Oldham welcomed Burnley to Manor Park for the weekend’s action with the weather being a polar opposite to the storm of the weekend before over on the Wirral peninsula. Oldham welcomed back Issac Dobbs, Jenson Connell, Greg Higgins, Karl Shenton and Adam Robinson and gave 17 year old Freddie Cordwell his 1st XV debut on the bench and were forced into a late positional change with Corey Kelly moving from the back line to scrum half.
Burnley were quick out of the blocks making ground into the Oldham half but the Oldham defence forced a couple of knock ons from the away team as they were getting into scoring positions. Oldham were enjoying early pressure in the scrum with Shaw, Wardle and Semple having the best of the exchanges with Burnley’s front row.
Burnley held possessional and territorial advantage and seem to continually hammer the Oldham defence which stood fast against the Burnley carries. An injury to the referee stopped the game for a number of minutes and the concentration from the home side dipped as Burnley scored moments after the game resumed following decent work on the left hand side which was converted to make it 7-0 in the visitors favour.
Chris Shaw left the field for Oldham shortly after with a shoulder knock and the returning from retirement of Greg Higgins to the Oldham side gave them some further size and power.
Oldham finally got some possession and made there way into the Burnley 22 metre area following a penalty drove at the Burnley line following carries from Semple and Jack Taylor. With the ball being held up the referee awarded an offside penalty to Oldham and Cory Kelly reacted quickly to take a quick tap and stroll under the posts for Oldham’s opening score, converted by Jenson Connell to bring the scores level.
Burnley took back possession again and almost as quickly got on the board again this time down the right hand side creating an overlap which should have seen them score bar some last gasp Oldham defence. A few phases later saw their forwards carry over to take them out to 12-7.
A Burnley knock on from the kick off gave Oldham a scrum on the 22 metre line and Oldham the chance to attack in great field position and it came to fruition as Cam Robinson found Matty Brown in centerfield, he held his man up and gave the pass back to Cam Robinson having looped around to straighten up to find Adam Robinson who fed Reece Blakeley. He outpaced the last ditch defence to go around to the posts to finish off a flowing Oldham move and with Connell adding the extras Oldham took the lead for the first time at 14-12 as the first half came to an end.
Oldham started the second half well with Semple and Brown carrying well and it seemed that Oldham would push on. Burnley however were not at the top end of the league table for no reason and defended well against the home side’s early pressure.
Connell stretched Oldham’s lead to five points after Burnley gave away a penalty for offside to make it 17-12 after 15 minutes of the second half finally putting some points on the board following some good carries from Brown, who had been moved into the forwards, and the rest of the Oldham pack.
Burnley however countered to retake the lead following some strange refereeing decisions. Following two clear knock ons from the visiting team they carried possession into Oldham’s 22
metre area and scored in the right corner. With the conversion made took the lead back from the home side at 19-17. Previously this season Oldham have struggled in the last 20 minutes of games, however they continued to work hard on keeping phases of play together.
They worked their way down field a number of times to keep the pressure on. A lineout win took Oldham driving into the Burnley 22 area and following some close calls from Semple, Isaac Dobbs and Taylor Kelly fed Greg Higgins to power over taking two Burnley defenders with him to snatch the lead back with five minutes remaining at 22-19. The conversion was missed from wide out
Burnley challenged the kick off and Oldham could not gain a clean enough possession to clear and as Burnley took the ball back to Oldham they were too keen to win it back, straying offside to give Burnley the penalty. The fullback hit it cleanly straight through the posts to tie the score at 22 points all. Oldham kicked off and searched for a final chance deep in the Burnley half but could not regain possession with Burnley kicking the ball out of play when the referee shouted for the final play.
Whilst frustrating that Oldham did not take the win they must take heart from coming from behind a number of times and their heart and passion, perhaps lacking earlier in the season, now fully on show. Some enormous performances for Oldham, from Semple again, however man of the match went to Corey Kelly who looked more like a veteran scrum half than someone who had only played a handful of games there previously. Marking the game, with not only a well taken try, but a good commanding performance.
Jim Forster
