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Oldham Roughyeds 40 Workington Town 16

Gavin Browne
25/ 8/2008

TWENTY-EIGHT points from Danny Halliwell handed the Roughyeds their 19th consecutive home victory from the cliched 'game of two halves'.

The centre scored four tries and kicked six goals as Oldham came from 16-0 down to score 40 unanswered points at Boundary Park.

Such an outcome seemed unlikely during a first half in which Oldham shipped three tries in 15 minutes thanks to a poor collective performance. Indifferent decision making, too much dropped ball, and bizarre refereeing all combined to give the Cumbrians hope of an upset.

The opening try came in the seventh minute when, following a kick to the corner, the officials allowed Jamie Marshall to restart play seven metres infield, the winger tapping the ball and diving over, much to the Oldham team's bemusement.

Two converted tries followed in the space of four minutes as Gary Purdham and Franco Kmet both capitalised on poor defending to score.

Carl Forber's conversions made it 16-0 before Oldham finally woke up from their slumber with half-an-hour gone. They managed to reduce their deficit to 10 points by the break as
skipper Rob Roberts burrowed his way over for a try goaled by Halliwell.

However, the second half was a completely different state of affairs as Oldham recorded six tries in 31 minutes.

Halliwell crossed on four occasions as Oldham targeted the right-hand side of Workington's defence to good effect. He broke through gaps twice in the first 14 minutes of the half,
adding the conversions to put Oldham ahead for the first time at 18-16.

Three tries in eight minutes then killed off the visitors as a strong run up the middle from Said Tamghart ended with Phil Joseph shrugging off one tackle before racing through to score behind the posts.

Halliwell took James Coyle's pass before accelerating through a gap to score his third try, while Simeon Hoyle was the beneficiary of non-existent tackling as he touched down.

Halliwell converted both scores before ending proceedings four minutes from time, taking Joseph's pass to score in the left-hand corner.