Pickles pounces to win it for Oldham

Photo: Tim Abram

ON THE ATTACK . . . Oldham's Gareth Blomeley carries the ball forward against Wigton.

OLDHAM RU's opening home fixture in the North Lancashire and Cumbria League ended in a 32-27 victory against Wigton.

As is often the case with any team after a long journey, the visitors struggled to get themselves into the game early on and Oldham flew out of the blocks.

A catch and drive from a line-out saw John Souter bulldoze over from five metres.

The conversion hit the upright, but the lead was doubled after 10 minutes when Gareth Barber arrowed a pin-point kick into the in-goal area and Max Horsfall won the race to touch down in the corner. The difficult conversion drifted wide.

ADVANTAGE

Wigton full-back Greg Smith found his range to reduce the deficit to 10-3, but a Callum Megram penalty soon restored the 10-point advantage.

Wigton's Andrew Brown darted over the line from a catch and drive at a line-out, and with Smith converting, the score was now 13-10 just as the first half was drawing to a close. There was, however, still time for Oldham to have the final say when Megram slotted a second penalty to make the half-time score 16-10.

After the restart, Wigton stand-off David Hanabury spotted that Oldham had forwards in the defensive line and darted through a gap. He stepped his way into the 22 and put full-back Smith in under the posts. Smith converted to make the score 17-16.

It was end-to-end stuff and the lead changed hands regularly. Megram kicked two further penalties and Smith one and Oldham led 22-20 with 20 minutes remaining.

Jordan McEwan darted over in the corner as Oldham went 27-20 ahead, only for Wigton loose head prop Kevin Robinson to dive over by the posts. Smith's conversion evened it up.

It was left to Ryan Pickles to snatch the winning bonus point try as Oldham secured a great result.

Oldham's man-of-the-match award went to loose head prop Bobby Cullen.