Roughyeds revel in lead role

ON THE CHARGE FOR OLDHAM . . . two-try man Josh Crowley attacks the York City Knights line.

OLDHAM head for Sunday’s derby clash with Rochdale at Whitebank on the back of four wins in a row and a lead at the top of Kingstone Press League One.

“We enjoy being top and we want to stay there,” said chairman Chris Hamilton. Roughyeds trailed 12-6 in the first 15 minutes against York but then kept the Knights scoreless for the next 65 minutes while scoring five more tries, two of them by Josh Crowley, for a 34-12 victory.

Oldham were 12-6 down at half time but finished exceptionally strongly with 18 points in the last 10 minutes.

Hamilton went on: “With the wind and rain behind us in the second half I was confident we would have enough to win.”

The players believed the win was due as much to the first-half defensive effort as to the 28 unanswered points in the second half.

Michael Ward, whose 54th-minute try pulled Roughyeds level and started the fightback, said: “We had a good talk at half-time. We felt we could pull things round, given that we were only 12-6 down and the second-half elements were in our favour.”

Two-try Crowley, who took his tally for the season to 10, added: “Before the game we would have taken a 12-6 half-time deficit, no doubt about that.”

With George Tyson, Tom Ashton, Steven Nield and Jon Ford all out injured, Naylor opted for dual-registered Huddersfield Giants youngsters Oliver Roberts and Jake Connor in his centre spots, Connor for the first time in an Oldham jersey.

The 20 year old, a Halifax lad like Roberts, has played a dozen Super League games this season .

Also in the team were loan youngsters Nathan Mason (Huddersfield) and David Hewitt (19), who was on home debut.

Oldham came through without new injuries, giving Naylor several options for Sunday’s derby.