Late agony for Roughyeds

acton man: Jamie Acton, head bandaged, runs hard at the Workington defence.

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WORKINGTON 34, OLDHAM 29

TWO minutes from the end of a tense play-off battle, Oldham led 29-26 and were close to lowering Workington Town’s colours for the third time this year.

Roughyeds had been in front for 50 minutes and, for all of that time, had looked the better side.

But with the clock running down and nothing set up on the last tackle, former Oldham half-back Carl Forber hoisted a high, speculative and wind-assisted kick towards the Oldham posts.

Neither Miles Greenwood nor Jamie Dallimore could cover enough ground to take the ball .

It bounced away from them towards Oldham’s goal area and as Greenwood turned to give chase, Town centre Jason Mossop came from nowhere and sped past him to score the try that broke Oldham hearts — and brought the Roughyeds’ season to a close.

It was to their credit that Town never capitulated, even when Paul Smith scored his second try to give the visitors a nine-point lead with eight minutes left.

But Oldham definitely didn’t deserve to be dumped out of the play-off series this way.

With skipper Neil Roden acting as chief provider, they played better rugby and scored better team tries than the Cumbrians, who relied heavily on the individual skills of Graeme Mattinson, Elliott Miller and Brett Carter.

Winger Lucas Onyango was withdrawn minutes before kick-off dueto trouble with his rib injury in the warm-up.