Oldham welcomed Clitheroe to Manor Park at the weekend for their latest fixture aiming to kickstart their league season having narrowly lost their previous two fixtures. Oldham enjoyed early pressure in Clitheroe’s 22 metre area but with their set piece not firing on all cylinders wasted early chances to apply pressure. As per the last two games for Oldham they struggled to gain a foothold on the game early on with exchanges being scrappy as both sides tried to get the upper hand.
Early chances for Oldham came from a Jordan McEwan break but with the support slow to get to him the attack went astray. Another chance went begging with forwards out in the back line where a simple pass was all that was needed but poor decision making meant the chance went begging.
Clitheroe played direct rugby and were rewarded for this by continually dragging the Oldham defence in to the middle of the pitch which then created space on the outside and were rewarded with the first try of the afternoon which went unconverted to give them a 5-0 lead.
This gave them the upper hand and they made it pay a few minutes later to 12-0 when they broke out of their own half with the Oldham defence failing to move across the pitch and with a number of players in the ensuing overlap strolled in under the posts.
Oldham finally went on the attack, but a further chance went begging with an overlap and a hail Mary pass was attempted when not needed. Oldham continued to try and build pressure but a lack of patience meant the Clitheroe defence held firm a number of attempts from the home side. Oldham had another penalty which was kicked to the corner for a lineout. The usual steady Oldham lineout was not working and Oldham lost the lineout on their own throw with the line begging.
Oldham finally got on the scoreboard following a penalty which was taken quickly with Karl Shenton and Nick hackman making powerful carries before Josh Semple crashed over with Alex Jobson converting the score was 12-7 at half time.
Oldham were under pressure straight from the kick off in the second half when they made an unnecessary error and invited the away team straight into their defensive area and from a resulting penalty, which was missed, Oldham made another error at the 22 restart, which again was unnecessary. This lead to an attacking scrum for Clitheroe who made no mistake this time and scored in the right corner to go 17-7 up.
Clitheroe then lost a man sent off for striking at a ruck and Oldham lost a player to the sin bin in the same incident. This should have been a turning point for the home team but seemed to have the adverse effect. Quick ball on the right hand side at half way and with Clitheroe feeding their winger, in space, with plenty of room for him to outpace the Oldham defence going under the posts to make it 24-7
Oldham answered back following a penalty to the corner with the Oldham forwards driving Clitheroe over the line with Sean Carter touching down and with Alex Jobson converting it was now 24-14
Clitheroe answered back quickly with another converted try. Again pulling the Oldham defence in, to then go wide, this time with their left wing scoring with the try converted making it 31-14.
With the minutes now counting down Oldham try as they may were running out of time and ideas trying to play catch up rugby played without any real structure. However from a cross field kick Sean Carter caught a high ball before charging through the Clitheroe defence to score again with Jobson converting to get Oldham back to within 10 at 31-21. However that was to be the last play of the game as the referee blew full time and Oldham rued another missed opportunity at home.
Man of the match for Oldham was Isaac Dobbs who was at the forefront of defence all day and carried the ball forward and directly for Oldham.
Jim Forster
