DESPITE the 24-16 home defeat by Bradford Bulls, we live to fight again in the battle to land a Betfred League 1 play-off spot.
We’ve lost our place in the top five for the first time this season, but we’ll regain it if we win at London Skolars next Saturday and Whitehaven go down at leaders York City Knights 24 hours later.
York must win to clinch the title and thus gain automatic promotion into the Championship.
In a strange game that attracted 1,038 fans to the Vestacare Stadium, Oldham stormed into an early 10-0 lead with tries by David Hewitt and Matt Reid and one Luke Hooley conversion.
Bulls replied with four converted tries to lead 24-10 at half-time but such was the Roughyeds’ total commitment to the cause that the visitors didn’t score again although they played against 12 men for more than half an hour and against only ten for a short time near the end.
Ben Davies was sent off for dissent in the 50th minute.
Despite that numerical disadvantage, battling Oldham were the only side to score in the second half.
Craig Briscoe crossed and Hooley goaled to cut the deficit to 24-16, after which there was a flashpoint in which Luke Nelmes was sent off for punching and Hooley sin-binned for tripping.
Ten-men Oldham played out the final few minutes to leave the field to appreciative applause from their fans after a second-half ‘nilling’ of a top-two side for the second time in eight days.
