Dallimore handed three match ban

Injury hit Oldham have been depleted further with the news that half-back Jamie Dallimore has been handed a three-match ban.

Dallimore, 23, was found guilty of “dangerous contact with an unacceptable risk of injury” during the Championship 1 game against Doncaster on May 13.

It was the fourth time in six matches that the former Great Britain amateur international’s disciplinary record had suffered.

After the bad-tempered derby at Rochdale on April 6 he escaped a ban after entering an early-guilty plea to the relatively minor grade A charge of punching during a mass flare-up involving players of both sides.

He got a yellow card during the Challenge Cup tie at St Helens — for tackling James Roby‘s legs when the St Helens hooker was already held up in a tackle — and ultimately received a formal caution, although he wasn’t charged.

He also received a caution, without charge, for a ‘dangerous throw’ in the game against North Wales at Whitebank on May 6.

His overall record this season appears to have been taken into consideration before the judiciary banned him for three games.

It will hit the club hard because coach Tony Benson’s injury-ravaged squad has already gone five league games without a win — four losses, one draw — and will again be missing key men when South Wales Scorpions travel to Whitebank on Saturday.

Benson is banking on forwards Paul Noone and David Ellison returning after injury, Noone for the first time since he damaged an ankle on an uneven pitch at London Skolars five weeks ago.

Valu Bentley (calf), Lucas Onyango (hamstring) and Alex Thompson (knee) are battling for fitness after picking up knocks against Whitehaven last Sunday.