Injury-ravaged Skolars suffer defeat at Oldham
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Betfred League One: Odldham 44 London Skolars 12
London Skolars slipped to a sixth straight loss in Betfred League One, going down 44-12 at Oldham.
With Skolars’ injuries mounting up, coach Jermaine Coleman donned his boots for the first time this season, but couldn’t prevent the high-flying Roughyeds from pulling away in the final twenty minutes.
London fell behind early on when Danny Bridge opened a gap up for David Hewitt to score.
Oldham forced a goal-line drop out, then enjoyed a third consecutive set of six tackles after Skolars gave away a penalty and Zac Comb went over for a try on the left.
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The Roughyeds nearly scored again, being held up over the tryline, but that gave London their first opportunity with the ball in hand after nearly nine minutes.
Lameck Juma twice went close, but it was Skolars’ other winger, Iliess Macani, who opened their scoring, intercepting an Oldham pass 10 metres from his own tryline and racing to the other end of the field.
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However, Oldham re-established the 12 point margin when Matt Wilkinson saw a gap in the defence and broke through from dummy half just before half-time.
Phil Lyon limped off at half-time, which saw Neil Thorman move to the halves and Macani take up the full-back position.
After Adam Jones was sin-binned for the hosts for leading into a tackle with an elbow, London took full advantage with Eddie Mbaraga taking a Coleman pass to crash through the defence, Thorman kicking his second conversion.
The Roughyeds responded when Danny Langtree barged over from close range.
Skolars won possession from a short kick-off and then forced a goal-line drop-out, but Oldham’s defence held out and before forcing an error from a high kick in swirling wind for Bridge to score.
London again won possession from the restart, but lost the ball on the next tackle.
Conceding a drop-out, the visitors chose to kick short, but the Roughyeds gathered the ball and Jack Holmes went over in the right corner.
This time the short kick-off failed to travel 10 metres into the gathering wind, giving Oldham a penalty.
Danny Bridge kicked through and won the chase to score his second try.
Juma and Macani combined to push Skolars downfield, but the hosts had the final say when Bridge completed his hat-trick just ahead of the final hooter.
