Fired up Fev beat Oldham ahead of playoffs

A subdued Oldham suffered a 28-12 defeat at playoff-chasing Featherstone in the final game of Roughyeds' regular season, as Sean Long's men struggled to hit the heights of their recent performances with a top-four finish already secure.

Without key pair Josh Drinkwater and Ryan Brierley through injury, Oldham trailed throughout at Post Office Road, as a hungry Rovers grabbed the win they needed to stay on track for a playoff place of their own.

Long also saw forward Matty Foster limp off only two minutes into the game and will hope the two-week break before the home playoff game will be enough to get his troops back to full strength.

"Full credit to Fev who I thought we very good," head coach Long told Roughyeds TV.

"They ran harder than us and tackled harder for us, but there is no excuse for that performance and I have not seen that for a while."

Long moved winger Ethan Ryan to full-back and Phoenix Laulu-Togaga'e into the halves to cover for Brierley and Drinkwater who had failed to complete Friday's final training session, with Jack Johnson and Kieran Dixon restored to the wings.

But Oldham had already lost Foster to injury when Ben Reynolds slotted over an early penalty to give the home side an early lead.

A period of dominance from Rovers meant it was no surprise when the first try came in home colours, winger Derrell Olpherts outjumping Johnson to claim a Danny Addy kick on the last, Reynolds converting for an 8-0 lead.

It got even better for Fev when Bailey O'Connor crossed in the left corner for a 14-0 lead before Oldham had even landed a significant blow on their opposition.

A lifeline came against the run of play on the half-time hooter. PLT sent up a high kick on the last, and as Ryan challenged full-back Caleb Aekins the ball broke to Ryan Lannon to cross for an unlikely try. 14-6 at the interval and game very much on with Oldham playing down the hill in the second half.

Yet there was no let up. Oldham conceded an early penalty to allow Featherstone straight back on to the front foot after the restart. It was Rovers who scored next as Roughyeds threw a loose pass and O'Connor galloped away from his own half for his second, to extend the lead to 20-6.

The impressive Tom Whitehead gave Oldham hope with his first try for the club to reduce the arrears to 20-12 from a fine Owen Farnworth offload, but Rovers would have the final say as prop Jimmy Beckett burst through a huge gap within seconds of coming back onto the field to cap a miserable trip to West Yorkshire for Oldham's passionate fanbase.

"The team was good enough to get the result and if we think we can play like that in two weeks time then we have another thing coming," said Long, whose side will face either Halifax or Featherstone again at Boundary Park in the playoffs.

We will assess where that performance came from and work hard in training. We have two weeks prep for one game and there are a few things we need to fix up pretty soon.

Brierley and Drinkwater were not rested. We didn't rest anyone. They were 50/50 and if they had got injured in this game then I would have been stupid as a coach to play them when I could have given them an extra few days off. They were not good to play.

Matty Foster has a groin or adductor that looks pretty tight. He was struggling a little in training and I have played him and he has popped it. It doesn't look great for him.

I've not taken anything out of that game, nothing. Maybe mentally we weren't at the races as we couldn't finish any higher or lower, maybe that caught us out. But I was expecting a few lads to step up and make my job a bit harder and give me a selection headache.

We will be ready in two weeks for our playoff at Boundary Park."

This was a strangely off-colour performance from this talented team in what was ultimately a dead rubber, Oldham out-enthused by a Rovers side fighting for their playoff lives.

Long will be confident of putting things right with Brierley and Drinkwater's return to fitness, but will know that a huge intensity jump is needed when sudden death rugby league comes to Boundary Park in less than a fortnight's time.

It will be either Halifax or Fev again on a date to be confirmed - potentially Friday the 19th - as Oldham head into the Betfred Championship playoffs just 12 months after winning the League 1 title.