Wigton return pointless from another away defeat at Oldham

Martin Tickner reports....

Wigton travelled to Oldham with a competive squad looking to extend their winning streak having won 7 out of the previous 8 matches.

From the kick off Wigton were positive with lots of early possession pinning the home side in their own half for the first 20 minutes. The referee penalised Oldham for a number of infringements and Wigton should really have put some early points on the board. However this was not to be and from an Oldham scrum inside their own half, the ball was passed to the blind side, the winger kicked through and easily outpaced the Wigton defence to score the first try of the match giving the hosts a 5-0 lead completely against the run of play.

On 29 minutes the lead had doubled following another scrum on the 10 metre line, the ball went to the blind side for a walk in try uncovered to give Oldham a 10-0 lead. Wigton continued to push forward and looked certain to score with a 5 man overlap only for the ball to be fumbled as the referee blew the half time whistle.

The second half started in a similar fashion to the first half with Wigton making some good breaks but unable to breach the Oldham defence and a penalty against Wigton for not rolling away allowed Oldham to extend their lead to 13-0. Straight from the Wigton kick off Oldham surged through the Wigton defence to score an unconverted try and now led 18-0.

Wigton were still committed to attacking and a break by Josh Nicholson led to him being brought down by a dangerous tackle and following the resulting melee, the Oldham tackler was shown a yellow card whilst Wigtons scrum half Andrew Brown was given a straight red for retaliation. Despite being a man down Wigton should have a scored their first try with a break by Matt Corrigan, continued by Josh Nicholson only for the pass to be dropped with a 2 man overlap and the try line begging. Oldham recovered and with 5 minutes to go they scored a 4th and bonus point try. Although the conversion was missed Oldham ran out comfortable winners with a final score line of 23-0.

It's a long time since Wigton failed to score any points but the failure to score in the first 20 minutes of domination prove to be their undoing and Oldham fully deserved their victory. A big thank you to Oldham officials for their hospitality.