St Anne's in disappointing opening loss

AT the fourth time of asking, Oldham St Anne's finally got their season under way with a disappointing 21-14 defeat at Dewsbury Celtic in Division Three of the Kingstone Press National Conference League.

After three weather-induced postponements, Saints got off to a sluggish start and let in three tries in as many minutes.

Scrum-half Dominic Senior set the ball rolling and Lewis Martin capitalised on a gift when the visitors tried to keep the ball in play from a penalty only to set the centre up.

St Anne's mounted an attack up the slope, but a grubber kick was snapped up by substitute Mike Foulstone for Celtic's third try.

Five minutes either side of the break proved to be the best spell for St Anne's. New boy Matty Bottom charged over the line with Matthew Whitehead adding the conversion, before centre Joe Hartley was held up over the line. The ball was then swung to the left for winger Kieran McGinnity to score in the corner.

LEVEL

It didn't take long for Saints to level the scores when John Deakin and Rhys Wareing set up Bottom for his second try.

Just before the hour, Celtic regained the lead when stand-off Danny Thomas - who had a big impact on the game - broke though some poor tackling to send Pat Foulstone over, with Halloran adding the conversion.

Despite the advantage of the slope, Saints couldn't breach a resolute Dewsbury defence.

And Thomas made sure of the points with a drop-goal five minutes from time.

Elsewhere in Division Three, Waterhead Warriors suffered a 32-0 defeat at league leaders Dewsbury Moor Maroons.

Though Jake O'Grady again stood out for the visitors, the hosts took a 6-0 lead into half-time courtesy of Archie Bruce's try, converted by Brad Foster, and never looked back from that point.

Further scores arrived from Toby Richardson, Luke Adamson, Dom Hall and James Delaney in the second half, with Foster kicking five more goals for the home team.