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Oldham Roughyeds 32 Batley Bulldogs 34

Gavin Browne
24/ 8/2005

A GRIM-FACED Gary Mercer acknowledged the Roughyeds were in a relegation battle after they somehow took defeat from the jaws of victory.

Having led 28-0 inside 27 minutes, shoddy defending and discipline saw the visitors emerge with the spoils thanks to a John Gallagher victory.

Mercer, who looked a combination of bewildered and brassed off afterwards, refused to comment on his side's failings.

He said: "We let ourselves down but you have to credit Batley, they had a great second half. They came in and regrouped while we didn't go with the plan we wanted to. The top six has gone, what we have got to look at is not being relegated."

It had all looked plain sailing for the Roughyeds as five first-half tries seemed to have set them on course for an easy win.

Simon Svabic opened the scoring on eight minutes, touching a grubber kick down, before expansive play three minutes later saw Jon Goddard send Nick Johnson over.

Having seen Paul Norman held up over the line, Oldham stretched their lead further when Goddard created a try for Gareth Barber.

Tries for Marty Turner and Simon Haughton, coupled with four Turner coversions, made it 28-0 and game over - or so we thought.

With Oldham seemingly convinced the points were theirs, Batley came back into proceedings with tries from Will Cartledge, Kris Lythe and Shad Royston before the break, Barry Eaton landing two goals.

The Royston try was a particular shocker as Oldham knocked on, waited for a whistle that never came and stood like shop window dummies as Royston touched down.

Even leading 28-16, Oldham were still favourites as the second half began.

Gallagher scored within three minutes though, while a Johnson knock-on allowed Eaton to add a penalty.

The scores were level by the 51st minute when Gallagher raced through a gap to score, Eaton converting.

By this time, Oldham supporters were unhappy with the number of penalties going to the visitors - nine consecutively at one point as referee Peter Taberner lost patience and sin-binned Tere Glassie.

In his absence though, two Turner penalties made it 32-28 but with five minutes left, Eaton sent Gallagher racing through for his hat-trick. Darren Robinson's goal duly gave Batley the lead.

Oldham could still have snatched it though, but Barber was adjudged to have knocked on when touching down - which pretty much summed up Oldham's afternoon.