Groundhog day for Oldham

Josh Crowley scores Oldham's first try.

OLDHAM 28 NORTH WALES CRUSADERS 38

FOUR Crusaders tries in 13 minutes at the back end of the first half condemned Scott Naylor's men to another

miserable half-time break in a dressing room full of long faces.

Seven days after subjecting fans to a similar first-half blow-out at Keighley, where they trailed 26-0 at half-time, Oldham put on a repeat performance at Whitebank and went in for a cuppa trailing 28-10, or five tries to two.

They significantly upped the tempo in the second half, but the damage was done and Crusaders hung on to record a deserved win and to bring to an end Roughyeds' remarkable run of 27 league games without defeat at Whitebank, stretching back for two years, one month, one week and three days.

Sitting comfortably on a 38-16 lead with ten minutes left, Welsh fans goaded home supporters with intimidating chants of: "You never lose at Whitebank".

They could afford to be cocky, given that this was their side's

second win on the same ground inside nine weeks.

Moreover, they played an attacking brand of open rugby which was both pleasing on the eye and clinical in its execution.

Oldham didn't know which way to turn, or where the next

punishing attack was coming from during that exhilarating

15-minute spell in which the Welshmen rattled up tries by Jamie Dallimore, Lee Penny, Jono Smith and Stephen Wild.

When Crusaders are on fire they are a match for anything in League One. And as they mounted wave after wave of structured attack in the run-up to half-time, moving the ball from one side of the field to the other with speed and precision, Oldham were run off their feet.

Missing Steven Nield, Tom Ashton, George Tyson and Jarrod Ward, they were down to the bare bones in the backs and, to be honest, they were outclassed by players of the quality of Tommy Johnson, Rob Massam, Alex Thompson, big Matt Reid and Kevin Penny.

Yes, THE Kevin Penny, he of 27 Super League tries, a winger who has done the business for Warrington Wolves on numerous occasions.

Crusaders recruited him on dual-reg and he repaid them with two superb tries, both scored when he rose high into the air to collect Karl Ashall's cross-kicks.

Oldham defenders were rooted to the spot. First Tom Dempsey, then, in the second half, Jack Holmes.

In fairness to both of these young players, Penny has been out-jumping and out-catching experienced Super League players for the past few years.

And the accuracy of Ashall's kicks in both instances made it relatively easy for this athletic winger to race on to the ball, leap like a salmon and fall over the line with ball in hand.

When it happened the first time, Dempsey was covering across with his eye on the ball when Penny came from nowhere to snatch it from out of the sky.

When he did it again early in the second half, for a 32-10 lead, Oldham were in big trouble and facing a heavy defeat.

They started the game okay with two early tries by Josh Crowley, either side of a reply by ex-Oldham man Alex Thompson.

Even at that early stage Crusaders were the more

dangerous team going forward and they were soon to prove their supremacy, first when Dallimore raced on to Callum Wright's

grubber to score and then, two minutes later, when Penny dropped in at the corner after plucking Ashall's cross-kick out of the air.

Oldham hardly had a sniff at that stage and they fell further behind when Tommy Johnson was stopped on the line and, from a rapid play-the-ball, Smith squeezed through a posse of defenders by a post to register one of his trademark tries.

Worse followed for Oldham on the stroke of half-time when Mark Hobson unleashed Stephen Wild down Oldham's left side and the former England player pushed through a gap, accelerated away from Crowley and then scored near the corner.

Oldham's back-division woes were compounded during the interval when Jon Ford had a thigh strapped up and was unable to take any further part.

Holmes took his place on the wing and Oliver Roberts, dual-reg, filled-in at centre, quickly looking as though he had played in that position all his life.

To their credit, Oldham rolled up their sleeves for the second half and scored tries by Lewis Palfrey, Roberts and Holmes to only two for Crusaders by Penny and Johnson.

On the back of a massive 10-3 penalty count (9-1 in the second half), Naylor's men had a lot more ball than earlier, but when they got up a head of steam in the

visitors quarter they often dropped the ball or were pulled up for a forward pass.

Had their been 10 minutes left when Holmes's try in the corner made it 28-38 it would have been interesting.

Oldham: Tom Dempsey; Adam Clay, Jack Holmes, Sam Gee, Jon Ford; Lewis Palfrey, Steve Roper; Adam Neal, Kenny Hughes, Phil Joy, Josh Crowley, Danny Langtree, Liam Thompson. Subs: Michael Ward, Nathan Mason, Adam Files, Oliver Roberts.

Crusaders: Tommy Johnson; Rob Massam, Alex Thompson, Matt Reid, Kevin Penny; Karl Ashall, Jamie Dallimore; Jonny Walker, Callum Wright, Joe Burke; Jono Smith, Stephen Wild, Gary Middlehurst. Subs: Lee Hudson, Elliott Davies, Mark Hobson, Ryan Duffy.

Tries

Oldham: Crowley (3, 11), Palfrey (55), Roberts (72), Holmes (80).

Crusaders:Thompson (5), Dallimore (21), Penny (23, 47), Smith (30), Wild (34), Johnson (65)