Benson’s joy as tactics work a treat

IT was a plan that worked to perfection.

Give Barrow first use of the Whitebank slope; stay as close to them as possible in the first half; and hit them with everything playing down the incline in the second period.

"Even though we trailed by eight points at half-time we felt confident the job was half done," said Oldham boss Tony Benson.

"Our attack had not been quite as well organised as it might have been, but we knew what we had to do in order to get it right.

"We hadn't done much wrong defensively and we were confident we could pin them in their half of the pitch in the second half, keep the ball away from them and dominate possession and territory.

"We needed to stop Harrison and Bracek offloading, and we succeeded in doing that.

"We won repeat sets four times in the first 20 minutes, and defensively we were superb.

"There were some super individual contributions, but the thing that struck me forcibly was how well the guys did who came into the side after lengthy absences like Valu Bentley and Shaun Robinson.”



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