Hornets 18 Oldham 26

Hornets put in another brave display but again went down to a narrow defeat in their latest Championship One encounter.

Oldham had hammered their traditional rivals 54-4 earlier in the season but this time there was no avalanche of points as Hornets rolled up their sleeves and matched their opponents stride for stride.

Hornets had already shown signs of real improvement under coach Darren Shaw, recently coming within a whisker of beating Co-operative Championship One title favourites Dewsbury before winning away at revitalised Swinton in the Challenge Cup.

The fact that there were plenty of ex-Oldham men in the Hornets line-up indicated that few easy yards would be given by the home side, while the heavy rain in the first-half set the tone for a gutsy, low-scoring clash.

Oldham had to overcome plenty of adversity before emerging victorious.

Following a mistake-strewn first-half, Hornets led 12-10 at the break, with tries from the home side from ex-Oldham man Wayne Corcoran, creeping home from dummy-half, and Dave Cunliffe, after Wayne Kerr had spilled the ball off a restart, sandwiching a Chris Baines try for Oldham off the back of a good short ball from scrum-half Thomas Coyle.

It would have been better for Hornets but for Lee Greenwood’s try just prior to the hooter, created by an excellent pass from Marcus St Hilaire and added to by a touchline conversion from Andy Ballard.

However, two minutes after the restart Hornets increased their advantage when Liam McGovern collected his own bomb, which had ricocheted off the back of a Hornets player to bounce invitingly into the scrum-half’s path.

A McGovern conversion later and a misfiring Oldham were facing up to an 18-10 deficit.

Stevie Gibbons burrowed over cleverly for a try on 49 minutes for Oldham, which Ballard added a goal to.

Two minutes later and Thomas Coyle was to provide a similar moment of class, breaking the line and eschewing support on his inside in favour of sending a perfectly-weighted kick to the corner which Ballard pounced on.

The winger missed his conversion – as he did a later penalty attempt – but the Roughyeds now held a lead at 20-18.

Oldham's hard graft put into getting back in the contest could have been for nought, when Dave Allen was sent to the sin-bin for dissent after a spat with David Best.

Luke Menzies and Best himself then endured similar spells on the sidelines after getting involved in a set-to, leaving the contest as a 12-versus-11 clash for a short period.

Oldham, though, held on and made the game completely safe six minutes from time, James Coyle shooting over with Ballard converting.