Oldham dig deep to outgun Skolars

Photo: -Max Flego

ACROBATICS: Lewis Palfrey touches down for his second try.

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LONDON SKOLARS 6, OLDHAM 32


WHILE struggling to come to terms with a swirling wind, an artificial pitch and a big Skolars side that lacked nothing in physicality, Oldham did enough in the New River Stadium to make it six wins in a row and to climb back to the top of League One.

In a 32-6 triumph, captain Lewis Palfrey remained on top of the division’s goals and points charts by

accumulating half his side’s total with four conversions and two tries. Michael Ward, forceful as ever, also went in for two tries, while others were scored by Steve Roper and Liam Thompson.

With the ball in their hands, Roughyeds made a sackful of errors — probably more than in the recent wins against Swinton, York and Rochdale put together — but they rarely looked like conceding and the one London try that did get through the net was scored with only five minutes remaining and after a bizarre sequence of events.

In one of numerous, niggly confrontations, George Tyson appeared to be the innocent party with big Lamont Bryan, but the penalty went Skolars way. They attacked Oldham’s line; the ball went loose; the visiting players didn’t play to the whistle and the ball ended up in-goal, where Anthony Cox touched down and was awarded the try.

Only a TV slow-mo could have revealed exactly what happened, but either referee Sam Ansell got it wrong or there was a large slice of good fortune for London.

Either way, it was an unusually soft try for hard-working Oldham to concede. Given that it was the only one, it couldn’t detract from another impressive shift in defence by a side that is looking increasingly

capable of going shoulder to shoulder with the chasing pack on the last lap of the promotion race.

There was only one other occasion when Skolars looked like scoring and that was midway through the first half when winger Sam Nash was bundled into touch just short of the corner flag.

For most of the first half, with the tricky wind behind them, Oldham camped out at the Skolars end of the pitch, but attacks and combinations constantly broke down because of poor communication, weak

concentration or, in some instances, the ferocity of London’s rearguard action.

In his post-match media talk, coach Scott Naylor said Roughyeds won “thanks to a little bit of class and some good decision-making.”

Class? For starters, there was a sublime piece of good, old-fashioned centre play by Oliver Roberts to set up the opening score for Palfrey in the 13th minute.

He got on the outside shoulder of his opposing centre, tempted winger Nash off his line, got his ball-carrying arm free and slipped a delightful little pass around the back of Nash for Jack Holmes to leg it up the touchline. He drew the full-back and put Palfrey away on the inside to score a quality try.

Leading only 6-0 with two minutes to go to half-time, Oldham needed desperately to turn their non-stop pressure into points. Enter the bustling Ward, off the bench. He looked to be well held in a three-man tackle a few metres from the line, but he kept his legs pumping and somehow got over near the posts for Palfrey’s goal to make it 12-0.

Oldham were to score again in their next set — and this time Tyson’s class did the damage. Hemmed in on the right and with seemingly nowhere to go, he stepped back inside, evaded three or four tackles while ducking and weaving across the field then straightened up to break into open country before drawing what was left of the Skolars defence and sending Roper galloping to the line from 20 metres.

Oldham were still making plenty of mistakes, but they went out to 28-0 when Danny Langtree collected a high Palfrey kick, this leading to Tyson sending Palfrey diving in at the corner for his second try.

Oldham still had a bit more class to come, this time when Owen, in a midfield creative role, cleverly made space for Thompson to score with a defence-splitting inside ball.

There were several tetchy moments, referee Ansell putting a couple of innocuous-looking incidents on report, the first involving Roberts and the second, near the end, involving Crowley.

Teenager Tom Dempsey, recalled at full-back, was safe under every high ball put up to him — no mean feat in a fierce wind and against opponents out to test his nerve.

Richard Joy also got a chance off the bench and came through well against a huge and competitive Skolars set of forwards.