Second-half power failure

Photo: PICTURES by CHRIS SUNDERLAND.

HOW’S that for starters? Danny Whitmore breaks clear to score Oldham’s first try.

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Oldham 20, Hemel Stags 20

LEADING 16-0 at half-time and 20-12 with three minutes left, Oldham should have put three more league points under lock and key.

They couldn’t do it. In the end they were fortunate to emerge from the first home game of the new season with a 20-20 draw.

As Hemel winger James Hill flew in at the corner to square things up, the klaxon blew and time was up.

The touchline conversion was still to come, and all Scott Naylor’s men could do was to stand helplessly by to see if Ben Young could kick the winning goal. His shot was way off.

Roughyeds clung to second place in the table while York jumped from third to first thanks to their narrow win at Hunslet.

At this early stage of the season it would be foolish to read too much into Oldham’s poor second-half show, though Naylor will be anxious to determine why a team so dominant in the opening 40 minutes lost control so quickly.

Hemel never went seriously close to scoring a point while playing uphill in the first half. Roughyeds roared down the hill to score unanswered tries by Danny Whitmore, Jason Boults and Dale Bloomfield, two of which were improved by Sam Gee.

After the half, Hemel were similarly destructive and turned the game on its head by rattling in four tries to Oldham’s one.

But was there more to Oldham’s second-half loss of power than the effect of the slope?

Much has already been said of last year’s slow start. The club is determined to get this season off on the right note and that’s what made Hemel's last-gasp smash-and-grab all the more disappointing.

In the first half an ordinary-looking Hemel fluffed a pass deep inside their own half to give Whitmore a free run to the line as early as the third minute.

Files at dummy half gave the home side a different attacking dimension and his smart break lined up Boults to score a second Oldham try midway through the half.

Files almost scored the third try himself after a superb break from Josh Crowley, but it eventually fell to Bloomfield.

The half ended with Roughyeds briefly under the cosh, but they never once looked in serious danger of conceding.

Skipper Lewis Palfrey was introduced from the bench at the start of the second half and he was quickly in the action.

An inability to turn chances into points prevented Roughyeds adding to their score in the first half and this weakness was to continue after the break.

Stags went down to 12 men when full-back James Cameron was sin-binned and this was the signal for Roughyeds to pile on the pressure. But Hemel refused to lie down.

With three minutes left, Al-Zubeidi scored in the corner from Jy-Mel Coleman’s high kick to set up a grandstand finish.

Roughyeds were stunned — and Naylor will be looking for big improvements before the next league game at London Skolars in a fortnight.