Fightback bid falls short for Littleborough
LITTLEBOROUGH RUFC came up short on Saturday as they were beaten at home by local rivals Oldham RUFC.
It was a snowy Saturday afternoon and the game started with Oldham playing from left to right and immediately put Boro on the back foot with some quick ball play and constant pressure in attack.
This resulted in the first try of the match after only five minutes, which they also converted for a seven points early lead.
This was not the Littleborough team that had won their last two matches and looked to be on a revival, and for the rest of the first half they were constantly under attack and only got out of their own half twice, but in doing so they got close to their opponent’s try line but on each occasion the referee awarded the visitors a free kick and they took play back towards Boro’s half.
Littleborough’s Jack Whittles then put in a good attacking run and Chris Hough unfortunately failed a penalty kick conversion.
This was followed by Henry Ashworth suffering a neck injury, who eventually had to leave the field of play and was replaced by Colt player Mathew Hayden.
Almost at the end of the first half the away side’s left winger looked to be off on a runaway try but fortunately for Boro he was caught before he reached the try-line and the half-time whistle went with the score 7-0 to Oldham.
At the beginning of the second half it was Boro who started to dominate and began their points campaign with a successful penalty by Hough.
Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the visitors cancelled that out with their second try of the day, but there was still no conversion.
However, Boro were still determined to turn things around and that they did with a fine try of their own from Edward Chadwick but no conversion to reduce the deficit to 12-8.
This was now looking more positive for Boro, especially as they were enjoying more of the game but disaster loomed and low and behold the next score was a further try, not for Littleborough but for Oldham, pouring more bad luck on the home side.
As the end of the match was approaching Boro still kept pressing and it is to their credit that their revival in the second half continued and at the end they got their deserved reward with a further try from that prolific scorer of tries, Mathew Goldthorpe, which was converted by young George Roberts, to almost level the score.
It was great fight back in the second half by Boro but they narrowly missed out, with the team suffering a 17-15 defeat to Oldham.