Oldham narrow losers at Leigh

TRY: Michael Lawrence (left) crosses for Oldham. PICTURE: PAUL STERRITT

Leigh Centurions 11, Oldham 10

PRESSURE told in the end as a late converted try and drop goal wrecked Oldham’s chances of victory against a much-changed Leigh Centurions side.

Scott Naylor’s Roughyeds, who included a sprinkling of Huddersfield Giants players, led for much of their second warm-up game of the season through Michael Lawrence’s first-half touchdown – Steve Roper added the goal – and Jake Holmes’ second-period effort.

But after standing resolute on their own line for so long in the face of persistent attacks, Oldham’s defence was finally breached in the closing stages.

But Naylor praised Oldham’s performance as the step up he had been looking for. He wants his side to make greater strides against Barrow next Sunday.

The Roughyeds coach said: “I’m proud of the lads – I thought they worked extremely hard. Their effort was fantastic.

“Unfortunately, we put ourselves in a position where we had to defend a lot and that ended up costing us. When we had the ball in good field position, we looked quite dangerous.

“It was an improvement on last week against Swinton, and next week has to be an improvement again.

“That’s what friendlies are for and that’s why we wanted three friendlies back-to-back.”

Four of the 13 players who lined up from the start were dual-registration players from Huddersfield: Scott Grix, Kyle Wood, Oliver Roberts and Lawrence.