Didsbury Toc H 22 – 28 Oldham

The home side did manage to battle back, despite being a man down for a large portion of the game, to take two losing league points from the encounter.

The Ford Lane pitch passed the pre-match inspection, despite concerns earlier that day that the overnight frost had taken its toll.
Didsbury were slow out of the blocks, and their visitors took the opportunity to open up a two try lead in the first ten minutes. Didsbury rallied together, and on fifteen minutes a drive from an attacking lineout saw captain Mike Hyde driven over for a try. In the resulting mêlée Didsbury’s second row Phil Cooper was red carded and Didsbury had the onerous task of facing over an hour of rugby missing a player. Sean Bishop had an age to wait to convert the try, but the kick was good, 7-14. The fourteen men of Didsbury were soon back in Oldham’s 22, and from a lineout scrum half Gaz Oakley sniped round the blindside. Oakley was stopped just short of the tryline, but the forwards set up a maul and drove over for a try. Number 8 Chris Matthews with the final touchdown. Bishop missed the tricky conversion, and the home side now only trailed by 2 points. The score remained 12-14 until the interval.

Oldham, desperate to take the vital league points as they were bottom of the league at kick off, again flew into the attack. The visitors efforts were rewarded with a further two well taken tries, both converted to stretch the lead to 12-28. Didsbury showed a spirited revival, coming back with a try by Tom Rooney. Rooney received the ball surrounded by tacklers, but he managed to force his way over the line, and stretched out a long arm to place the ball down. At 17-28 Didsbury’s first target was to get within 7 points of Oldham to secure the losing bonus point, they did this with a second try for Hyde. Again the try came from a lineout drive, and being the fourth try it also brought up a further bonus point. The conversion went just wide of the posts and the score was now 22-28. Oldham had a penalty chance to take the bonus point away from Toc H, but the kick went wide, and the final whistle sounded.

A deserved win for Oldham, but a definite off day for Didsbury. The coaches at Didsbury will be working hard in the week to rectify the mistakes. Toc H face the long trip to face Barrow based outfit Furness next Saturday.