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Oldham Ladies storm their way to victory

Oldham Ladies 42-5 Burnley Ladies

With the disappointment of their last game loss in the rear view mirror, Oldham squared up to what was quite a depleted Burnley team; but though they were few in number, we knew from matches played in years gone by that they wouldn’t go down easy.

So as to get a full and competitive game, we had several Oldham ladies volunteer to help out the opposition; they were made very welcome by the Burnley crew, whose spirit, energy and positivity throughout the game are to be massively commended.  

First blood went to Burnley, with a sneaky round the back pass, leading to a great run by their fly-half. The try went unconverted to leave the score at 0 - 5.

Oldham responded with a great show of strength in attack, but a couple of miss-timed passes saw the ball land back into Burnley hands. They made great use of their time on the ball, with good ground made and a hard press on our defence. It was then Burnley’s time to fumble, and a knock on saw the two packs scrum down. Oldham ball.  What a fantastic forward effort, with kudos to a new front row combo centred on hooker Katy Crosby, who made her debut for Oldham. The ball was convincingly won and scooped out the back; great ground was made, with strength coming from the stalwarts Faye Lawrence and Sophie Wright, backed quickly by the sure hands and fast legs of Lizzie Lindley, Hayley Fereday, Penny Bardsley, Jack Kaye and Kylie Upton.

Rosie Lawton joined that attacking line beautifully, and spotted the smallest of gaps in the Burnley defence, which had so far been outstanding. The gap was spotted, the line was set, the attack was played, and the result was beautiful! A fine conversion from scrum half Kate Howard, saw Oldham take the lead 7 – 5.

Next up from Oldham to make her mark was Leah Montgomery. Strong carries from Leanne Edmundson and Emma Procter saw Burnley having to commit more and more players to just slowing them down. With forward strength sucking the opposition defence in, the stage was set for the fancy flair and footwork of the centre pair, with Leah storming home to dot down the ball over the white line. Again, fantastic conversion from Kate Howard.

Half time score 14 – 5

As the second half kicked off, Oldham were well into their groove; a fantastic attacking mind-set from all those playing meant they were truly back to being a force to be reckoned with. Every time the ball landed in Burnley hands, the defence was water-tight. Stoic efforts from Sarah Liggett, Paige Garvey, Jess Leavy and Rachael Hyland meant none could pass. As play turned to attack, speed and strength came from all over the field, with kudos to Sinead Fletcher, who played a blinder despite becoming a new mum just a few short weeks ago.    

Becky Hughes was the first to lead the scoring charge, striding out from the wrong side of the halfway line to run all the way home; reminiscent of a kid chasing an ice cream van – she was going to get those sweet points! Next up was Kate Howard – gazelle like, she sped her way to dot the ball down right under the posts. Then a try from a cracking forwards battle; drilling though the phases, Oldham pushed and pushed at the Burnley defence, but there was no way anyone could deny the sass of Faye Lawrence. Try number five. Finally, Leah Montgomery rounded off the tally with the sixth Oldham try of the day – another fantastic show of skill and speed. All four second half scoring efforts were soundly converted by Kate Howard, giving her a perfect score of 6 out of 6.   

Final score 42 – 5

 

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