Oldham Roughyeds 28 - 38 Rochdale Hornets

Oldham Roughyeds v Rochdale Hornets

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Rochdale Hornets fought back from 18 points behind to record a brilliant victory over local rivals Oldham Roughyeds, to end their losing run.

Hornets kept in touch with a late try in the first half and came out all guns blazing for the second half, limiting Oldham to just two points and scored some well worked tries.

Oldham opened the scoring, Scott Turner touched down Scott Leatherbarrow’s kick in behind the defence after just six minutes.

Within two minutes Hornets had responded; Oldham knocked on from the kick-off and from the resulting goal-line drop-out Eccleston juggled the ball before finding Miles Greenwood in the corner.

A high tackle from Jo Taira resulted in tempers flaring, and the Rochdale forward was forced to sit out the next 10 minutes along with Richard Lepori who was also sin binned.

Leatherbarrow increased Oldham’s lead with a penalty goal before missing another attempt soon after.

After a clever play from Gary Middlehurst saw him keep the ball in play from Ryan Maneely’s kick, Hornets forced another goal-line drop-out and capitalised again. This time it was Eccleston who was over, as he charged onto Palfrey’s flat pass and proved too strong from close range to level the scores.

Oldham had their best spell and opened up a lead when George Tyson pounced on a mistake from Matty Hadden as he fluffed an attempt to kick the ball dead.

Lepori had returned from the sin bin and was over for his Oldham’s next try, benefitting from Jack Spencer’s break to score in support.

Great play between Middlehurst, Josh Crowley and Palfrey put Eccleston in open space on the right edge, but his kick back inside for Danny Yates had too much on it.

Up the other end of the field Lepori increased Oldham's lead further as he grabbed his second try as he went over in support of a break again - Danny Langtree who had found a way through.

With five minutes of the half remaining Oldham's pulled a try back as Eccleston scored his second; a perfectly weighted pass from Palfrey saw the centre race through a gap to pick up a four pointer

Oldham Roughyeds 26 - 12 Rochdale Hornets

In the first minute of the second half Leatherbarrow added his second penalty goal of the contest, but that was the final say Oldham had in the score line.

The Hornets comeback began with slick passing on the left edge which ended with Lewis Galbraith sending Rob Massam over on the right.

Minutes Ben Moores burrowed his way over from dummy half to cut the deficit to six.

Hornets were back level just before the hour mark, as Palfrey’s chip was taken brilliantly by Jordan Case who spun his way out of a tackle to plant the ball down on the line.

Hornets took the lead when Galbraith picked up an Oldham knock on and raced the length of the field - and a late challenge leading with the knees resulted in it becoming an eight-point try.

The lead soon became 10 points when Yates picked himself up from a high tackle to knock over a penalty goal.

Some great defence and game management led to Hornets seeing out the rest of the contest, but the game controversy ended in controversy. In the final minute all 26 players came together, with Sam Gee red carded for swinging punches and Yates sin-binned for retaliation after picking up a nasty looking head injury.

Rochdale Hornets: Chris Riley, Miles Greenwood, Jake Eccleston, Lewis Galbraith, Rob Massam, Lewis Palfrey, Danny Yates, Jo Taira, Ryan Maneely, Gavin Bennion, Jono Smith, Josh Crowley, Gary Middlehurst.
Replacements: Ben Moores, Matty Hadden, Lee Mitchell, Jordan Case.
Tries: Greenwood, Eccleston (2), Massam, Moores, Case, Galbraith.
Goals: Yates (5), Palfrey.

Oldham Roughyeds: Richard Lepori, Adam Clay, George Tyson, Sam Wood, Scott Turner, Scott Leatherbarrow, Gareth Owen, Nathan Mason, Kenny Hughes, Adam Neal, Luke Adamson, Danny Langtree, Jack Spencer.
Replacements: Sam Gee, Liam Thompson, Joe Burke, Michael Ward.
Tries: Turner, Tyson, Lepori (2).
Goals: Leatherbarrow (6).