MATCH-WINNER Danny Craven hailed Oldham’s tenacity after his last gasp drop-goal secured the narrowest of wins against North Wales, writes Kasey Smith.
At 24-8 down with over an hour gone, Oldham were staring defeat in the face, before a crazy final ten minutes saw Roughyeds take the lead for the first time, with just seconds to spare, to win the game.
The fight shown in overcoming the 16 point deficit is something Craven wants to use to spur Oldham on, having stuttered in recent weeks.
“We were on the backfoot for a lot of that game, but it’s a sign of a good team to pick up wins when you haven’t necessarily played well,” he said.
“You cannot question our character, because North Wales played really well and tested us across the field but we found a way to win, and hopefully we can build on that.
“I feel like we’ve got away with one, so I’m really glad we came away with the two points.”
Craven felt a mixture of emotions in the final stages having levelled the scores but missing the crucial conversion, before kicking a 20 metre drop-goal to secure the win.
“They had defended really well throughout, so I thought I’d put my foot down and have a run at them – thankfully it worked and I was able to dot the ball down to level the game.
“Being a left-footed kicker and having missed two earlier on, after I scored the try I asked Cian (Tyrer) and Logan (Astley) if they wanted to take it.
“I’m not the best goal-kicker, I will hold my hands up – thankfully though, the decisive factor was my one-pointer.
“The idea on play four was to get either Bailey (Aldridge) or Phoenix (Laulu-Togaga’e) to carry from a quick play-the-ball to cut out the inside pressure from the drop-goal, and it seemed to work.”
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