Hornets snatch
ROCHDALE Hornets managed to come away with a point from their fullblooded derby encounter with Oldham at the Crown Oil Arena, thanks to Ryan Maneely’s try two minutes from time.
With five minutes to play they were down by 12 points and seemed to be heading for a third straight home defeat – yet they clawed their way level as the spoils were shared.
It was everything you would expect from a derby with plenty of physical battles in the middle, however the game was littered with errors as the hosts’ attack failed to fire.
The second half display from Rochdale was poor as they threw away their lead and couldn’t keep hold of possession, making it a point gained rather than a point lost in the end.
Lewis Palfrey missed a penalty goal and two conversion attempts which the halfback would normally have knocked over with relative ease, but to lay the blame solely on the captain’s shoulders would be harsh – especially after he clinched a famous win away at Featherstone Rovers with the boot a week earlier.
The game was delayed by 50 minutes due to five of the Hornets’ players being stuck on the M62 following a police traffic incident, and when play was finally underway they registered the first points. Palfrey decided to run the ball on the last tackle and was rewarded when he put Jack Holmes through a gap, as the centre found Ben Moores in support for his fourth try of the campaign.
Within five minutes Oldham had hit back though, as they benefitted from back-to-back penalties to reply through Jordan Walne as he was over in plenty of space on the right edge.
The next half an hour saw the teams locked in an arm wrestle, with the Roughyeds having the best of the territory thanks to the boot of David Hewitt who forced two goal-line drop-outs.
They couldn’t turn pressure into points though before Josh Crowley made his former team pay, as he managed to muscle his way to the try line from Palfrey’s flat pass for an unconverted try which came after the number six had missed a penalty goal.
That try looked to be the last scoring play of the half three minutes from the break until Crowley made something out of nothing in the final minute of the first 40. The second rower managed to brush off an attempted tackle to force a break and draw the fullback to send over Holmes, with Rochdale leading 14-6 at half-time.
Oldham would have been looking for a response in the second period and they got it after just four minutes, as the Hornets’ left edge defence came flying off the line only for George Tyson to evade them and provide Adam Clay with a simple finish.
Within six minutes the visitors were ahead as Hewitt’s boot made the home side pay, with his grubber being chased down by Tyoyo Egodo to give his team a four point lead.
There were 12 minutes left on the clock when they crossed again, this time through Michael Ward, as he benefitted from Tyson’s offload when the centre looked to have been forced into touch.
A minute later Scott Leatherbarrow added a penalty goal to make it 26-14 as Rochdale looked to have too much to do.
Such is the character of this side that Alan Kilshaw has brought together in 2017 they don’t know when they are beaten, and despite their performance being poor for the majority of the contest they found a way to snatch a point.
The first of their two comeback tries came from Gavin Bennion, as the front rower barged his way over from a tap penalty