Primed for another thriller

Date published: 18 July 2014


AT face value, Oldham’s top-two battle at York is too close to call.

The one certainty is this — if it’s half as good as it was when the City Knights were at Whitebank in May it’s going to be a cracker.

Remember it? Steve Nield’s try two minutes from the end gave Roughyeds a 31-30 win and broke York hearts.

That’s not all.

Oldham raced into a 27-0 lead with a Dale Bloomfield hat-trick, tries by Mo Agoro and David Cookson, three Lewis Palfrey goals and a Brett Robinson drop goal.

It was all over bar the shouting. Would anybody have expected what happened next?

Oldham lost their grip, York pulled back 14 points in the last five minutes of the first half and then resumed like a whirlwind after the break to pin down Oldham at the bottom end of the ground.

Despite fluffing SEVEN shots at goal, they stormed to a 30-27 lead before Lewis Palfrey, Agoro, Cookson and Danny Langtree weaved magic out on the right.

Nield got on the end of it, crossed for the winning try and brought the house down.

Roughyeds would settle for an encore at the Huntington Stadium on Sunday (3pm) because it would put Scott Naylor’s men only one point behind the leaders with a game in hand.

York, though, will see an opportunity to go five points clear — six if they were to deny Roughyeds a bonus point.

No surprise then that rival coaches Naylor and Gary Thornton have each referred to this first v second showdown as “massive” in terms of how it will influence final placings.

Hunslet will also have a say in the charge to finish first or second in order to get a big advantage in the play-offs.
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