Much-changed Oldham RU fall to defeat

Oldham travelled to Thornton Cleveleys for Saturday’s fixture, and were beaten 31-11.

As has been the case many times this season, there were nine changes to the 18 Oldham had fielded in the fixture the week before.

Oldham started brightly and were the first on the scoreboard when Tom Davies chipped over for Alex Jobson to collect, who then in turn chipped the fullback but he obstructed Jobson with the referee awarding a penalty.

Jobson duly put over the penalty to give Oldham a 3-0 lead.

Thornton answered back with a penalty of their own following a high tackle from one of the Oldham forwards.

The lead was regained following some good carries from Jack Taylor and Andy Birch getting in behind Thornton, leading to them transgressing at the ruck.

Jobson again stepped up to put the score line back to Oldham up by three.

Oldham enjoyed some territory in Thornton’s half but seemed to lack calm heads trying to force the play when getting into decent positions.

A decisive blow came just on the stroke of half time as the Thornton centre broke loose following a scrum.

A couple of missed tackles and he carried almost all of the way to the try line, however stopped by Jobson, he offloaded for his support to score.

With the try converted this put Thornton up 10-6 at half time.

It was a cruel blow for Oldham as they had toiled away without Thornton threatening too much.

Thornton started with their tails up in the second half.

Following a break down the right-hand side they moved the ball through hands to score in the left corner.

Oldham kicked off and Thornton replied again with the left winger scoring under the posts this time.

With both scores converted it left Oldham down 24 -6.

When Oldham made ground into the Thornton half they turned the ball over, either not clearing rucks or the set piece not working.

Thornton Lived off the Oldham mistakes and from a missed touch Thornton went over again for another converted try to put them up at 31-6.

Oldham answered back with Shane Connaughton, he picked up a loose ball and sprinted 60 metres to score following a loose pass.

Oldham continued to venture into Thornton’s half but again lacked composure when having opportunities to play with some structure and purpose.

With an end result of 31-11 to Thornton it was possibly if only for Oldham.

A poor 20 minutes after half time allowed the home team to take the game away from them.

Pleasing for the club was Gareth Dawson gaining more minutes in a first team shirt and a first team debut for young prop Henry Nicklin.

MOM went to Eliot Scanlon-Wells for a great all round display in attack and defence.

Oldham are still at the bottom of the league and will look for some answers this weekend coming with third-bottom Liverpool Collegiate visiting Manor Park.

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