No reward for a valiant effort

Gary Middlehurst tries the Halifax defence again

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LED by the irrepressible Gareth Owen, the busiest half-back on the field, Oldham scrapped from start to finish and deserved at least a point from an evenly-balanced game at Halifax.

It wasn't a night, or a game, for the rugby purist. It was an old fashioned slog in the forwards with the packs going hell for leather at each other and hard-grafting, tough-tackling defences refusing to buckle under pressure.

Centres, wings and wide-running second-row men rarely got a pass with room to move; though, like most wingers these days, Adam Clay and Jamel Chisholm and their opposite numbers Will Sharp and James Saltonstall had heaps of work to do in dealing with high balls and cross-kicks from half-backs who aren't worth a dime if they can't put boot to ball with unerring accuracy.

Played under floodlights, in incessant drizzle and on a sandy pitch, it was tailor-made to be a bruiser; just as well then that Scott Naylor called on each of his FIVE available props ­- dual-reg Tyler Dickinson and on-loan debutant Tom Spencer starting with Phil Joy, Joe Burke and Michael Ward on the bench.

Halifax brought back Aussie front-rower Mitch Cahalane after injury and gave a home debut to on-loan back-row man Matt Sarsfield, who followed his first-game try at Batley Bulldogs with the two here that gave the home side a somewhat flattering 10-0 lead at the break.

It was into this hostile arena, in which Halifax were penalised three times early on for high shots on Gary Middlehurst, Kruise Leeming and Jared Simpson, that the diminutive Owen stepped up to take charge of Oldham's attacking structure and tactical options in the absence of Lewis Palfrey and Steve Roper.

ATTEMPT

Sammy Gee, as third-choice goalkicker, had only one attempt on goal and landed an absolute gem from the left-hand touchline to improve Chisholm's leap-and-catch try in the corner and reduce Roughyeds' deficit to four points 10 minutes into the second half.

All Oldham's other kicking was undertaken by Owen, who partnered Danny Grimshaw in the halves and, whether by accident or design, took the lead role and did a smashing job in a side that could so easily have pinched this game and certainly didn't deserve to lose.

Striving constantly to create, to find runners or to kick intelligently, Owen made good ground on penalties to touch; turned Miles Greenwood around on numerous occasions; forced Halifax to concede several back-to-back sets with grubbers into the in-goal; and seemed to have the ball in his hands more than anybody else on the field.

SIMILAR

The packs generally cancelled each other out with Owen calling the shots behind the Oldham set and Scott Murrell doing a similar job for Halifax.

Leeming, at hooker, had an exciting game for Oldham in his home town, both he and Owen receiving plaudits from Fax coach Richard Marshall.

"We kicked too often to score, rather than to build pressure, and in that respect we have lessons to be learned from how Owen kicked for Oldham," said Marshall. "Kruise (Leeming) also had a big game for them."

Oldham dominated from the off. Spencer went close to scoring in the opening minutes when he was held up over the Fax line.

Try as they might, the visitors couldn't break through again, although they were unlucky to have a try disallowed when Owen kicked for Chisholm's wing and he was ruled to have knocked-on.

Halifax immediately went to the other end where, against the run of play, Sarsfield scored his first try after Chisholm failed to hold a Gareth Moore crosskick.

A Murrell 40-20 got Halifax on the front foot again. In the subsequent attack, Middlehurst was penalised at a Ben Heaton play-the-ball and that led to the second Sarsfield try when he spun in a goal-line challenge and put the ball down. Tyrer goaled.

In the run-up to half-time Oldham again laid siege on the Halifax line, only to bring out the best in a resolute home defence, which was later to earn full marks from Marshall.

Roughyeds twice called on Fax to drop out from under the posts, but the visitors couldn't turn back-to-back sets into points.

After Simpson failed to hold a Murrell bomb early in the second half, Oldham defended equally impressively and then turned the screw to force yet another drop-put before Chisholm made amends for his earlier mistake by scoring brilliantly in the corner from Owen's angled kick. Gee's goal was a belter.

Continuing to force drop-outs, Oldham totally dominated the rest of the half without busting the home defence.

PENALISED

It was a measure of their threat that, when Spencer was penalised for 'hands in' at the tackle (causing referee Turley to issue a team warning), Tyrer opted to go for goal and a 12-6 lead.

He was to fail with another attempt from half-way after Joe Burke was similarly pulled up. Then Gareth Moore tried a long-range drop goal attempt which fell just short.

Halifax were rattled. They conceded a lot of penalties, and even more drop-outs, but time was to run out on Oldham as they piled on the pressure in search of an equalising try and goal.