Final heartache

CAPTAIN Rob Roberts’ face says it all after Doncaster’s fightback clinched an 18-10 win

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Oldham 10, Doncaster 18

BATTLING Oldham fell to a second successive National League Two finals day defeat, ending the promotion dream for another season — but it wasn’t for want of effort.

This was a hard-fought, tooth-and-nail promotion decider which was in the balance right up until Kyle Briggs dived over in the left corner with six minutes left to take Doncaster eight points clear.

In the end, though, despite putting a huge amount of work in to the entire match, the Roughyeds once again failed to notch the win which would have seen them do battle with the likes of Toulouse and Widnes in 2009. Instead, they will try again to get out of National League Two.

With post-match statistics showing that the set completion rate was up above 80-per-cent throughout, there was plenty of pressure on the Doncaster line.

Only twice, through Ian Hodson in the first half and Mick Nanyn in the second, did Oldham breach a superb rearguard effort from Ellery Hanley’s men.

Sadly, James Coyle — who, to be fair, bore a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders as the sole creative spark in the side following Neil Roden’s withdrawal with a hamstring injury — had a frustrating match.

It proved to be a tough task getting through Doncaster who, when going forward themselves, were admirably clinical.

Oldham errors were pounced on. With his side 6-2 up, Coyle made a crucial one in failing to find touch with a penalty in the 44th minute.

The scrum-half’s effort was palmed back infield by Dean Colton and when an offside verdict arrived seconds later, the defensive line wasn’t set in time to prevent a quick tap and burst from Chris Buttery from resulting in a score.

Luke Gale converted to edge Doncaster ahead and that lead grew after 50 minutes when the scrum-half went over for a try himself. It wasn’t uncontroversial, though.

As the Harlequins-bound player twisted and turned in the tackle, Roughyeds full-back Paul O’Connor desperately tried to put his body between the ball and the line. The video evidence appeared inconclusive on whether Gale grounded on or over the line, but Phil Bentham surprisingly gave it the thumbs up. It was a huge blow for Oldham.

Still, Steve Deakin’s men recovered to once again dominate in territory. It paid off when good skills from Nanyn, placing the ball on the line over his head while being tackled, brought the gap down to four points just after the hour.

The next 10 minutes saw Oldham pile forward searching for a match-winner that didn’t arrive, before eventually running out of steam.

After Marcus St Hilaire had halted the progress of Wayne Riettie with a superb tackle chasing back, Doncaster kept the ball alive well on the last tackle to deliver Briggs’s try, a blow to the solar plexus it was impossible to recover from.

The Roughyeds had dominated most of the first half and should have been more than 6-2 up after 40 minutes.

Richard Mervill and Daryl Cardiss both went close to burrowing their way across the line in the fourth minute, before Nanyn picked up Corey Larie’s attempted kick to the corner.
Shrugging off two defenders on a barnstorming run, Nanyn drew a penalty which he was able to profit from to the tune of two points — his only successful attempt out of four — in the ninth minute.

A Phil Joseph half-break followed from the resulting kick-off as Oldham continued to assert their authority in terms of territory and possession.

Impact substitute Said Tamghart burst through a pair of tackles just after the half-hour and was caught high to earn a penalty goal attempt which Nanyn pulled wide of the posts.
The French forward played a major part in creating the opening try of the game. His superb offload in the tackle found Matty Brooks with plenty of space in front of him and the hooker’s burst created the uncertainty in defence which saw Coyle send over substitute Ian Hodson on the right.

But while the try was acclaimed by the Oldham supporters present, they were to see their side disappointed on finals day for the third time in seven years. 

Changes have to be made — Deakin 

STEVE Deakin is ready and willing to come back and give promotion another shot with Oldham next season.

While victorious opposite number Ellery Hanley announced in his post-match comments that he was quitting newly-promoted Doncaster — as predicted in the Chronicle last week — Deakin hopes to be given the chance to avenge a second successive finals day defeat and get back to National League One at the third time of asking in 2009.

Deakin also intimated that the tough schedule brought about by success in the cups did his side no favours over the course of a campaign which ultimately ended in disappointment.

“We will look at it and analyse what we need to change, because changes have to be made,” said the Roughyeds coach. “Then we will come back and try again.

“We limped over the line and that is what cost us promotion, not losing the Grand Final.

“We were the second most successful team in National League Two and got to the quarter-finals of the Northern Rail Cup and Challenge Cup as well as reaching the Grand Final.

“One person’s perception of success might be different to another’s.

“I would have swapped cup success for promotion.

“But we prepared and wanted to win in every one of the 39 games we played. It took us to those quarter-finals and you have to handle those distractions.

“Unfortunately we didn’t quite do that.

“I would like to think I will be at Oldham next year.

“I will go home now and have a few beers. We haven’t had a weekend off since January and I will go on holiday with my wife, recharge the batteries and hopefully come back stronger next year to get out of National League Two.”

Deakin felt that a catalogue of errors in a nightmare spell four minutes after the break cost his side dear in the 18-10 defeat, as did a controversial video referee-awarded try.

James Coyle failed to find touch with a penalty attempt with the bench trying to get the message out to go for two points and that was compounded by a penalty and a poorly-set defence which allowed Chris Buttery to sneak in.

Just six minutes after that, Luke Gale’s try was allowed to stand despite the scrum-half not appearing to have touched down over the line under pressure.

“At half-time I thought we were in control of the game and we needed to replicate what we did in the second half,” Deakin said.

“We completed (sets) at 82-per-cent in the first half and 82-per-cent in the second half.

“A couple of the decisions that we took with the ball were, in the long-run, not the right calls to make.

“Paul O’Connor said the ball never touched the ground (on the Gale try). But they got the ball to the right end of the park and that is what you have to do in any football game.

“We were good enough to go up. Even on this performance we were good enough to win if we had made the right decisions with the ball and defensively.”