WHEN you play the unbeaten league leaders you would hope that some luck would be due. But for Tyldesley RU the meeting with high flyers Oldham

brought nothing again in the way of luck just frustration as Tyldesley went down by 15-6.

Oldham in impressive form all season came out all guns firing but they found Tyldesley a tough nut to crack with excellent defence from the Tyldesley

back row of Stewart Manning, Tom Cartwright and Ian Worsfold at No.8 in place of the injured Kiwi Andrew Simpson. The backline also tackled well with Mark Dickinson in particular winning plaudits for his contribution.

Finally after ten minutes Oldham broke through to score with No.8 David Worrall touching down for the first of his three tries. Tyldesley responded by moving play deep into the Oldham half and after two earlier failures, Dickinson was bang on with this third penalty attempt after Oldham killed the ball at the ruck. Another Oldham offence this time for off-side, saw Dickinson steer the ball between the posts to put Tyldesley 6-5 up.

With a few minutes remaining in the half Tyldesley won the ball at a lineout on the Oldham 22, debutant scrum half Paul Martin moved the ball quickly to Dickinson who placed a well judged kick over the oncoming Oldham defence. The ball looked to heading out of the in goal area but Dickinson managed to make an acrobatic dive for the ball between two Oldham players to touch the ball down, however the official decided that the ball had gone forward and not down.

The second half saw Tyldesley succumb to a early sucker punch try allowing Worrall his and Oldham's second score when the lively No.8 weaved his way pass six would be tacklers to score. With 10 minutes remaining Tyldesley pressed hard to find another score but a good clearance kick from Oldham again put Tyldesley under pressure and from a lineout Oldham drove over the line again with Worrall touching down to score.

Tyldesley Knights game against Wigan was called off by the opposition earlier in the week so a combined Knights/Dragons team took on Heaton Moor second team and lost out 6-3 with a penalty from Fraser Mackintosh their only reward.