Denied at the death

UP AND RUNNING: Paul O’Connor receives a pat from Neil Roden after putting the Roughyeds in front against Sheffield Eagles PICTURES by CHRIS SUNDERLAND

Oldham 22, Sheffield 24

A PENALTY four minutes from time by John Coleman tipped the Roughyeds’ final Northern Rail Cup pool game decisively the way of visitors Sheffield — but the way in which the home side went about their business at Sedgley Park bodes well for the forthcoming league season.

Tony Benson’s side produced some superb attacking rugby to run home four tries and at one stage in the second half held a significant advantage at 22-12.

That was thanks to a series of exceptional tries, all of which came about as a result of good movement and support play from distance.

Full-back Paul O’Connor opened the scoring after seven minutes and also crossing for the home side were Mark Brocklehurst, Neil Roden and Lucas Onyango.

All were excellent team efforts and the collective spirit on show — embodied by the non-stop tackling of young forward Chris Clarke and the livewire running of Ben Heaton — was almost, but not quite, sufficient to topple Championship side Sheffield.

Oldham were on the board first. A move which started in the team’s own half, the excellent Mick Fogerty — who caused all sorts of problems for the Eagles before having to withdraw in the first half with a chest injury — released Brocklehurst down the left and his clever kick infield led to the Roughyeds regaining the ball close to the visitors’ line.

From there, hooker Martin Roden issued a pass while being tackled from which O’Connor was able to profit. Matty Ashe knocked over the goal.

The home fans in a meagre crowd of 314 were cheering again just four minutes later when Fogerty took a pass high above his head and threw out a quick, flat pass for winger Brocklehurst to go over in the left corner.

Sheffield, not at full strength but still featuring the likes of prolific former Super League winger Richie Barnett, ex-Roughyeds scrum-half Matty Brooks and centre Menzies Yere — voted as one of the second professional tier’s three best players last season — were rattled.

And they lost forward Alex Szostak midway through the half as he saw yellow for apparent dissent to referee Robert Hicks.

The Eagles fought their way back with a short-handed try from powerful Sam Barlow five minutes later, Coleman converting.

Oldham had bombed a chance of a third try when Brocklehurst’s inside ball on the break was too high for O’Connor to collect.

And Sheffield made the home team pay when the ball was shifted wide to the gap where the hobbled-off Fogerty would have been, with Coleman going over and kicking the goal for a 12-10 half-time lead.

Benson’s men came roaring out of the blocks in the second period.

Brocklehurst was sent streaking away following neat play by Heaton and though he was brilliantly caught by full-back Ashley Thackeray, Neil Roden followed up to capitalise with Ashe adding another goal.

Two minutes later came the best try of the night. Clarke slipped out a lovely pass under pressure to send Marcus St Hilaire away. He coolly fired a ball for Onyango to race home, Ashe doing the business again for a 22-12 lead.

Dave Ellison was held up as Oldham again pressed, but on the hour the Eagles were back within touching distance.

The ball was smuggled out of consecutive tackles close to the Roughyeds line and Peter Green was left in space to dive over on the left.

Six minutes after that, stand-off Dane McDonald found a gap in centre-field to break the line from halfway, and the Eagles got a sufficient roll on to enable Barlow to crash home for his second try, Coleman levelling the game up at 22-22.

That was how it stayed until four minutes from the end when Craig Robinson went in slightly high on McDonald 35 metres out, allowing Coleman to kick Sheffield to a fourth consecutive victory in the competition.