ROUGHYEDS boss Stuart Littler was pleased with the character shown by his men in the second half against Midlands, as they extended the club’s unbeaten run to four games.
Oldham scored just under a point a minute, on average, in the second forty which made up for a rusty first period.
“Full credit to the boys, in the second half, they showed the real Oldham and what we’re about against Midlands who were a really tough outfit, especially in that first half,” said Littler.
“There’s loads of good stuff out there, especially in the second half when we defended three sets on our own line at the back end of the game and you could see what it meant to the lads.
“I don’t think we had that early on which was a bit frustrating, but we fixed it up and got there.
Midlands, a side who sacked their coach after just one win in six, took full advantage of Roughyeds’ errors and were by far the better side in the first half and unlucky to be drawing 12-12 at the break.
“We were second to a lot of things, didn’t get things right and probably didn’t get off the bus,” he added.
“At first, we were a bit lateral and kept going from side to side. We didn’t get our kicking game right, we made too many basic errors and we just invited a lot of pressure on ourselves.
“I say every week, if you send enough invites out to a party eventually somebody turns up – Midlands did that, they sniffed blood and the challenge became greater.”
At half time, Littler spoke to his men about sticking to the game plan after an unforeseen first half performance.
“Midlands had used a lot of subs and were struggling with injuries, so we knew if we could keep hold of the ball and finish our sets, the game would open up – and that’s what happened,” he said.
“I spoke about fixing up a few things as well, especially around the middle, and space opened up on the back of it,” he said.
“We spoke to the right people and, to be fair, the lads took a lot of ownership. I’ve got an honest group and they knew we hadn’t got things right.
