Dynamic duo lifts Oldham
Date published: 14 June 2010
ON THE CHARGE . . . Joe Chandler bursts through the Doncaster defence. Pictures by David Murgatroyd.
OLDHAM 28, DONCASTER 18
MICK Fogerty in the backs and Wayne Kerr in the pack produced stunning individual performances at the Whitebank Stadium as Oldham went three points clear at the top of Co-operative Championship One.
This 28-18 defeat of a gutsy and determined Doncaster outfit required every last drop of Oldham's stamina, teamwork and individual excellence.
Tony Benson's boys led 28-6 thanks to an aerial bombardment which had the Dons scattering for cover, but the visitors regained their composure to give Oldham a taste of heavy fire with a spirited rally which yielded 12 points.
With ten minutes left, Doncaster clawed their way back into bonus-point territory and briefly threatened to test Oldham even further.
It was in this gripping second-half, with Roughyeds looking up the Whitebank gradient, that Fogerty and Kerr played like men inspired.
Centre Fogerty had scored the second of Oldham's tries early in the game and soon afterwards had another disallowed because he had strayed offside in pursuit of Neil Roden's grubber kick.
While Fogerty was putting himself about on the left, Kerr was doing all the damage up the hill and in the middle of the field.
The match threatened to spill over midway through the second half when Gregg McNally copped a high shot from Kyke Kesik, and players of both sides reacted.
The incident went on report and Oldham got the penalty, but the roles were reversed a couple of tackles later when Fogerty was 'reported' and the Dons received the penalty after a skirmish involving several players.
With tension in the air, Dons full-back Tony Griffiths looked a likely lad for a yellow card when he slowed down Neil Roden's play-the-ball, but Roden was penalised instead and his frustration earned him a ten-minute breather in the bin.
It was while Roughyeds were down to 12 men that Kerr led his forwards with a series of charging drives up the slope.
Ben Heaton's withdrawal at half-time with a suspected broken thumb heaped more work on Valu Bentley, who came through remarkably well in his first taste of action for more than ten weeks.
Roughyeds were off to a flying start with tries by Lucas Onyango and Fogerty, both goaled beautifully by McNally.
Doncaster came back strongly towards the end of the first half when Ely crashed over for a try which Brown converted, but Oldham began to test the visitors under the high ball and they were found wanting.
Neil Roden's kick gave Bentley a try on the stroke of half-time and in the first eight minutes of the second half Roden again, and then McNally, put up towering kicks which Fogerty contested victoriously in the build-up to tries.
He gathered the first stylishly to put Chandler over, and then palmed back the second one to Neil Roden, whose overhead pass to the wing put John Gillam in at the corner.
McNally improved both tries and Oldham looked to be coasting at 28-6.
Dons thought differently, however, and a lovely piece of invention by Brown and Griffiths ended with a Chris Spurr try which Brown goaled.
The match threatened to cut-up rough after that and while Neil Roden was off the field, Doncaster scored again.
Brown's superb 40-20 put them deep into Oldham territory and from the first set after the scrum Leaf offloaded cleverly for Rob Lunt to cross.
Brown added the extras and with ten minutes left it was all to play for.
Lunt made another huge break down the middle, but in the last noteworthy play of the game Gillam got across to the Doncaster loose-forward to pull off a try-saving tackle.
Hunslet defeat is icing on cake for Benson
TEAMWORK was key to yesterday’s important victory, said coach Tony Benson.
While Oldham were picking up their third win in a row, neighbours Hornets were doing them a massive favour by beating Hunslet Hawks at Spotland.
One of the biggest cheers of the day was reserved for the announcement of that result and it put an even bigger smile on the face of the Roughyeds' Kiwi boss.
Since Hunslet put 60 points past the Roughyeds three weeks ago, the title race has been turned on its head.
"Our destiny is in our own hands now . . . well, almost," said Benson. "We have seven games left now and the theme in the dressing room before kick-off was that we had to win this one to keep on track for finishing top.
"We have been helped a little bit by Rochdale today and that shows again just how competitive this division is.
"Doncaster were difficult. They never gave up and they kept coming back at us, but our defence was superb.
Communication and control were good, the boys played for each other, and 1 to 17 played important parts in what was a very tough encounter.
"It was a team effort, but Chris Clarke went well up front, Mick Fogerty had a blinder in the centre, Neil Roden and Greg McNally controlled things well in difficult conditions, Valu Bentley did very well indeed considering he had been out of action for so long and Wayne Kerr had his biggest game of the season.
"We have got a good squad, but a small squad. People are playing out of position and playing well and Clarkey (Chris Clarke) was a typical example of that today. He didn't look at all out of place in the front row.
"On top of that, Martin Roden and Danny Whitmore each did a good job from dummy half to give us a bit of a foothold, and as for Paul O'Connor you come to expect nothing else but a top game from our Mr Consistency."
