Oldham 7 Workington 32 

OLDHAM Rugby Union first team let an early lead slip as they went down 31-7 at home to Workington in the North Lancs/Cumbria division.

The game was closer than the score suggests, but Oldham conceded too many penalties and found it difficult to combat Workington’s highly-effective rolling maul which contributed to three of their tries.

Oldham, in fact, made the better start despite the dreadful conditions which did not help their running game.

They almost took a sixth-minute lead when they moved the ball along the line for wing man Andy Gorey to kick ahead only to lose the chase for the touchdown.

With Charlie Roscoe doing well in his first appearance at scrum-half and the forwards holding their own in the scrum and at line-outs, it was no surprise when Oldham went in front after 11 minutes.

From a line-out, Roscoe fed Gareth Barber who put centre Joe Hesse through a gap just on halfway. Hesse beat off several defenders before driving over the line for a try which Mark Goodman converted.

Workington responded with a well-worked move of their own which ended with winger Bede O’Connor scoring wide out.

And they went ahead when the referee awarded a penalty try, converted by Kevin Harper, following a series of rolling mauls. Oldham No 8 Ross Cooper was sin-binned for pulling down the maul.

Oldham lost Hesse with a dislocated finger early in the second half and found themselves 17-7 behind when second-row Jason Howarth rounded off another rolling maul with a try - soon followed by a penalty from Harper.

Things went from bad to worse when Andrew Branthwaite charged down an attempted Oldham clearance kick and followed up to score an unconverted try.

And, despite their best efforts, Oldham’s fate was sealed when the Workington forwards again engineered a converted touchdown late in the game.

Oldham, who have no game this weekend, have rearranged their match with Eccles for January 2 (2.15 kick-off).