Drinkwater rescues dramatic draw for Roughyeds

A late touchline conversion from Josh Drinkwater rescued an 18-18 draw for Oldham who maintained their unbeaten start to the Betfred Championship season against a dogged Batley Bulldogs side at Boundary Park.

Sean Long's side led early but twice had to come from behind, Drinkwater's heroics from Jack Johnson's hat-trick try salvaging a point from a match that looked like it had got away.

"I honestly didn't think we should have got anything out of that but it shows the character of the team that we will play for the full 80 and almost snatched it at the end," Long told Roughyeds TV.

"I don't think we respected them enough."

After last week's stunning win over York, this was an early-season reality check of just how tough the Championship can be, as the Bulldogs enjoyed large periods of possession and frustrated Roughyeds throughout.

Long was without injured captain Matty Wildie and another senior star in the poorly Elijah Taylor, with Bailey Aldridge and Adam Lawton both starting, and Riley Dean prefereed to Danny Craven.

The home side looked in the mood early on as winger Johnson strolled in for the opener before Dean stepped through for a second, Kieran Dixon missing both kicks in fierce winds as Oldham led 8-0.

But that was as good as it got for the home side against an opponent they had beaten just once in the last 10 meetings.

Winger Joe Burton finished a sweeping move to put Batley on the board, the impressive Josh Woods converting from the touchline to pull his side within two.

Jayden Myers took advantage of a gap to give the Bulldogs the lead - Woods again adding the extras - before Johnson's second on the half-time hooter hauled Oldham level, Dixon again off target with the boot.

But from 12-12 at half-time Oldham were unable to kick on, indeed it was Batley who seized control.

A knock-on by Phoenix Laulu-Togaga'e from one of many towering Woods bombs allowed Burton to score a second in the left corner, before a Woods penalty gave the Bulldogs an 18-12 lead.

Time still favoured an Oldham fightback but momentum did not, with Woods missing a drop goal attempt to seal the win.

And that proved costly as Long's men found a late flourish, Johnson finishing off a fine move in the corner with two minutes remaining to trim the deficit to two points.

That left a touchline conversion in strong winds to rescue a point and up stepped Drinkwater, seizing the initiative from Dixon and kicking a beauty between the posts to salvage a draw.

Oldham even had one minute to try and find a win, and almost managed it with a late break.

"I don't know how we found a way to get even one point, so credit to the lads who hung in there and the crowd was right behind us as well," said Long.

"We play for the full 80 minutes and don't give in. Batley came with a gameplan to slow the ruck down and get under our skin a bit and they certainly did that.

"I told them they would be in for a tough game and Batley flew into it.

"They looked more hungry than us and we caused ourselves a few issues with our errors and our end-of-sets weren't very good.

"It shows that if you do the basics and fundamentals right then you have half a chance of winning."

Oldham now move on to 1895 Cup duty and a mouth-watering clash with locals rivals Rochdale back at Boundary Park next Sunday afternoon.

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