Video nasty for Oldham battlers

York’s Danny Ratcliffe waits to pounce as Oldham clear the danger.

York 20, Oldham 18

Late try rule dout in defeat!

WAS it or wasn’t it?

They say the camera never lies, but doubts remained over Tommy Goulden’s late disallowed effort despite a multitude of different angles being presented to video referee James Child, who took a full three minutes to rule it out.

The truth of the matter was nigh-on impossible to ascertain.

Knights centre Dave Clayton would certainly have felt that his brilliant defensive efforts, seemingly jamming a hand under the ball as Goulden crashed over for what would have been a 22-18 Oldham lead with a kick to come and only two minutes left on the clock, were deserving of preserving his side’s precious two-point advantage.

Roughyeds chief executive Chris Hamilton, watching televised replays through the glass of a sponsors’ suite, disagreed in the strongest possible terms.

After seeing a very similar incident, also referred to a video referee, result in a try for Doncaster’s Luke Gale in Oldham’s 18-10 play-off final defeat last year, it was impossible not to feel sympathy with his claims.

It was a cruel ending for an Oldham side who had battled creditably against a fired-up Knights side buoyed by performing in front of a bumper home crowd of 3,106 at the Huntington Stadium.

Tony Benson’s side absorbed the blow of losing talismanic second row star Dave Allen through injury prior to the warm-up and set about silencing the majority of those packed into the ground, scoring a pair of converted tries in the first 11 minutes.

First Neil Roden glided in off a James Coyle pass after good work in the build-up from the returning Paul O’Connor and Paul Highton, then player-coach Paul March’s kick stuck in the hands of the excellent Goulden as he broke away from the defensive line to attempt a charge-down, racing home from 40 metres out.

Andy Ballard converted both tries, but York soon came back into it.

After Paul Reilly had necessitated more juggling of positions due to his retirement to the blood bin with a broken nose, the home side got on the board when Paul March’s kick reared up away from O’Connor and John Oakes pounced.

Thomas Coyle was held up over the line on the last tackle and York responded by crossing again, this time after a number of good offloads and keen support play ended with Clayton going over on the right.

Chris Baines piled over to extend the visitors’ lead off a trademark short-range pass from the wily Neil Roden and after Ballard had converted for an 18-10 lead, O’Connor’s break down the middle created another opportunity. The full-back, though, didn’t back himself to outpace opposite number Danny Ratcliffe and a wide pass to Marcus St Hilaire saw the move peter out.

Crucially, York got another try two minutes before the break, creating numbers down the left with Adam Mitchell finding Tom Haberecht as both men converged on the isolated O’Connor.

At 18-14 up, Oldham rolled their collective sleeves up and began the second half in positive fashion, with the forward pack continuing to impress and James Coyle’s tactical kicking pinning the home team in their own territory.

Five minutes in, O’Connor went over off an inside pass but it was to be the first of two occasions that the video referral on a potential score went against the visitors.

York’s converted try on the hour, which hauled them ahead, was a strange beast. The home team were desperately keeping the ball alive on the last, passes going through legs and behind backs, when a Roughyeds’ hand gave them another set of six tackles.

It was enough encouragement for the nippy Hughes to jink his way through, Adam Mitchell adding the two points which would ultimately push the Knights up to second in Co-operative Championship One, a point clear of Oldham having played a game more.

Penalties pain for Benson

TONY BENSON was philosophical about the late ‘no try’ drama at York, claiming Tommy Goulden’s controversially disallowed effort should never have assumed such importance.

The second row man, the Roughyeds’ outstanding performer on an ultimately disappointing night, crossed the line with two minutes left on the clock for what appeared to be a match-winning try.

However, after watching a full three minutes of television replays video referee James Child ruled that Goulden had not managed to ground the ball in-goal – a view that Benson wasn’t going to argue with.

“It obviously wasn’t a try,” said the Oldham coach, after a 20-18 defeat which saw his men slip to third in the Championship One table behind York.

“They have plenty of technology to decipher whether or not it is a try, though the longer it went on, I thought the higher chance it would be a ‘benefit of the doubt’ decision (in Oldham’s favour).

“It would have been a different game then and we would have been jumping up and down at the end, singing.

“Sometimes it goes the other way and today was one of those days.

“But if we hadn’t conceded the penalties we did and missed 10 tackles in the first half, that ‘try’ wouldn’t even have mattered anyway.”

The drama started even before the game when Dave Allen had to pull out with a suspected calf muscle injury and Benson added. “It meant a total reshuffle compared with what we had trained towards.

“If you combine that with the three weeks we have had off, I thought our cohesion was pretty good considering.

“We probably lacked a little bit of strike out wide, but I think there a lot of positives in the game aside from the penalties we conceded.

“We put pressure on them, had them under the pump and then let them off with penalties. It was killing us.

“Other than that, in the first half they struggled to come up with answers against us.

“We came out strong at the start of the second half (18-14 up) and if the game had been played a couple of weeks later, we would have been a bit sharper and maybe would have scored tries from the pressure we put on them.

“I also thought York played very well and (referee) Jamie Leahy had an excellent game and probably gave the best performance we have had all year.

“He was good and helped make it a good game, but it wasn’t our night in the end.”