Last updated 19:42, Thursday, 03 July 2008

WORKINGTON Town host third placed Oldham this Sunday at Derwent Park.

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NOT NICE: Mick Nanyn

After going down 40-2 to Doncaster last weekend former Whitehaven star Mick Nanyn - now with Oldham - has noted Town’s uneven home form this season, though he knows they are capable of pulling off a surprise.

He said: “They beat Doncaster up there, which was probably a bit of a shock,” said the big centre, who has broken scoring records at all four of his former clubs, Swinton, Rochdale, Haven and Widnes, and is, unsurprisingly, the top points scorer outside Super League again this term.

He added: “They have, though, come unstuck against some of the supposed lesser sides. It’s not the nicest place to play, but Workington use that to their advantage.”

Off the pitch Craig Barker has indicated he is happy to answer boss Dave Rotheram’s call to step in to a beefed up role with Workington Town’s first team.

Rotheram opted not to seek a new No2 following Gary Hewer’s return to Whitehaven, instead turning to reserve-team coach Barker and conditioner Matthew Johnson.

Barker said: “Dave didn’t beat around the bush and said he was happy with what he had, and that myself and Matthew Johnson were capable of doing the job.

“I was pleased with that answer. I was there or thereabouts the first-team, even when Gary was on board, and everyone mucked in. But this gives me an opportunity to have a bit more input.”

Barker was in temporary joint charge of first-team affairs for much of last season, alongside Les Ashe, following Ged Stokes’ departure, guiding Town to the NL2 play-offs, so he is no stranger to the pressures of the job.

Barker added: “Last year it came out of the blue and there was no time to sit around and think, we had just to get on with it.

“We tried to be really professional in everything we did and I enjoyed it. I took more positives than negatives out of it. It was an enjoyable journey.”

Town’s reserve-grade travel to Oldham tomorrow and while they have won once in nine outings this term, against the Roughyeds, Barker believes the second-string is serving its purpose.

Young prop Peter Dobson is the latest to graduate, earning a first-team call up for last Friday’s tough trip to Doncaster, Town going down 40-2 to Ellery Hanley’s team.

“Doncaster looked like they had each put on a stone in muscle since we last beat them,” Barker added. “Mr Hanley has obviously had them training hard in the gym.

And Rotherham said: “We have got to start paying more attention to what we practice in training - we are going right away from it at the moment.

“We are doing things that you wouldn’t expect an U8 team to do and gifting a good team like Doncaster field position. In a way I feel sorry for our boys because the effort they put in to defend our line in the first half was fantastic. But the moment we got the ball down the other end of the field, we’d lose it on the second tackle, or we’d kick it away.

“It was just frustrating because we were surrendering good field position and we didn’t make them work at all in that respect.

“That meant that we had to do a lot of tackling and it takes it out of you - especially when you finish the match with only 13 fit men.

“Although we were well beaten in the end our heads never went down and we competed well for the 80 minutes. I thought Chris Young did well for us and full-back Jay Duffy, who had a lot to do, had a good first half. I was also impressed by Peter Dobson in only his second game for us.”

“I thought that we were a class act and that it was one of the best performances that we have produced this season,” said Dons coach Ellery Hanley. “We learnt from our last performance against them; the defeat was still hurting.

“We won well in the end but you have to give credit to Workington because they defended well for long periods of the first half hour during a time when we had a lot of the ball and controlled it well.”

n Town Flyer: J Canfield, High Harrington, A2795; Tuesday, P Macready, Workington, C9237; Wednesday, G Williams, Workington, B5573; yesterday, K Keenan, Workington C3769; today, B Baxter, Frizington, A6967.