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OLDHAM 24 ROCHDALE HORNETS 14

 
OLDHAM completed a league double over their derby rivals --- and preserved their unbeaten Boundary Park record this season -- without ever producing enough good football to be convincing.
 
In a scrappy, stop-start game punctuated by 30 penalties coach Steve Deakin will also be keen to find out why his team conceded two tries in the last 12 minutes to present out-of-sorts Hornets with a bonus point they never looked like earning.
 
Roughyeds were coasting home at 24-4, having been the more dominant side all the game, until they gifted the visitors two late tries by wingers Alex Brown and Chris Campbell to let the Hornets in for an important bonus point which could prove useful for Rochdale and costly for Oldham in final league placings at the end of the season.
 
Needless to say Deakin was not a happy man. "Players have to accept more responsibility for their performances over 80 minutes, not 70," he said. "We are not firing on all cylinders. I can guarantee there will be a couple of changes next week. I thought the pack played pretty well, but we were scratchy out in the backs and we didn't execute as we should have done.
 
"We dominated the game, period. But its disappointing in circumstances like that to concede a bonus point. When we led 24-4 with quarter of an hour left, Hornets hadn't a hope in hell of getting a point out of it. We gifted them, and its bitterly disappointing."
 
Referee Jams Child penalised each side 15 times, mainly for offside, play-the-ball interference or stripping, and neither Deakin nor his Hornets counterpart, Bobbie Goulding, will be happy with statistics like that.
 
Deakin, though, wouldn't be drawn about his thoughts on the proliferation of penalties that didn't merely blight this game, but have quickly become one of the sport's biggest and most contentious talking points this season. "Any thoughts I have," he said, "are a matter between me and the people who look after this side of things at league level."
 
Hornets were down to 12 men early in the second half when sub forward Dave Newton was sin-binned. He appeared to lose the ball in Paul O'Connor's tackle over the Oldham line, but he himself clearly felt he had scored. However, he was shown the yellow card not for dissent, but for "reacting off the ball" to O'Connor's challenge.
 
Two minutes later, while Newton was off the field, Oldham capitalised by scoring the second of their three tries. Appropriately, it went to a worthy man-of the-match winner in skipper and loose-forward Robert 'Two Bobs' Roberts, who received from James Coyle, stepped a wrong-footed defender and crossed for a try which Mick Nanyn converted for an 18-4 lead.
 
The outstanding forward in either side, 'Two Bobs' led Oldham from the front with an inspirational performance on attack and defence. He instigated the first Oldham try, allowing Said Tamghart to send Tommy Goulden over, and made several breaks or half-breaks as well as doing more than his share of tackling.
 
On a day when there were not a lot of positives for either side, Deakin said: "Roberts influenced the game more than any other single player out there. He did a great job for us and I can't praise him too highly.
 
"I suppose we can also take comfort on a frustrating day from the fact that we have now done the league double over a side that is always hard to beat and a side which a lot of people are tipping to finish third. I don't think many teams will take six points off Rochdale."
 
It was an indication of how tight and scrappy the game was that both teams usually elected to go for goal when given a penalty within striking range
 
Oldham marksman Nanyn slotted over four penalties to add to his two conversions, while Rochdale's Carl Sneyd landed penalties in the 10th and 18th minutes, both for stripping. That was the only time the visitors scored until they got their two late tries out of the blue to put a damper on the Roughyeds' victory.
 
Four goals and the Goulden try gave Oldham a 12-4 interval lead and then the home side moved out to 24-4 in the second half with the Roberts try, two more Nanyn goals and their third try by Danny Halliwell after a probing run by Neil Roden.
 
Lucas Onyango's unforced error in knocking-on when retrieving a Hornets kick gave Rochdale the opportunity for Ian Sinfield to send Brown crashing through Onyango's tackle to score in the corner. And then Goulding's men got their bonus when a Phil Joseph grubber was gobbled up by the pacy Campbell, who went the length of the field for Snyed to convert.
 
Oldham: O'Connor; Langley, Halliwell, Nanyn, Onyango; Roden, Coyle; Boults, Joseph, Mervill, Goulden, A Robinson, Roberts. Subs: St Hilaire, Tamghart, Hoyle, Menzies.
 
Tries: Goulden, Roberts, Halliwell; goals, Nanyn (6).
 
Hornets: Andrews; Brown, Brocklehurst, Sneyd, Campbell; Ainscough, Forster; Hill, Elston, C Robinson, Alcock, Sinfield, Hughes. Subs: Butterworth, Callan, Cunliffe, Newton.
 
Tries: Brown, Campbell; goals, Sneyd (3).
 
Referee: Mr J Child (Dewsbury)
Attendance: 1,107