Late drop goal finally puts Eagles out of reach

Oldham went down 25-18 against Sheffield Eagles

Harry Tyson-Wilson’s drop goal four minutes from the end sealed a 25-18 win for Sheffield Eagles against Oldham at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster.

At 24-18 behind, Oldham went close to squaring things up a few times, but the loss through injury of first Fenton Rogers and then James Barran did the visitors no favours and the Covid-hit Eagles kept the Roughyeds at bay with strong defence before going to the other end of the field where the home half-back delivered his one-point coup de grace.

Changes from the previous week in the Oldham backs saw on-loan Lloyd Roby, from Widnes, move from replacement bench to left-centre, where he played inside a former Vikings colleague in Ryan Ince.

Max Roberts, who had played in all 17 games so far in cup and league, switched from left to right centre and Joe Hartley stood down to allow it to happen.

In the forwards, Liam Kirk (concussion) and Danny Bridge, who was ill, were out, while Jamie Abram made way for the return after injury of club captain Gareth Owen.

Phil Joy was back at prop, with the pack starting off with three big front-rowers in Joy, Luke Nelmes and in-form Tyler Dupree, with Danny Langtree and Shaun Pick operating a little bit further out.

Bench spots were occupied by Liam Bent, Martyn Reilly and new boys Fenton Rogers, a huge, young prop who was 18 last week, and Brad Jinks, a talented hooker just out of his teens, who was at Waterhead after leaving the Peach Road club to spend four years at Castleford Tigers.

Both Rogers, on loan from Huddersfield Giants, and Jinks, whose exciting dummy-half break was instrumental in Roughyeds equalising at 12-12 just before half-time, got a fair bit of game time and showed up well - quality young players who clearly enjoyed going up against seasoned Championship forwards and came out of it all the better for the experience.

Indeed, Rogers got himself sin-binned early in the second-half and it was while he was off that home hooker James Davey found a gap down the Roughyeds left edge to sail through it and put supporting full-back John Guzdek under the posts for a 24-12 lead.

Oldham's try-scorers were Langtree, Reilly and Dupree, while Dan Abram added three goals.

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