Gritty Oldham outgun Town

Photo: PICTURE: TOM KAY

NEW BOY: Debutant prop Matty Syron charges at the Workington defence.

Workington 14, Oldham 24
FOR starters, Oldham, that was something special.

Rugby purists would have found a few faults, but the scrap for promotion this year — four up out of 10 — will be more about passion than precision.

Roughyeds exuded passion on a Cumbrian field that can claim to be the graveyard of so many of the club's hopes and aspirations over the years.

Not this year.

On day one of the new league season, and following a Northern Rail Cup campaign in which they hardly covered themselves in glory, Tony Benson's men rose magnificently to the challenge.

They were all heart — hugely committed, determined to succeed, highly motivated and ready for anything that Workington threw at them.

Benson knew that Town’s plan would be to use their massive forwards — Macdonald, Coward, Green and Thackray to name but four — in a bid to smash Oldham into submission as early as possible.

To counter that threat, the Roughyeds boss selected the most experienced team available to him.

Prop Bruce Johnson (family commitments) and young Alex Thompson (suspended) were already ruled out before he chose to overlook the claims of young players such as David Cookson, Liam Gilchrist, Jack Reid and Michael Ward.

He opted instead for the defensively-strong Matthew Fogarty at centre; formed his back-row with three of the most senior players at the club, Paul Noone, Paul Smith and Martin Roden; brought back another seasoned pro, Mark McCully, on the bench; and introduced new boy Matty Syron as another replacement.

It was a team designed to match fire with fire — though in the first quarter, Oldham took a pounding.

They couldn’t stop Macdonald, Coward, Stack and Petersen offloading, while hooker Mattinson caused them no end of trouble.

Clearly under pressure, Roughyeds conceded penalties, made mistakes in possession, let in an early try by Rooney and suffered injuries to Shaun Robinson and Jamie Dallimore, the latter after he had helped to stop Macdonald crashing over.

Robinson was forced to quit while Dallimore received attention to a head injury and carried on to emerge as one of many Oldham heroes with a magical performance alongside Neil Roden at half-back.

In direct opposition to former Oldham half Carl Forber, Dallimore was by far the most imaginative and dangerous half-back on the field, featuring prominently in many of his side’s better attacking moments and landing four conversions out of four, three of them off the touchline.

The introduction midway through the first half of props David Ellison and Syron off the bench helped in no small measure to swing the balance of power Oldham’s way.

Both gave terrific performances, Ellison coming up with a man-of-the-match offering in his best display of the season and Syron putting in an outstanding exhibition for one so young.

Oldham took the lead at 6-4 with a superbly-worked short-side move featuring Clough, Smith and McCully which enabled John Gillam to cross in the corner.

Town edged in front again on the last play when Mossop touched down a Bainbridge grubber and Forber added the goal for a 10-6 interval lead.

Despite having spent most of the first half tackling, Roughyeds showed they lack nothing in stamina by taking the game to the Cumbrians on the resumption.

Neil Roden’s clever kick into the in-goal provided lively Miles Greenwood with a 52nd-minute try and a few minutes later McCully went over wide out on Roden’s pass.

Town were not finished yet. Winger Olstrum went over in the corner and the home side was only four points behind with nine minutes left.

Try-saving tackles by Dallimore and Greenwood added to the excitement before Oldham clinched victory with a try by Clarke which Dallimore again converted.