Four-try John’s dream return
Date published: 26 April 2010
PROP POWER . . . Dave Ellison crashes through two tackles as Oldham launch yet another attack.
OLDHAM 64, GATESHEAD 10
FOUR tries? John Gillam picked up a lot more than that on his sizzling league debut in the colours of his home-town club at Sedgley Park RUFC on Saturday.
It was what the winger had waited for since he smashed a shoulder in a Northern Rail Cup tie against his former club Hornets on the same ground in February.
During 11 frustrating weeks he was a mere spectator as coach Tony Benson moulded a team of triers which was to make every other club in Championship One sit up and take note.
Mark Brocklehurst, a fellow Oldhamer, stepped into the left-wing berth and made a good job of it.
Gillam knew that when his big chance came he had to make it count – and he did it with style and clinical finishing by scoring two tries in each half as the Roughyeds extended their league winning streak to six against the bottom team in the division.
His performance earned him a bottle of champagne . . . and a few choice remarks from his centre Mick Fogerty.
Fogerty produced quality centre play to present Gillam with two of his four tries on a plate.
The other two came courtesy of chances provided by the delicately weighted kicking of the side’s chief playmaker, Neil Roden.
“I owe a lot to Ratty (Roden) and to Foggy (Fogerty),” said John, “because all I did was get on the end of their kicks or passes.
“It was fabulous just to be back in the side after weeks of frustration, and a failed comeback attempt in the reserves, but to score four tries was more than I could have hoped for.
“Foggy has given me some stick because I scored four tries and he only got one. He doesn’t like that. It’s only banter, of course. The same bloke sent me in for two tries, and he can do that because he is a quality centre.”
Of the 12 tries Oldham recorded, the best was the ninth in the 66th minute, scored by Gillam, created by Fogerty.
Sent away by Roden on the half-way line, Fogerty straightened up, hit the pace, pulled in two men to the tackle and got his hands free to send Gillam galloping to the posts on the inside ball.
Oldham’s left-side attacking channel – Joe Chandler, Fogerty and Gillam – proved particularly lethal, but the man who made them tick was stand-off Roden.
At the age of 30, he produces a different game to the one he played when he first wore the Roughyeds jersey as a 19-year-old.
Roden was instrumental in creating at least ten tries and that’s some going even against opposition which would not match up defensively to teams in the upper reaches of the division.
In the forwards, there were eye-catching performances from two of the younger members of the squad, Chris Clarke and Danny Whitmore.
A product of the club’s reserve-team youth policy, Clarke has made rapid progress in the past 12 months and now looks at home at senior level.
Whitmore, once of Salford City Reds, has played in the shadow of veteran Martin Roden in the past few weeks, but he further enhanced his growing reputation by causing havoc around the rucks and from dummy half.
Despite the score, this was no stroll in the park for Oldham. They had to work hard defensively to restrict Thunder to two tries while also striving to produce their best attacking brand of rugby in several weeks.
They succeeded on both counts, not only keeping their line intact for more than an hour, but scoring five tries in the first half and another seven in the second.
Clarke, Gillam (two), Paul O’Connor and Chandler crossed in the first period, while Gillam (two), O’Connor again, Matty Ashe, Lucas Onyango, Neil Roden and Fogerty scored in the second half, Ashe landing eight goals from a dozen attempts.
Give or take a few scoring chances that were fluffed, and taking into account that Thunder are not exactly one of the strongest teams in the division, it was still pretty impressive stuff.
