Ian Rigg reports from Park Lane

The Roughyeds got themselves into the bowl for the next round of the Challenge cup with a hard fought victory over the Lions.

There was not a lot to choose from between the sides in the early stages and it was the Lions who had the first chance when Chris Hull put in a good kick for the line and Paul O'Connor had to be alert to take the ball over the dead ball line with the Lions attack in hot pursuit.

From the resulting goal-line drop-out there was more pressure on the Oldham line with Gary Hulse and Wayne English combining well to almost get Dean Gorton over by the posts but he just lost the ball as he went for the line.

The Roughyeds hit back from the scrum when James Coyle chipped the Lions defence with Craig Littler giving chase only to be outpaced by English who booted the ball dead to stop the danger.

From the resulting drop out Roughyeds took the lead when Bruce Johnson was penalised for holding down twenty metres out on Richard Mervill and Mick Nanyn landed the simple penalty goal.

O'Connor was again forced to knock the ball dead in goal from yet another good Lions attack on sixteen minutes but the visitors went further ahead ten minutes later when the Lions were caught for a forward pass in their own twenty and from the resulting scrum Neil Roden crashed over by the posts and again Nanyn added the goal points.

English had a good chance to get the Lions in a good position when Coyle booted the ball down field and it bounced off the foot of English back past the Roughyed defence and he continued to kick the ball down field before eventually a Lions player knocked on and the momentum was lost.

Oldham went further ahead ten minutes from the break when Rob Roberts put out a super short pass for Danny Halliwell and he raced away to score under the posts with Nanyn again adding the simple conversion.

The Lions hit back just minutes before the break when English put a high kick over the Roughyeds line and centre Darren Bamford was fastest to react to claim the try in the corner but Gary Sykes made a complete hash of his conversion as the ball never left the floor.

The visitors made the better start in the second half as they put pressure on the Lions line straight from the kick off and English was forced dead-in-goal on the first attack.

Nanyn put his team further ahead in the forty-seventh minute when he landed a simple penalty goal when the Lions were caught offside in front of their own posts after Coyle had gone close.

Coyle kicked a forty-twenty against the wind in the fifty-fifth minute to put his side in a good position and the Lions held on too long in the tackle and the official awarded the Roughyeds another penalty but Nanyn was off-target this time.

The Lions lost their try scorer Bamford on the hour when he was going for the corner and was hit by a four man tackle and he had to leave the field on a stretcher with a suspected ligament injury.

Nanyn had another penalty attempt fall wide in the sixty-eighth minute when Roberts was hit by a high tackle but they did add their final score with eight minutes left when the Lions were again forced to drop out and O'Connor raced in at the corner but again Nanyn missed the kick.

The Lions scored the final try in the dying seconds when English had made a good break out of his own in goal to put the Lions in a good position which saw Phil Wood, Craig Ashall and Sykes to send Barry Hamilton racing in at the corner but Ashall's conversion attempt fell just wide.