Mo with the flow in capital

Michael Ward of Oldham outpaces Martyn Smith

LONDON SKOLARS 28

OLDHAM 38
LONDON Skolars will be sick to the back teeth of Mo Agoro.

In March, at the New River Stadium on White Hart Lane, it was the Oldham winger’s tremendous, try-saving tackle in the dying seconds that earned Roughyeds an 18-16 win.

When Skolars came to Whitebank on June 1 and were trounced 46-16, Agoro scored twice and was denied a hat-trick by the tightest of forward-pass decisions.

And in this loop fixture at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Stadium in Enfield, the 21-year-old former Leeds Rhinos man not only raced in for his second hat-trick of the season, but finally ended the home side’s stubborn resistance by going in for his third try with only three minutes left on the clock.

And what a beauty it was, too.

Trailing 28-32, and threatening to snatch it, Skolars let a great chance slip through their fingers when Judd Greenhalgh moved inside on Danny Yates’s defence-stretching wide ball instead of going flat out for the corner.

Thus reprieved, Roughyeds swiftly moved the ball to the other side of the field where Agoro pushed off a couple of defenders deep inside the Oldham half.

He sped away up the touchline, swung inside to head for the posts and smashed through the full-back’s despairing challenge to break Skolars’ hearts, as he had done with THAT tackle four months and 11 days earlier and just a few miles down the road.

This time, his first two tries early in the game owed much to hooker Gareth Owen, a classy little footballer who absolutely ripped the home defence to shreds in the opening quarter of an hour.

It was Owen’s break up the middle which set up position from which Agoro crossed in the corner on Lewis Palfrey’s cross-kick.

But the hooker’s best was still to come. Two minutes later, he totally eclipsed London’s marker defence out near the right touchline before selling a cheeky dummy, pulling full-back John Paxton to him and providing Agoro with a walk-in.

Added to a Lewis Palfrey conversion and to Jon Ford’s opening try, courtesy of Josh Crowley’s offload, Agoro’s quick one-two put the visitors 14-0 up inside 12 minutes.

Astonishingly, and not for the first time this season, Roughyeds then gave the impression that all was well with the world and all they would need to do would be to go through the motions.

How often do they need telling ?

Ford couldn’t prevent the Skolars’ restart kick finding touch and from the resulting scrum, the home side piled forward relentlessly with halves Davies and Yates moving the ball around into the flight paths of their big forwards such as Tony Pelo, Lamont Bryan, Will Lovell and David Williams.

Once they got steam up, they were hard to stop, but questions will still be asked of the Roughyeds’ defence as Lovell (twice) and Pelo got over for tries before winger Macani scorched in from long range to give his side a 22-14 lead.

Oldham badly needed to get back on the scorecard again before half-time and persistence was rewarded when Langtree and Palfrey combined cleverly before Steve Roper and Ford created enough space for Adam Clay to score.

Roper took over the goalkicking duties from Palfrey, who landed only one of his three early chances, and the former Rochdale half went on to kick four from four.

It’s good to know that Palfrey has ready-made back-up as a goalkicker if the need should arise again.

Having had chance to regroup at half-time and assess what had gone wrong, Naylor’s men came out for the second half in much more dominant mood.

Nathan Mason, especially, made a huge impact in carrying the ball forward and pushing for the hard yards.

The old firm scored twice — Josh Crowley on the left, Danny Langtree on the right — and both went close to scoring again before Clay crossed in the corner on a Palfrey ball that was said to be forward.

Leading 32-22, Oldham looked much more confident and comfortable.

Skolars were in big trouble, but Steven Nield saw his grubber kick ricochet off a defender and back into the path of another Skolars man, who immediately counter-attacked and made the running for Mufaro Mvududu’s late try in the corner.

Davies kicked the goal and the game was in the balance again; that is, until Agoro, big, strong and looking hungry for action, scored the glorious, long-range try that kept Roughyeds in second place.