a bit of a panic and in trying to get it right we lost an enormous amount of possession and put ourselves under immense pressure.

"We came up with an unusually high number of dropped balls — and the stats showed that we made 21 handling errors in the game. You are not going to win matches when you do things like that.

"On top of that we played nervously and with a lack of confidence and we put ourselves in a position where we had far too much tackling to do in poor conditions.

"I am very conscious of the fact that fans pay good money to watch what we do on the field. The players are also very conscious of that. And to be honest we were all embarrassed by our performance today, especially in the first half.

"A good team will come back from a setback such as this, so we will be tested now in how we respond. I am confident we will respond well.

“We will take stock, look at ourselves and come back as a much-improved unit."