Oldham 42 Barrow 4
Boundary Park — Oldham stormed into the Betfred Challenge Cup fourth round with a seven-try demolition of Barrow that head coach Sean Long credited to a pack that “set the tone from the first carry.”

Jumah Sambou’s double lit up a blustery afternoon, yet the story was the hosts’ defence: Barrow spent set after set on the Roughyeds’ line yet crossed only once, Andrew Bulman’s 77th-minute corner consolation preventing a shut-out.

Long, who handed Danny Craven the full-back shirt and paired Riley Dean with Josh Drinkwater in the halves, watched his rejigged spine strike inside four minutes when Sambou powered over. Kieran Dixon’s conversion attempt sailed wide in the gale, but Oldham were already in control. Ramon Silva’s sin-binning handed Barrow field position, yet Mo Agoro’s thunderous front-line tackle turned the ball over and, 60 seconds later, the winger finished in the same corner for 8-0.

Dixon grounded Drinkwater’s pinpoint grubber on the half-hour, and when Craven had the ball ripped over the line Iain Thornley pounced to stretch the lead to 18-0 at the break.

Pat Moran’s acrobatic spin and Dean’s gather of another Drinkwater chip stretched the margin to 30-0 before Craven sliced through on a delayed pass and Sambou completed his brace. Dixon landed three second-half goals to finish with five from eight.

“We kept turning up for each other and that’s what gets you over the line,” Long said. “It is the culture the lads bought into last year — we won’t be out-worked.”

The fourth-round draw airs on BBC Two next Saturday evening, 24 hours before York arrive at Boundary Park to open Oldham’s Betfred Championship campaign.

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