Oldham’s wait for a first trip to Wembley goes on after Featherstone Rovers powered to a 40-14 1895 Cup semi-final win at Boundary Park.
In front of a crowd of 2843 the Roughyeds fell 18-0 down at half-time, and despite glimpses of their best form ultimately had no answer to Featherstone on a frustrating afternoon for head coach Sean Long.
“You get what you deserve in rugby and they were the better team,” Long told Roughyeds TV.
“They were experienced and they were the better side so we have to cop that and dust ouselves down. We have to show more resilience.”
Long had captain Jordan Turner back in the side after season-ending injuries ruled out both centres Jumah Sambou and Iain Thornley, while Danny Craven was back on the bench.
But Featherstone dominated from the first whistle, and nudged ahead after a tactical opening when Ben Reynolds slotted over a 10th minute penalty,
Winger Connor Wynne had already seen an opening try disallowed when Rovers did strike, full-back Caleb Aekins jinking through the line to score, Reynolds adding the extras for an 8-0 lead.
Then came one of two big game-changing moments.
Oldham attacked and were given a set restart close to the Featherstone line, but Ben Davies was unaware and looked to thread a kick through at the start of a new set allowing Gareth Gale to break from deep, Wynne eventually finishing in the corner at the other end.
And Oldham conceded a third before half-time when Rovers substitute Jordan Williams broke and Clay Webb helped himself to a try. Reynolds converted for an 18-0 half-time lead.
Roughyeds needed a quick start after the break and got it through a fine try finished in the corner by Davies, Drinkwater unable to convert but Oldham at last on the board.
Then the second big moment as Ben Forster crashed over the line for a try that would have brought the deficit back to 10-18. But Forster spilled the ball in the act of grounding, the try was disallowed and Rovers raced down the other end to land a sucker punch, Ryan Hampshire dummying his way through on the last tackle for a 24-4 lead.
That knocked the stuffing out of Oldham as the visitors added a further score through livewire replacement hooker Connor Jones.
At 30-4 down there was a wag of the tail from Oldham in front of their biggest home crowd since Wigan came to town in January. Davies had a one-on-one chance but was tackled into touch in attempting to round his man, before a wonderful move saw Dean and Davies combine down the right, Dean kicking back inside for Adam MIlner to finish.
Nathan Lowe added another from Craven’s floated pass but from 30-14 Rovers still found two more tries as Aekins and Wynne both grabbed their second.
“There is quite a lot to pick through, at the start we showed real intent and looked like we had them but there were some real momentum shifts in that game,” said Long.
Second half I asked the lads to be brave and they came out and went bang and got a try, But the set after, we dropped the ball over the line and they go down the end and score.
We have to park this as we have two big games coming up against Halifax and Hunslet so we have to go hard now.
Another near-miss as the Wembley wait goes on for Oldham, with a frustrated Long overseeing a squad decimated by injuries left wondering what could have been. But this Roughyeds side will get more chances like this, with a big Cup semi-final so early in the journey back from obscurity again underlining the giant strides being made at this club.
That won’t take the sting away from this setback of course, but with Halifax next up at Boundary Park in the Betfred Championship Long must find a way to turn this experience into a springboard for a strong summer in the league.
