Oldham survive Salle onslaught

GO FOR IT . . . Luke Roscoe tries to burst through a tackle for Oldham.

Oldham 23, De La Salle 21

OLDHAM defended for their lives late in the game to hold on for a deserved victory in the North Lancashire and Cumbria League.

The visitors to Manor Park always produce a solid performance and this fixture, which saw Ryan Pickles and Max Horsfall brought back into the Oldham squad, proved to be no different.

On a blustery day, Oldham went ahead with a Callum Megram penalty before extending their advantage with a Luke Roscoe try – following great work by the pack – and Megram conversion.

But De La Salle responded almost immediately when their big back-row forward picked up and dived over for a converted try.

The reliable boot of Megram made it 13-7 with another penalty and Gareth Barber gave the hosts clear daylight when he raced diagonally to go over in the corner.

Leading 18-7, Oldham were looking comfortable, but all that was to change before half-time as De La Salle shocked them with two converted tries to take a 21-18 interval lead.

The home side needed a good start to the second half and, following the sin-binning of De La Salle’s back-row forward for a technical offence, the space opened for Will Mellor to dart right and feed Pickles to go over in the corner.

The conversion was missed and Oldham held a slender two-point lead, but they were to cling on to that despite some serious pressure from De La Salle.

Adam Waterhouse, Luke Roscoe and the superb John Souter. were outstanding in defence, the latter earning a joint share of the man-of-the-match award with Ryan North, whose attacking prowess gets better with each game.