Kicked into submission
Date published: 01 August 2011
CAN’T CATCH ME... Mark McCully sprints clear.... PICTURES by CHRIS SUNDERLAND
NOT for the first time in a long career with Barrow and Workington, Darren Holt put a kick in it at Whitebank to send Oldham reeling to their second home defeat of the year in Championship One.
His two conversions, two penalty goals, a 40-20 and a towering bomb that produced a try for Brett Carter were enough to edge Oldham out 24-22 in a fiercely-fought yet scrupulously fair contest.
Each side scored one try playing up the gradient to the social club end and three when attacking the lower end of the ground, the difference being that Holt kicked four goals to Carl Forber’s three.
His most damaging kick of the lot, however, was the one which he drove hard and low across the bone-hard pitch from a centre-field restart after Andy Isherwood’s try, goaled by Forber, cut Town’s lead to two points with four minutes left on the clock.
By rights Roughyeds should have got the ball back, but Holt’s kick sped towards Neil Roden and then reared up viciously to pass way above his outstretched arms and go dead — a match clincher for Town, a killer for Oldham.
Even that failed to bust the home side’s brave resistance. They summoned the energy and the will from somewhere to keep out Town’s juggernaut pack for five more tackles on their own line, but they got ball in hand for only one more set and they hadn’t enough fuel in the tank to make the most of it.
Roughyeds conceded weight and size, but they had stand-out performers in full-back Ben Heaton, winger Shaun Robinson, grafting prop Jason Boults and second-row pair Paul Noone and Danny Bravo.
Noone on the right and Bravo on the left performed defensive heroics in the first half when Town’s big forwards, attacking down the slope, laid siege on Oldham’s line and forced the home side into a multitude of costly mistakes.
Eye-catchers in the Town team were impressive loose-forward Jarrad Stack, lively hooker Jack Pedley, big prop Dave Armitstead and master tactician Holt with a kicking game that teased and tormented the home side.
Despite Town’s inability in the first half to meet the expectations of referee Chris Leatherbarrow, who penalised the visitors seven times to Oldham’s once, Roughyeds could rarely get out of their own half.
To make matters worse they repeatedly surrendered possession deep in their own territory.
Stack and Pedley fashioned the opening try for winger Elliott Miller, and although Mark McCully squared things up with a gem of a solo try against the run of play, Town turned pressure into more points with further tries by Stack and Carter in the run up to half-time.
Holt sent in Stack — the game’s outstanding player — and later hoisted a high kick which Stack palmed back into the path of Carter, who crossed the Oldham line unopposed.
Surprisingly, Holt failed to convert either of these tries, but he added a penalty early in the second half after yet another Oldham error had given Town the ball at the Roughyeds end of the field.
This, though, was to spark the Oldham fightback. Spirits were lifted with a stunning try.
Michael Ward’s beautifully-timed pass put Boults into space and Callum Casey was up with him to take the final pass and score near the posts. Forber goaled.
Minutes later Oldham were in again. Robinson touched down in the corner and although Forber’s kick was wide of the target it was 16-16.
Oldham looked favourites at that stage to go on and complete the job, but Town had other ideas.
Pedley and Armitstead sent in Kaighan for a try which Holt goaled before adding a penalty in the 68th minute.
It was then Oldham’s turn to keep the game on the boil with the Isherwood try which Forber goaled. Two points the difference... then Holt’s restart rocket put the game beyond Oldham’s reach.
