New boys shine as reserves hit back

LOCAL lad Liam Bland, the former Waterhead junior, made his debut for Oldham RL Club reserves in their 26-18 win against Keighley Cougars at Whitebank on Saturday.

Centre Chris Headen, from the St Helens area, was another newcomer as Roughyeds bounced back from the previous week's defeat by Widnes Vikings despite the absence of Michael Ward, Shaun Robinson and Alistair Williams, who had all been promoted to first-team squad duty.

Back-row forward Danny Langtree also got the nod from head coach Tony Benson, but he was allowed to play in the reserves and he underpinned the boss's confidence with two first-half tries, one of them engineered splendidly by loose-forward Alex Thompson.

Thompson, once of Warrington Wolves, had a cracking first half as Roughyeds built-up a 20-6 interval lead with an opening try by prop Matty Barber, fashioned by hooker Brett Robinson's break from dummy half, and then the brace of touchdowns by Langtree.

Jamie Dallimore converted all three tries and added a first-half penalty before taking his personal points haul to 14 with an early second-half touchdown and goal.

Leading 26-6, Roughyeds looked capable of extending their points advantage, but they then lost their composure, failed to build on their first-half authority, and conceded two late tries, both converted.

Said coach John Hough: "We needed to start well, after two defeats, and we achieved that only to drop off in the second half. That's something we will have to look at.

"We needed the win to restore our confidence and it was good to achieve it with a few regulars missing, which shows that our squad system is working well."