Oldham made to toil by Sammut

HALTED . . . Oldham’s Jamal Chisholm (centre) is halted by two Workington defenders.

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WORKINGTON TOWN 23, OLDHAM 12

BAD as they were for all but the first 20 minutes, Oldham were undone at Derwent Park not by a better side but single-handedly by the man they always feared.

Australian half-back Jarrod Sammut, a class act, was the difference between two ordinary-looking sides.

It isn’t difficult to argue the case that Workington owed everything to the man described by a local radio reporter in a post-match interview with Town coach Phil Veivers as ‘the magician’.

From nothing, he conjured up two tries in three minutes midway through the first half to turn the game upside down - after Oldham had taken an early 6-0 lead and for 20 minutes or so had looked comfortably in control.

Fast-forward to the last couple of minutes and, with his side only six points in front, he pulled another rabbit out of the hat by steering home a long-range drop goal to put the issue beyond doubt.

Still not finished, he spotted space behind Oldham’s defensive line in the dying seconds and delivered a perfectly weighted kick to the corner for Chris Murphy to fly up the touchline and register Town’s fourth try.

Those were merely the highlights of a master-class performance in which Sammut orchestrated and organised everything the Cumbrians did.

Roughyeds would have worked on plans to shut him out, one of which would have been to minimise the number of times he had ball in hand. They failed, because after a bright opening spell they conceded too many penalties and made lots of handling errors - forward passes being a particular irritant, not to mention untidy play-the-balls and knock-ons at the ruck.

Throw in a couple of occasions when they knocked-on crossing the line, and you get the picture this wasn’t going to be Oldham’s day.

These lapses were all the more frustrating because, for the first 20 minutes, Scott Naylor’s men looked to have the job well in hand. They were quicker than Town around the rucks, pressing forward relentlessly and being rewarded when Lewis Palfrey’s grubber into the in-goal was touched down on debut by new boy Gary Middlehurst. Palfrey goaled for a 6-0 lead.

A period of heavy defensive work followed - again no problem - but in minutes Sammut twice worked his magic and Oldham never looked the same again.

He was hemmed in under the posts with nowhere to go on the last tackle. He chipped the ball forward speculatively. Richard Lepori had it covered, but it ricocheted off Danny Langtree as he moved in to protect his full-back and shot away from Lepori and back into the path of Sammut, who touched down.

Next, Will Hope was penalised and this gave Town the tools to pressurise Oldham again.

Sammut popped up on the left-side with no space and nowhere to run. But he pushed through the defensive line to score his second try. Oldham were then in big trouble.

What on earth was happening with those tackles ?

Oldham certainly tightened defensively in the second half, but they continued to err in possession.

Neither side looked capable of breaking down the other, despite the valiant efforts of Danny Grimshaw, the one man who showed he could bust the home line.

One such break nearly got Chisholm in at the corner, but Oldham were finally rewarded when Joy, again one of his side’s better forwards, scored on Gareth Owen’s flat pass with five minutes to go.

With Langtree and Palfrey off the field nursing knocks, Jack Holmes kicked the goal to put Roughyeds only four points in arrears.

They were briefly on top at this stage, but their last chance came and went when, on the last tackle, Grimshaw made another brilliant break. Only the full-back stood between Grimshaw and his moment of glory.

With no close support, he opted to go round Murphy, who executed the tackle. Grimshaw released the ball after the tackle was completed. With the penalty went Oldham’s last chance of saving the game.

In the two or three minutes remaining, Town worked the ball downfield and landed a penalty, a drop goal and that last-gasp try in the corner to finish worthy winners.