Fright night!

WELL DONE, SON: Joe Chandler is congratulated after scoring Oldham’s second try.

Oldham 22, Hornets 14

Oldham just do enough to deny Hornets

A LATE rally from 12-man Hornets failed to prevent Roughyeds picking up a first competitive win of the season at a chilly Sedgley Park.

But while pleased that his side earned three more Northern Rail Cup pool points to add to the bonus gained in defeat at Leigh, coach Tony Benson will know he has plenty to work on after witnessing his team toil at times in a scrappy encounter that never really got going.

Man in the middle Jamie Leahy awarded a total of 33 penalties — 18 of which went to the visitors — as he enforced the RFL’s pre-season directive to clear out defensive hands at the play-the-ball.

The stop-start nature of the game didn’t help either side and it didn’t make for a particularly compelling spectacle.

The opening half was fairly even with impressive Dave Ellison’s swift change of direction in powering home for the opening try on 10 minutes the main highlight.

Matty Ashe converted but Hornets were on the board themselves soon after when Danny Smith motored over on the left.

In an end-to-end clash in which both teams were piggy-backed up and down the field thanks to penalties, the visitors spurned a couple of decent openings and were punished when Paul O’Connor drew a late whistle allowing Ashe to establish an 8-4 lead on the hooter.

The most crucial refereeing decision arrived just two minutes after the break.

Ashe lined up an attacking kick and, as he got the ball away, was allegedly elbowed late and in the chest area by Dayne Donoghue, who got his marching orders and was also placed on report to boot.

A man up, Benson’s side increased their advantage two minutes later as Ashe’s kick got a fortunate bounce off a defender’s foot into the path of hard-working Joe Chandler, who stepped into a clear path to the line.

Ashe converted and was soon lining up another successful effort after Lucas Onyango had benefited from the confusion that arose as the scrum-half’s ball went to ground six minutes before the hour.

From that try, Hornets took a short kick-off which was reclaimed by stand-off Steven Roper and a period of heavy pressure on the Roughyeds line followed.

After forcing a second successive drop-out, Oldham were over-eager to get off the line and were punished for offside.

Daniel Samuel eventually crashed over the line as the territorial advantage finally told, with Roper converting to reduce the deficit for John Stankevitch’s outfit to 10 points.

Ellison dropped an Ashe pass with the line in sight as Oldham hit back but it was still Hornets who were pressing the harder for further scores.

Six minutes from time, a break from hooker Phil Wood almost got Craig Johnson away but for good scrambling defence by the home team.

Bolu Fagborun managed to beat Onyango in a foot-race to the corner for Craig Ashall’s accurate kick, but substitute Chris Hough missed the conversion.

When Paul Raftery lost control of the ball almost immediately from the kick-off, the game was up for Hornets and, after winning a penalty close to the posts, Ashe added two more points just to make sure.

The game ended on a bizarre note when Ellison was sent to the sin-bin on the hooter for contesting a decision.






OLDHAM’S next game: Sunday, Hunslet (A), Northern Rail Cup