IN-FORM Oldham are 80 minutes from a promotion final at the Vestacare Stadium after finishing second in Betfred League 1 thanks to their 34-20 win at Hunslet on Sunday.

Notwithstanding a jittery performance in the first half, they settled down later to score 16 unanswered points after the interval and to head for the play-offs in pole position and on the back of their ninth victory in 10 outings.

Anything other than an Oldham win would have pushed Scott Naylor’s men down to third on the last day of the regular season, so they were under pressure. And oh how it showed until the boss ripped into them at half-time and got the response he sought.

Prior to this one, Oldham had lost five successive games against Hunslet stretching back to and including the 2014 third-tier Grand Final at Headingley, so it did not take much to get the more superstitious members of the squad believing this was not to be the Roughyeds’ day.

It didn’t help when centre Cameron Leeming failed a fitness test on a hamstring injury just before kick-off.

Seventeen minutes into the game there was another setback when right-wing Declan Kay suffered concussion in a heavy challenge and was led from the field, never to return.

Naylor rejigged his side by switching Jack Holmes from centre to wing, taking Danny Langtree out of the pack and using him at centre and putting Jack Spencer into the forwards off the bench,

The Langtree move worked a treat. In similar circumstances the week before at Coventry, where Leeming first pulled up injured, likely lad ‘Langers’ scored two tries.

This time he went one better with three, while other Roughyeds tries were scored by Danny Bridge and Paul Crook, who also landed seven goals from eight shots including a couple of beauties from way out on the touchline.

In a first half when Roughyeds were flat and uninspiring, the scoring sequence saw Hunslet establish a six-point lead three times, each time the visitors levelling up the match, before half time came with Hunslet 20-18 ahead.

Thanks mainly to some terrific work by pack and halves, Oldham were a much more potent force after the break when they tightened up their tackling, produced a good kick chase and kept Hunslet pinned in their own half for long periods.

Phil Joy, Scott Law, Emmerson Whittel, Jack Spencer and Ben Davies gave Roughyeds a big advantage in the middle unit and on the back of quick rucks the visitors rolled forward relentlessly with halves Crook and Dave Hewitt directing operations behind them.

By now it was the Paul Crook Show, the former Rochdale half-back landing three penalty goals, scoring a try and kicking the conversion to put his side in the driving seat and motoring on towards the upper reaches of the play-offs.

It only remained for ‘Langers’ to score his third try and the job was complete with the play-offs beckoning.

Team: Hawkyard; Kay, Holmes, McComb, Johnson; Crook, Hewitt; Joy, Owen, Law, Bridge, Langtree, Bent.

Subs: Wilkinson, Whittel, Spencer, Davies,

Referee: John McMullen.

Attendance: 688.