WELL, what a second-half pasting! And what a let-down after the superb performance against Halifax Panthers only a week earlier.

There was always an underlying worry that Roughyeds wouldn’t be able to back-up their energised performance against Panthers, but nobody expected them to be on the wrong end of a 36-4 trouncing like this.

What hurt most of all was the ease with which the Cumbrians demolished Matt Diskin’s men at their own game and showed no fear whatsoever of the infamous Bower Fold slope or of Oldham’s reputation for using it to maximum advantage.

In fact, they won the toss and chose to take first advantage of it, thus playing right into Oldham’s hands - or so we thought.

Even at half-time everything seemed to be going to plan. Oldham trailed 6-4, but by attacking their favourite end in the second-half they could surely see off ‘Haven just as they had put Swinton and Halifax to the sword - or so we thought.

What happened next was a horror show for all those Oldham fans watching on Our League.

‘Haven not only scored first when winger Jesse Joe Parker took advantage of an error by Oldham’s young full-back Callum Green, but they kept the home side scoreless while attacking their favourite end and piled on 30 points themselves.

The root cause of Oldham’s problems was an inability to look after the wet ball and respect possession.

It’s hardly been their strong point in previous games this season, but the heavy rain that had saturated the ground before kick-off and during the first half made handling particularly difficult and the Cumbrians dealt with it far better than Oldham did.

Put simply, the Cumbrians had the ‘nouse’, and the ability, not only to cope with the conditions better, but to actually turn them to their advantage.

Led by Kiwi scrum-half Nikau Williams, their kicking game was infinitely superior to anything Roughyeds could come up with and on a wet day that was to prove crucial.

Throw into the mix some awful Oldham handling and you see why it all went so horribly wrong on a day Roughyeds were hoping to make it four home wins out of four.

It didn’t help when prop Liam Kirk was laid out in one of the first tackles of the match, thus disrupting plans for forward substitutions.

Martyn Reilly replaced him, but when it was time for Luke Nelmes to take a breather, second-rower Danny Bridge had to go into the front row and all the ‘middles’ had to put in longer shifts than they would have done normally.

It was Batley all over again. In that heavy defeat, Bridge had to leave the field in the first few minutes and the same applied.

Oldham are not having much luck with injuries, but there were also worrying signs that once the visitors had extended their lead to 18-4, the Roughyeds’ self-belief and will to win began to lose its venom.

‘Haven could sense it and as the weather improved too they began to throw the ball about, back-up with enthusiasm and energy and run in three excellent tries in the last 20 minutes to turn Oldham’s bad dream into a nightmare.

Three of their first four tries were gifted to them by Oldham errors, but ‘Haven should be credited with putting Oldham under constant pressure in the first place.

Ironically, Oldham scored first when Green went in after half an hour after quick ball movement left to right by Dan Abram and Lewis Charnock.

After that ‘Haven scored 36 unanswered points, including four tries for Callum Phillips, and a victory can’t get much more conclusive than that.

Scorers: Oldham - try, Green; Whitehaven - goals, Walmsley 6/6; tries, Cooper, Parker, Phillips (4).

OLDHAM: Green; Brierley, Croft, Roberts, Holcroft; Charnock, Abram; Kirk, Owen, Nelmes, Bent, Langtree, Spencer. Subs (all used): Gregory, Pick, Bridge, Reilly.

WHITEHAVEN: Walmsley; Bulman, Taylor, Mossop, Parker; Dixon, Williams; Walker, Roden, Dawson, Gillam, Cooper, Wilkinson. Subs (all used): Bradley, Michael, Olstrum, Phillips.

Ref: Scott Mikalauskas.