Leaders York strike late to deny Oldham in thriller

Oldham overcame the early loss of skipper Matty Wildie to produce a superb fightback at Betfred Championship leaders York before two late tries saw the Knights salvage a dramatic 24-16 win.

Roughyeds overturned a 10-0 first-half deficit to lead 16-12, before a barrage of late pressure from the hosts saw them strike twice to secure a thrilling victory.

"The lads emptied the tank and there was nothing in it at half-time other than their two tries from our errors," head coach Sean Long told Roughyeds TV.

We came out second half and we were flying. There's plenty of fight in this team and we will be back to go again next week against Barrow."

Oldham had the chance to strengthen their position in the top four with a big performance against the Championship pacesetters, but suffered a setback just seconds into the game when a head injury ruled hooker Wildie out of the contest.

As Long's men reorganised, the home side seized the initiative and took the lead through top try scorer Ben Jones-Bishop. Gil Dudson was penalised for a high shot, and then Adam Milner was pulled up for a forward pass as Oldham tried to clear their lines. The pressure grew and the former Super League Grand Final winner jinked over to give York a 4-0 lead.

The Knights hit double figures when an unforced error gifted possession to Mark Applegarth's men and sub Kieran Hudson crashed over on the last tackle, with Will Dagger converting.

Weaker sides might have crumbled from a double-digit deficit away to the league leaders, but Long's men are a resilient bunch and the response was superb.

Chaos on the last tackle ended with a George Hirst kick, Morgan Smith pouncing on a ricochet to get Oldham on the board. Former York man Kieran Dixon was off target from the touchline, but Roughyeds has a foothold.

Oldham finished the first half well on top and took that momentum into the second half when Hirst powered over himself to level the scores.

Dagger slotted over a penalty to nudge York back ahead after an inexplicable error at the ruck saw York regather possession from an Odham play-the-ball.

But Long's men had the bit between their teeth and refused to go away.

A huge Owen Farnworth hit forced Oldham back on to the front foot and a flowing move involving Josh Drinkwater and Phoenix Laulu-Togaga'e saw Dixon race over, converting his own try to give Oldham a 16-12 lead with 15 minutes to go.

Then came a huge moment, as Drinkwater's dink over the top was claimed by Ben Davies at full pelt, but the centre lost control of the ball as he was racing clear to extend the lead. And what could have been a 10-point Oldham advantage suddenly disappeared completely.

Four consecutive sets on the Oldham line left some tired bodies and Jesse Dee crashed over on the left to level the scores. Former Man of Steel Paul McShane took the responsibility with the kick and made no mistake to give York the lead once more.

And the hosts sealed it with one more try, Oliver Field finishing a fine move from the scrum after Oldham were adjudged to have lost possession.

A cruel defeat on the road for Oldham who produced a terrific performance full of resilience and endeavour but were ultimately undone by a couple of huge moments in the game.

"The boys are hurting and I'm just disappointed because of the effort they have put in," said Long, whose side stay 4th but see their lead over Featherstone in 5th trimmed to just two points.

"here was a big turning point in that second half - if Benny catches that ball we go 10 points up. They go down the other end off the back of the penalty and had four sets on our line. We kept turning them away and that took a lot of juice out of us so in the last 8 minutes we were hanging on.

It doesn't help when you lose your captain after a minute, we burned a sub and had to play Elijah Taylor at 9. I asked the lads to leave everything out of the field and they kept fighting to the end.

If we can bottle that up then we will have a really good run at it for the end of this season. We will score points, we can score points."

As well as losing Wildie to a head injury, Oldham will check on what Long described as "tight calves" for Taylor and Hirst, ahead of Sunday's home game with Barrow at Boundary Park.