Betfred League One: London Skolars 18 Oldham 46

London Skolars ended their Betfred League One campaign with a 46-18 defeat at home to Oldham.

The game against the Roughyeds was switched to the Trailfinders Sports Ground in Ealing, with the match played as a curtain-raised ahead of the Super League Qualifiers clash between London Broncos and Salford City Reds.

Oldham needed to win the game to keep their hopes of a promotion play-off alive. The visitors made a good start when Adam Neal made a break, before David Hewitt kicked through the defence for Paul Crook to touchdown under the posts.

The Roughyeds went further ahead when Skolars lost possession and Oldham pushed the ball over to the left for Lee Kershaw to score.

For London, Eddie Mbaraga was stopped short after a break by Lamont Bryan, but when they lost the ball again, Oldham took advantage with Danny Langtree scoring their third try.

Skolars got on the scoreboard when a short pass from Neil Thorman put Eddie Mbaraga through a gap in the defence, with the former adding the conversion.

However, Oldhan scored again before half-time through Craig Briscoe to give the visitors a 24-6 at the break

Jerome Yates went close to the line on the right wing for London soon after the restart.

It then took some desperate defence to hold out Oldham’s Kyran Johnson, who raced 80 metres, but was held up over the tryline by Matt Fleming.

However, Skolars’ defence couldn’t hold out and Kenny Hughes scored from dummy-half.

Despite the heavy rain, both sides were prepared to take risks with Phil Lyon kicking deep from a Skolars’ scrum on their own 10-metre line.

Omari Caro raced on the ball, kicking it further downfield before picking it up to race the remaining 20 metres to the tryline, Lyon adding the extras.

After forcing a goal-line drop-out, London scored again with Mbaraga scoring his second try.

However, Oldham responded with Hewitt kicking the ball to the left wing for Kershaw to move back inside to score, with Crook kicking his sixth conversion of the evening.

Kershaw completed his hat-trick before Matt Reid scored Oldham’s eight try in the final minute of the game.