Lead up to this weekend's fixture was full of surprises, for myself as captain, a slight lax attitude to confirmed numbers meant getting stroppy at my beloved 2s side on early on when a neglectful attitude to sms seemed to take over.

Not surprisingly, once again I'm getting my back up unnecessarily, as by Tuesday morning I found myself with 30 available players, crikey, selection headaches again!

Speed up to Friday morning, 1s players who have been out injured for a number of weeks have returned to the fold, then a few cry offs from my formidable list.... I'm down to 24.

The returns to our side of Kenny Rowlands and Cameron Wood are definately not to be sniffed at, as I think it's fair to say they would easily walk into any 2s side past or present at Oldham, and their absence from the 1st team squad caused a few eyebrows to be raised after some stellar performances. Ah well, I'm not complaining. Definately my gain.

Also a first appearance in my side took place for Luke Roscoe, the talented wordsmith and even better man of many positions electing to make himself available despite the moisture in the air.

Following a quick pitch inspection and warmups, the match up went ahead, with absolutely nothing gained in the first 40 other than two kicks from the boot of the Tyldesley penalty kicker, some heavy duty tackling delivered by Luke Roscoe, Kenny Rowlands and Luke Ferrier, and a noticeable reluctance following that of the Tyldesley players to line themselves up for another one.

0-6 @ Halftime.

Second half continued much like the first. No real gains from either side, with both sides swallowing up the pressure from the other. Following half time though, a noticeable improvement in physical play, led by the Oldham forward pack starting to leave their imprint on the tiring Tyldesley defence.

This sent our backs into overdrive, and the support called for in open play started to become common place. Some yardage gains starting to take place following Harry Ravenscroft, Aleks Kurkievicz and Jay Taylor jinking and elusive running. Martyn Meggison making the most of this with a 20 yard dash for the whitewash and some bish bash to find himself under the posts. Converted by Meggison also.

The noticeable dismay from Tyldesley sent the Oldham 18 into overdrive, huge pressing drives led by Cameron Wood, Greg Higgins and Luke Ferrier. Followed up with crashballs from Dean McEwan and Matt Finn continued to apply noticeable pressure on the Tyldesley defence, but with a league win to hold out for and only 1 kids all season, they weren't for giving up.

Not until the clever balkwork between youngsters Phil Whitham and Jay Taylor gave Meggison the setup to go charging for a try line dart, Tyldesley still just about keeping out before a clever offload to the firework Dean McEwan sent him over for Oldhams second. Get in. Conversion again by Meggison.

6 mins to go. Focus.

With the clock ticking down, Oldham simply needed to hold out to record a very memorable win against the champions to be. Despite this, silly penalties for a shirt pull and an offside meant Tyldesley had two further kicks to take the title.

Not to be, the pressure was too much and the Oldham win well deserved. Penrith 12 months earlier had confirmed their league win at Manor Park, and although no one will begrudge the Tyldesley title, not on our watch. Not again.

MoM. Danny Hill. Superb performance from the Oldham fullback.

DoTD. Whoever pulled that shirt. I will find you. There will be recompense.

Although it didn't happen for them today, Tyldesley are a class act and deserve the title. And despite a couple of balloons, the game was played very fairly with a superb refereeing display.

League leaders this week conquered, small case of second place Colne next week. So, same again please lads..... who's in??

Love always.

MF x