Long rues errors as Oldham stumble at Bulls

Sean Long blamed Oldham’s unforced errors as the Roughyeds’ three-match winning run came to an end with a 28-12 defeat at top-four rivals Bradford.

Oldham trailed throughout in West Yorkshire as the former Super League giants stole a march in the playoff race, tries from Ben O’Keefe and Josh Drinkwater ending up only as consolation.

“We are not respecting the ball enough and then just doing too much defending off the back of that,” the head coach told Roughyeds TV.

“We will learn and fix that moving forwards.”

Long recalled captain Jordan Turner after injury, with O’Keefe’s form earning him the nod on the wing ahead of Mathieu Pons and Mo Agoro.

Matty Ashurst missed out with a hamstring injury, while Ryan Lannon played despite his rib injury.

Bradford started on the front foot and nudged ahead when Jordan Lilley kicked an early penalty for a high shot.

That lead stretched to 8-0 when Oldham were caught out wide after an error, and giant winger Jayden Okunbor touched down, Lilley expertly converting from the touchline.

The visitors enjoyed a strong spell midway through the first half, Lannon almost scoring from a Drinkwater kick and another full set on the Bulls line coming up empty.

But against the run of play Bradford extended their lead. Kieran Dixon dropped a high kick and from the resulting play the Bulls sent Okunbor in again. Lilley added the extras for a 14-0 lead.

The next score had to be Oldham’s and it was, Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e joining the line to send O’Keefe in down the right. The Roughyeds had a foothold and trailed 14-6 at the break.

A strong Oldham start to the second half would have given us a real game, but straight from the restart Dixon sent the ball out on the full.

Bradford immediately piled more pressure on the Roughyeds’ line and added another penalty to lead by 10.

From there the game slipped away. Centre Kieran Gill powered through again for a third Bulls try and a 22-6 lead.

Drinkwater pounced to bring Oldham back within 10 but Bradford weren’t done, the impressive Eribe Doro striding through to put gloss on the victory.

“Sometimes when you are fatigued you just start doing things you don’t normally do,” said Long.

That’s what happened here. We were tired because we didn’t respect the ball and when we actually got the ball we were all over the shop.

We had some real aggression but there are a lot of learnings from this”.

This was another game in which this talented Oldham side showed glimpses of its immense potential but was ultimately undone by the sheer volume of defending brought on by unforced errors against a very strong team.

Oldham remain fourth in the Championship and are back at Boundary Park next Sunday against Hunslet.