Barrow feel full force as Oldham stay unbeaten

Oldham's Lucas Onyango opens the scoring

DON'T shout it from the rooftops just yet, but Oldham look like being a major force in Championship One this summer.

A 32-26 defeat of Barrow Raiders at Whitebank made it three league wins from three and opened up a two-point lead at the top of the table.

Collective desire was key, but woven into the teamwork tapestry were outstanding individual performances which were warmly received by the biggest Whitebank crowd for more than a year.

None did better than Danny Whitmore.

He didn't know until Saturday morning that he would be required to replace club captain Neil Roden in the pivotal stand-off half job against a Barrow side seeking its seventh win in a row in all competitions.

No pressure then.

Suffice to say that he did an excellent job in difficult circumstances, scoring the third Roughyeds try just before half-time with a sparkling dash to go under the posts and generally acquitting himself well as the young pretender in the shoes of the injured grand master.

Jamie Dallimore, his half-back partner, was another young Roughyed who further enhanced his growing reputation.

His try just after half time was a gem, side-steps to left and right opening up the Barrow defence and allowing him to score the fourth of six Oldham tries to give Roughyeds the lead for the second time at 24-18.

The halves worked their magic on the back of a hard-grafting pack in which David Ellison, John Clough and Alex Thompson carried Roughyeds forward up the middle and second-row men Paul Noone and Paul Smith shored things up at the back.

Smith also put in a big shift on attack, particularly in the first half when he and centre Mark McCully combined well on the left on the rare occasions that Roughyeds had the opportunity to counter.

The full version of this story is in tonight’s Chronicle and in the eChron and iChron electronic editions.