By Martin Morgan

Last updated 08:22, Wednesday, 09 April 2008

Oldham 16 Whitehaven 6: Whitehaven's hopes of reaching a second successive Northern Rail Cup final disappeared in the Boundary Park snow yesterday.

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Haven’s Marc Jackson stops an Oldham attack

Though the seeds of defeat were perhaps sown earlier when it emerged that playmaker Carl Rudd, below, would not feature due to illness.

Haven were short of ideas across the pitch in this last-16 knockout tie, most clearly when within Oldham’s danger zone.

Too often, moves fizzled out with a weak kick or a lost ball. And Haven showed little of the fire on display in defeat at Widnes last week.

That’s not to take credit from the NL2 hosts, who went in to the game on the back of nine consecutive home wins.

They were last beaten at Boundary Park in August last year, and Salford are among their victims this year.

Their substitute prop Said Tamghart was a real handful, as was second-row Danny Halliwell, and scrum-half James Coyle knew when to inject himself in to the match to best effect.

Saia Makisi scored Haven’s only try and produced a few powerful surges, but no one really stood out for the Cumbrians after a dominant opening 15 minutes.

They were helped initially by Mick Nanyn’s kick off which caught the wind and went dead.

From the resulting possession, Karl Edmondson appeared to get caught in possession on the last tackle.

But he somehow squeezed the ball free and Makisi dived over. Marc Bainbridge slotted a fine conversion in the blustery conditions.

Oldham looked nervous in the opening exchanges, making a string of errors, forced and unforced. Haven had the chance to pile on the points but lacked the spark Rudd may have provided.

And the hosts replied on their first attack on the quarter-hour mark. Coyle went close only to be tagged near to Haven’s line, but as he fell he found Tommy Grundy with a fine pass and the back-rower made no mistake. Nanyn’s kick equalled the scores.

Haven were twice caught offside on the next set but the ever-willing Ade Adebisi defused the danger by collecting an Oldham chip.

It was now Haven’s turn to absorb heavy pressure, and they were not helped when Spencer Miller was sin-binned.

Ref Ronnie Laughton did not indicate his offence, but it may have been deliberate offside, with the Haven line under a heavy bombardment.

Seconds later, the ball was moved cross-field, and winger Paul O’Connor touched down in the corner.

The match now started to drift away from Haven, as on the next set, Oldham crossed again.

Stand-off Neil Roden completed a classy break from deep involving Coyle, Halliwell and Marcus St Hilaire. Nanyn goaled to put the Division Two outfit 16-6 ahead.

Tamghart spilled St Hilaire’s short pass from the re-start on his own line. Haven earned a repeat set but could do nothing with it.

And when Carl Sice was then yellow-carded for dissent, they were briefly down to 11 men.

The second-half was scoreless and largely incident-free, though Oldham’s Simeon Hoyle was sin-binned for ball-stealing.Haven’s one-man rugby made little impact until the final 10 minutes, when they began to make a few inroads.

Graeme Mattinson was held up over the line following a dummy-half scoot, and an Adebisi try was ruled out for a forward pass from Makisi.

But on the final whistle, Oldham were well-worth their quarter-final berth.

MATCH FACTS

Haven: Broadbent, Calvert, R Jackson, Makisi, Adebisi, Joe, Bainbridge, McDonald, Mattinson, Edmondson, Miller, Fletcher, McAvoy.Subs: Sice, Eilbeck, Hill, M Jackson.

Oldham: St Hilaire, Langley, Littler, Nanyn, O’Connor, Roden, Coyle, Boults, Joseph, Mervill, Goulden, Halliwell, Grundy. Subs: Hoyle, Baines, Robinson, Tamghart

Attendance: 966

Referee: R Laughton

Star Man: Saia Makisi