No excuses — Benson

PUT it there . . . Oldham coach Tony Benson consoles Jason Boults after the play-off final defeat.

TONY Benson told of his hurt as Oldham lost to “the better side” on another desperately disappointing play-off final for the club.

York gained promotion at the Roughyeds’ expense after thoroughly dominating what was predicted to be a close contest.

The final score was 25-4 but, in truth, it could easily have been a heavier defeat for Oldham at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Benson held his hands up to admit that the Knights — beaten on two out of three occasions by Oldham in matches in 2010 leading up to the promotion decider — were the better side, saying that tiredness from first-half exertions didn’t help in a contest dominated by York scrum-half Chris Thorman.

“Words can’t describe it,” said Benson.

“As I have said, it was a game we came into with contributions from the whole club and not just the team.

“When that happens and everyone has done their part and you don’t do yours, it makes it 10 times worse and that is how I am feeling at the moment.

“We had everything covered, but we came up against a team which was better than us.

“Their kicking game was superior, which forced us to play most of the first half in our 20 metres.

“We got tired and made silly mistakes through that and gave away the odd penalty.

“When you get to that situation, the bounce of the ball doesn’t go your way and makes it worse.

“And penalties don’t go your way and that makes it worse, too.

“In the second half, we had done far too much tackling already to get back into it.

“We got a few niggling injuries as well which didn’t help. But the main reason we didn’t win was because York played so well.

“They kicked superbly. Chris Thorman played his best game of the year and controlled the game.

“We couldn’t stop him. He put all sorts of different kicks through and we were always starting our sets on our try line.

“There are no excuses. We just weren’t good enough on the day.”

As for the future, Benson said he couldn’t see far past the over-riding emotion of desperate disappointment.

Instead of trips to Toulouse and Widnes, Oldham will now be faced with journeys to London Skolars and Gateshead in a fifth successive season in the professional game’s bottom rung.

“It is a difficult world we are in now. It is far removed from where we thought we were going to be.

“We celebrate a good season but it is no consolation when you have an opportunity to go into a whole new realm of rugby.

“It is just hard to fathom at the moment. I suppose if you are looking for a way out of how we are feeling, you could say it was a fantastic season.

“But to win the amount of games we did and then lose that one makes it even harder. It amplifies the feeling.”


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