Thorm in Oldham’s side

HOPES fading: Oldham fans lose heart as they watch their team outclassed

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Oldham 4, York 25

ROUGHYEDS supporters can be forgiven for wondering if they will ever see their side win one of these matches.

For the fifth time in just nine years, Oldham suffered final-day heartbreak and were denied promotion.

There can be no complaints on this occasion. York bossed this game from start to finish and Tony Benson’s men — who played most of the encounter deep in their own territory — simply couldn’t gain a foothold.

The result was fully merited and the final score could easily have been more emphatic.

For everyone connected to the club, it was another massively dispiriting occasion at the end of an excellent, expectation-defying season.

So it was that the Knights joined a sad list comprising Widnes in 2001, in the Northern Ford Premiership Grand Final, plus Featherstone, Doncaster and Keighley in successive National League Two seasons leading up to this clash at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

York had finished the regular season in third place in Co-operative Championship One, a place and 13 points behind the Roughyeds.

They had also lost the play-off semi-final clash between the teams at the Whitebank Stadium two weeks previous and went into this game as second favourites.

But with scrum-half Chris Thorman a hugely dominant figure, there was no doubting their superiority on the day. Playing behind a pack which was on top of its game, the former Super League star and England captain kept the Roughyeds pinned back with a terrific kicking game.

And when he side-stepped his way in under the posts with a quarter-hour remaining, converting his own try to take his team three scores ahead, the game was up for a shattered Oldham who never managed to get going.

With the two sides evenly matched, a good start was vital.

John Gillam thought had had landed Oldham just that after claiming Mick Fogerty’s climbing tap-back of Neil Roden’s high bomb, only for referee Gareth Hewer to call a forward pass.

After being caught offside near the York line soon after, Thorman boomed a huge kick past halfway. It gave good field position and as the ball was moved quickly to the left, Wayne Reittie scored in the corner.

Half-back pair Neil Roden and Gregg McNally had tough afternoons and both suffered knocks to the head as stuttering Oldham tried to get back into the game.

When it came, the equalising try was out of the blue.

Neil Roden produced a moment of magic, chipping over the defensive line before regathering and issuing a clever and precise kick to the in-goal which allowed Fogerty to pounce.

It should have allowed a nervy Oldham to settle. And Benson’s men almost scored a similar try when McNally pulled off Roden’s trick, dabbing a kick over the top and setting away Danny Whitemore who just failed to have the legs to make it to the line.

That was as good as it got, though. Just before the half-hour, another conceded penalty turned attack to scrambling defence and James Haynes had it too easy in sashaying down the right touchline to score, with Lee Waterman converting superbly for a 10-4 lead.

It would have been worse for Oldham, had Reittie not failed to look inside at a supporting runner when breaking down the left, while another chance went begging after a spilled pass off hooker Jack Lee’s break.

In at half-time lucky to be only one score adrift, it was vital that Benson’s side regrouped and opened up the second half strongly.

But there was only one score in the opening 20 minutes of the second half — a penalty goal scored by Waterman — with York still completely dominant in terms of field possession and making precious few mistakes in either attack or defence.

There was the sense that the unyielding nature of York’s performance would in turn drain the energy of the Roughyeds.

And after Lucas Onyango had produced his second try-saving tackle of the afternoon, halting a surge from Paul Stamp, Thorman capitalised on a Reittie charge to show-and-go his way under the posts.

A conversion made it 18-4 and with that, Oldham’s realistic chance of rescuing the game disappeared.

To the players’ credit, a spell of pressure then ensued on the Knights line with McNally going close.

But there was no way York were going to cede anything without a huge fight. Having seen off the danger, they moved up the other end with Thorman landing a drop goal.

Confident Knights produced the try of the game to round things off, with the ball quickly moved between several pairs of hands for substitute Steve Lewis to gleefully slide home on the left.

For York boss Dave Woods, it was a third promotion in six seasons with Castleford, Gateshead and York.

For Benson, it was a second successive play-off final defeat — a real sickener of a result.


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