Counting the cost of bonus points

IT SEEMS an awful long time since a new, slimline Oldham squad lived up to its considerable promise by deservedly beating Salford City Reds.

Consistently living up to the standards on show in that stellar performance at Boundary Park proved to be difficult, though.

To say the Roughyeds stumbled their way through the National League Two season would be unfair. To win any game in the division, you need your wits about you.

But many of the performances, even at Boundary Park – despite the long unbeaten record, six times the opposition came away with a bonus point – featured victories that were often stuttering at best.

Bonus points were the bane of Steve Deakin’s life in 2008.

While Oldham threw them away like cheap confetti, they also found them harder to locate than the lost gold of the Incas.

More wins than Barrow, more points scored, fewer defeats . . . yet still, due to picking up only one point from their five losses, the Roughyeds finished behind a Craven Park outfit grateful to be handed a get-out-of-jail card despite an horrendous climax to their campaign.

Third place meant a play-off campaign that nobody wanted.

In fairness, the players made a good fist of it and on another day, with a fit and recognised stand-off in the side, Oldham would have beaten Doncaster in the final at Warrington.

Nonetheless, it is inescapable that it should never have got to that stage with the level of talent in the squad.

Deakin must have felt a bit like the Grand Old Duke of York at times this year, though without the 10,000 men, of course.

Getting 17 fit at any one time was a job in itself given a host of injury problems.

When Oldham were up, they were up: the magnificent Salford victory; the rough, tough win over Whitehaven in the knockout stages of the same competition; the 40-16 home demolition of shell-shocked Gateshead Thunder, eventual NL2 champions, at Sedgley Park.

But when they were down, they were down: the drab performance in a mudbath at Keighley; the scraping of a home win over Blackpool which had Deakin pondering resignation; the awful discipline that saw York rack up 40 points.

And when they were only halfway up, they were neither up nor down: the hard-fought home win against the odds against Barrow late in the season provided three huge points.

But if James Coyle’s kick hadn’t gone between the posts, rather than striking an upright, this post-season round-up would have already hit the shelves and many fans would be busy researching budget flights to Toulouse.

Still, in the great scheme of things, it is worth remembering that this is very much a forward-thinking club that remains determined to make progress both on and off the field.

Given the massive financial problems of recent years, another year spent in NL2 can hardly be branded as a disaster.