Roughyeds left licking wounds

Photo: Dave Murgatroyd

CRUNCH TIME . . . Oldham's Michael Ward (left) is halted in his tracks by the Bulls.

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THIS was always going to be Bradford's day. They desperately needed two league points and other results to go their way to squeeze into the top four. As one Bulls official so eloquently pointed out: "It's squeaky bum time."

Fans in their hundreds on the vast Odsal terraces spent as much time checking their phones for results from other grounds as they did watching the Bulls getting a firm grip on this game in a one-sided second half.

ICELANDIC CLAP

As it became increasingly likely that Rohan Smith's men would end the afternoon on a high we got the lot ­- Bully Bully, the Icelandic Viking Clap and the biggest roar of the day from a 4,000-plus crowd when news filtered through of Featherstone's narrow win at Halifax.

London-born winger Omari Caro's FIVE tries caused a bit of a stir, but not even that could overshadow what was happening elsewhere.

High up in the gods on the top floor of the iconic old stadium's hospitality block, Bulls legend-turned-employee, Robbie Hunter-Paul, sported a grin from ear to ear. "For the first time in weeks it's now in our own hands," he said. "We've to beat Featherstone away next Sunday and we're in the four."

The Telegraph and Argus's on-line summing up concluded that: "It doesn't get any better than this."

Well, it does for Oldham - and hopefully it will get a lot better when they play Workington Town at Bower Fold next Sunday in a game that could go a long way to securing a second season of Championship rugby for the Roughyeds faithful.

Scott Naylor and his squad, realistic as ever, will regard the set-to with the Cumbrians as far more important than this one in terms of defining the Roughyeds' immediate future.

Town's last-gasp winner against neighbours Whitehaven means Oldham keep their three-point buffer above the bottom two.

And if they beat Town and Sheffield win at the Recreation Ground next weekend, Naylor's men will go into the last seven games of the season - the Championship Shield - with five points more than 'Haven and seven more than Town.

The Cumbrian clubs would have to go some to wipe out deficits like that with only seven games in which to do it.

Despite the absence of injured Gareth Owen, Gary Middlehurst, Jack Spencer and Lewis Foster, Naylor rested forwards Phil Joy and Liam Thompson at Bradford, gave debuts to Dave Hewitt and Jack Blagbrough and called up Adam Files for his first outing for several weeks.

With in-form Kenny Hughes given a breather on the bench, the visitors set off with a new-look front row comprising of Joe Burke, Files and dual-reg youngster Tyler Dickinson.

One-on-one tackling was poor from the start and Bulls capitalised with an opening try by centre Kris Welham, who pushed through a Palfrey challenge to score.

Caro made it 10-0 with the first of his five in the corner, but Oldham came more into the game, and looked stronger down the middle, when Michael Ward, Hughes and new-boy Blagbrough were introduced off the bench.

STRONG DRIVE

Sure enough, Blagbrough made a strong drive and was on hand a minute later to crash under the posts on a typical Hughes pass from dummy half. Palfrey added the goal.

Haggerty went in next for the Bulls, this time running over Gee, before Joe Philbin added a fourth.

When Oldham got a rare chance to set up base camp in the Bulls' quarter, they made it count when Moss mishandled a Hewitt chip and Ward was on hand to pick up and score. Palfrey's goal reduced Bradford's interval lead to a satisfying 18-12.

Roughyeds needed to start well after the break, but their suspect tackling was further exposed when Ausssie half-back Dane Chisholm broke up the middle and hooker Stuart Howarth cross-kicked for Caro to score.

The winger was to add three more tries inside 15 minutes (five in total) as Bulls exposed a flimsy Oldham defence to go 38-12 up.

Palfrey and Haggerty were placed on report for squaring up to each other, but it was Bradford who had the last laugh when Adam Clay failed to smother a long kick downfield and Ethan Ryan got a foot to the ball and scored.