Roughyeds go down with all guns blazing
Reporter: MATTHEW CHAMBERS at Boundary Park
Date published: 20 July 2009
Oldham 22, Keighley 24
THIS may not have been the best of endings to a traumatic week for the Roughyeds, but nobody can lay any fault at the effort levels of the players left on show at Boundary Park.
Forced to play with 12 men for most of the game following the dismissal of Thomas Coyle — the second game running in which an Oldham player has seen red, in both senses of the old cliché — the home team nonetheless put a strong Cougars outfit under heavy pressure for long spells.
They could have claimed victory had a courageous last-gasp surge not been halted by the full-time hooter.
After Neil Roden had slalomed his way over on the left in the 77th minute, a further score looked on the cards as Oldham gained more good field position, only for play to be directed to the short side where Lucas Onyango unwisely opted to risk a dash down the line and was dumped into touch.
It meant that Andy Ballard’s two missed conversions, the second of which would have claimed a two-point draw, assumed equally result-changing importance.
As it is, a bonus point gained leaves Oldham three points adrift of Keighley having played a game less. The race for second place in Co-operative Championship One, the prize for which is a home draw in the play-offs, has definitely started in earnest.
Keighley nosed ahead in a scrappy first half with the first of Daley Williams’ double, pouncing on Jon Presley’s well-weighted low kick to the in-goal, with Jones converting.
=Oldham fought back, going close through Gary Sykes and Phil Joseph, before the Cougars had a try chalked off for offside while chasing down a kick.
Lee Greenwood was unable to accept Tommy Goulden’s pass on the left touchline and as frustrations grew, Thomas Coyle flicked Jones high in the air with the ball long gone.
As the Keighley scrum-half fell awkwardly on his shoulder — there were brief worrying moments as he was tended to by medical staff on the floor — Coyle received his marching orders from referee Jamie Leahy, just as Danny Halliwell had at Workington two weeks earlier.
If it came as a major blow to the Roughyeds, you could hardly tell.
Goulden, playing at left centre due to the injuries and suspension crisis, launched a left-footed kick into vacant space on the left wing. Greenwood hared towards it to pick up off his toes and touch down, only a minute after the Roughyeds had been reduced to 12. It was a spirited response in the ilk of that produced at Workington.
Ballard’s goal from the touchline brought the game level and his penalty after 32 minutes gave the home side a half-time lead that would have been wiped out but for Jones’s own kicked effort six minutes later striking an upright.
The two-point lead was stretched when Lucas Onyango cleverly cut inside to squeeze home on the right following good play in the build-up from Phil Joseph and Andy Ballard, operating well at centre for the first time in his career.
There was a determined air about Oldham and it came as a surprise when the visitors drew level. Presley’s kick was dived on by Williams amid a glut of bodies, Jones converting after 52 minutes.
Chris Baines then leapt highest to snaffle Roden’s bomb on the run, throwing the ball in the air in delight as celebration, with Ballard knocking home another kick.
But a spell of two tries in three minutes gave Keighley a lead they didn’t relinquish.
First, bustling prop Andy Shickell offloaded for the impressive James Feather to weave through weary bodies to score near the posts, then a slick length-of-field move featuring great support play from Carl Hughes ended with full-back George Raynor crossing the line/ Jones kicked two more goals.
The Roughyeds responded to this hammer blow with great spirit, but ultimately left themselves with too much to do.
Players ‘devastated’ by narrow defeat
TONY BENSON admitted his players were left “devastated” after coming so close to pulling off an unlikely win over Keighley.
The Oldham coach watched as another highly determined effort with 12 men came so close to grabbing three Co-operative Championship One points against the odds.
At the same time, though, Benson wasn’t happy with the general discipline of his side in an opening period which contained the dismissal of substitute Thomas Coyle shortly before the half-hour for an off-the-ball throw on Danny Jones.
“We are all devastated with the result,” Benson said.
“That isn’t so much with the effort and the way we played, though the discipline in the first half was pretty poor.
“It cost us the game really, as we gave away eight penalties and had a sending off.
“I didn’t see the (Thomas Coyle) incident so I don’t really know what happened. But Jamie Leahy is a very good referee and he wouldn’t send him off unless he deserved it, so we have to accept it.
“Luckily, the team did and just got on with doing their job. And it was a really good job with 12 men against a team like Keighley.”
Oldham’s despair so nearly turned to joy as the game reached a climax. After Neil Roden had crashed over with three minutes left, the home team were pressing hard for a try which would have overtaken the Cougars’ total — only for the ball to be switched to the short side, where Lucas Onyango was bundled into touch.
“It was a dumb play at the end,” Benson added. “I think we would have scored then if we had gone back to the place where we had scored our last try.
“It wasn’t smart and we ended up with the ball over the sideline instead.
“The players are really upset but we are already focusing on the future now.
“What we did show was a lot of character as a team and the 12 boys that were left couldn’t do anything about what had happened, apart from play their hearts out as they did.
“They competed right to the last second of the game.”
The Co–operative Championship One: Hunslet 6, Dewsbury 24; London Skolars 4, Rochdale 62; Swinton 18, Blackpool 33; York 46, Workington 20
