Sharlston show spirit, but Oldham do just enough

Photo: Chris Sunderland

ROBERT ROBERTS (right) celebrates his try with the impressive Danny Halliwell.

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Oldham 28, Sharlston 8

HAVING been pushed every inch of the way for everything they got at Boundary Park, Oldham’s players will simply be thankful for a place in the fourth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

If anyone decked in home colours turned up at Boundary Park expecting Sharlston to take on the role of lambs to the slaughter, those thoughts would have quickly evaporated.

The amateur side were ambitious, resolute and skilful from start to finish, showing exemplary ball control for long periods, and matched the Roughyeds down the middle for much of the game.

That Rovers – unbeaten in all competitions up to this point, and you could see how – only had one try to celebrate was the main positive performance-wise for Oldham to pick out of 80 fairly turgid minutes of action from the home team’s perspective.

This wasn’t a good display from Tony Benson’s men by any stretch of the imagination. There was a lack of spark which meant the forwards failed to regularly punch big enough holes in the opposition line, ball control and movement often left something to be desired and poor discipline didn’t help matters.

On two occasions, displays of dissent gained Sharlston free extra ground. It isn’t the first time this season such petulance has come to the fore.

Sharlston, though, had more than enough pluck to go around. The point was perfectly illustrated in the second half. Jonathan Waddle was down injured for a good quarter-hour before being carried from the field in a neck brace.

There was plenty of concern shown for the second row forward – who later recovered to get on his feet and cheer his team-mates on from the sidelines.

The spirit shown and good will on the part of the crowd applauding the visitors from the field provided a perfect antidote to the unsavoury news that the previous day’s tie between Queens and Doncaster had been abandoned due to crowd trouble.

Having recovered from conceding an early converted try, scored by Lucas Onyango, Sharlston turned the game into the archetypal arm wrestle in the first half.

The steady application of pressure – allied to some woeful ball control from the Roughyeds – almost paid dividends when Dale Potter crossed under the posts only to have his effort ruled out, correctly, for a double movement.

James Coyle, who had earlier slammed the ball to the floor in frustration following a fumble off an awkward ball supplied by brother Thomas, responded by dancing past the defence down the middle just after the half-hour and Halliwell’s second conversion made it 12-0.

A lovely grubber kick from player-coach Lee Bettison then provided Gareth Davies with a clear path to touch down for the try the visitors had more than deserved on 34 minutes, Dale Ferris goaling.

By this point Sharlston tails were really up and after conceding two silly penalties in quick succession, the Roughyeds’ advantage was further cut by the boot of Ferris. It stayed 12-8 until half-time.

After the long delay due to Waddle’s injury, Dave Allen provided a moment of magic to let in Neil Roden down centre-field, shortly before the best-worked try of the day saw left winger Lee Greenwood unselfishly send in skipper Robert Roberts on his inside.

At 22-8 up, Oldham may have expected to go on and rack up a handful more tries. It is to Sharlston’s credit that this didn’t happen, though few will have enjoyed the ball dropping to ground with such regularity. The second half contained no less than 13 scrums, which says a lot about its quality.

Oldham at least ended on a high when Onyango got his second of the day off a Halliwell pass with a minute left, but the rapturous reception the visitors received at the end was well-deserved.




THE EXCELLENT show put on by amateurs Sharlston Rovers at Boundary Park didn’t only warm the hearts of the fleet of visiting supporters who had made the journey to Oldham on a bitterly cold afternoon.

Despite being disappointed with the way his own team had gone about their business in their 22-8 Carnegie Challenge Cup third round victory, even Roughyeds coach Tony Benson couldn’t help but admire the efforts of the Pennine League premier division side.

While Oldham progressed to round four, as far as Benson was concerned the afternoon belonged to the team from the tiny village near Featherstone.

“Today was all about Sharlston,” said Benson. “They turned up to play and gave us a very good game.

“They probably played well above themselves and put a lot of pressure on us.

“We lost our way in the areas in a game like that you need to work. We didn’t go forward before trying things and some players were not playing the game that was in front of them.

“We had a big talk in the changing room afterwards and I didn’t need to say very much. The players are talking themselves about exactly what has gone on.

“I don’t think they are proud of the game we have just had – though it wasn’t the worst game they will ever have had – but it is more about Sharlston than us.

“They did everything well. Even in the ruck, they weren’t far off us. They worked hard, numbered up defensively and slowed us up.

“These are hard games to play. Teams like Sharlston don’t do what you expect in defence, so you really have to play what is in front of you and you can only do that once you have got a bit of momentum.”