: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:40 am
Oldham started off like a house on fire with James and Thomas Coyle controlling the midfield. A long kick from James was allowed to bounce by Loz Wildbore and that put Widnes under pressure from the start.
Coyle created the first try when his towering kick saw Wildbore all at sea under both the ball and the floodlights.
With one bounce, prop Jason Boults, an unsung hero for Oldham, picked up and went over for Andy Ballard to convert.
The Vikings then laid seige to the Oldham line and forced a couple of drop outs but the defence held firm until the 26th minute when James Webster's only meaningful involvement brought a missed pass and Gavin Dodd ran the tightrope of his touchline to cross in the corner. Richard Fletcher missed the goal.
Initially Toa Kohe-Love looked to make an impact with a couple of rangy runs but before long the veteran Kiwi fell quiet, as did fellow centre Richard Varkulis. After 20 minutes the Vikings decided to spell their props with youngster Michael Ostick making way for Iain Morrison but the Scottish player-of-the-year lasted one tackle before being helped from the field with an ankle injury that ended his involvement.
At 6-4 you sensed there was a real game on and when Danny Halliwell dodged and weaved inside the twenty, Oldham were looking lively, especially with fullback Paul O'Connor enjoying a wow of a game against his former club.
It was at this point, 34 minutes in, that a scuffle erupted with Halliwell, Wildbore and O'Connor trading punches amid a group of other players.
Stepping away from the incident, the match officials picked out Wildbore and the Vikings fullback was shown a straight red card. Ballard struck the penalty and then popped up on the end of James Coyle's delicate dink to the air. Faced with a difficult conversion, Ballard struck the goal superbly and Oldham led 14-4 at the break with big men Jamie I'anson, Wayne Kerr and Tommy Goulden outstanding while Chris Baines and captain Rob Roberts were unstinting in their workload.
The Vikings made the worst possible start to the second half with former Leigh player Lee Doran the major culprit. He conceded four penalties in a row for incorrectly playing the ball, holding down, being offside at the restart and interference following a tackle. This led to Ballard virtually back-heeling two penalties over the posts to open up an 18-4 lead.
There was a strange get together with the Widnes players continuing their inquest which forced the referee to hold the game up and have words with assistant coach John Stankevitch. Whatever was said, it appeared to do the trick!
Back came Widnes and after Boults was yellow carded for a high tackle, the growing stature of winger Paddy Flynn was demonstrated again. Soft hands from Kohe-Love, an audacious pass, gave Flynn the chance to squeeze in at the corner but Fletcher again missed the conversion.
With Mark Smith and John Duffy starting to run more from dummy half, this seemed to tire the Roughyeds and a second try in three minutes was scored when Smith ran through and Duffy closely supported for Dodd to convert. 18-14 to Oldham set a few nerves jangling, especially when Lee Greenwood had a try disallowed for an O'Connor forward pass. Widnes then struck for an excellent try with ten minutes remaining. Wide passing unleashed youngster Shane Grady and he sped down the left flank before drawing O'Connor for the otherwise largely predictable Anthony Thackeray to cross at the side of the posts. Dodd's goal gave the hosts a lead they scantly deserved but that man Doran conceded another penalty and Ballard converted before adding a 7th goal two minutes from time.
One final chance went the Vikings way when Dodd sliced through on the left but a super tackle from Ballard and O'Connor saw the try chalked off. This allowed Oldham to close the game out and create the first upset of the 2009 season with a deserved 22-20 victory over the full-time Vikings.
