Liam Finn ‘disappointed’ as Oldham put huge dent in Halifax Panthers’ back-to-back 1895 Cup ambitions

Despite a second half rally which saw tries from Greg Eden, his second of the game, James Woodburn-Hall and Ben Tibbs, Fax were defeated 24-20 at Boundary Park after coming undone by numerous individual errors throughout the contest which, in the end, proved costly.

Finn said: “Disappointed. Disappointment in that the result speaks for itself but disappointed in areas of our performance where we have been really good at and worked hard on in pre-season.

“Ultimately we lacked a bit of composure and made a few unforced errors and conceded two interception tries. There were four errors at the start of the second half including an interception try off a dropped ball. They are game killers and they make it even harder to chase. It gave us too much to do in the long run.”

After a dominant start, Fax found themselves behind after Mo Agoro ran the length of the field after a 12th minute interception. He got his second right on the hooter.

A Ben Crooks mistake was then punished at the start of the second half while another error from Joe Keyes - after momentum had swung back into Fax’s favour thanks to a quickfire double from Eden and Woodburn-Hall - was taken advantage of by Jordan Turner.

“There were a few of those that flipped momentum,” admitted Finn. “But they also got points off the back of it. They are tough to take because momentum ebbs and flows each way.

“After the first one it took us about 15 minutes to get the momentum back but then we conceded late in the first half as well. We conceded at key times and that’s disappointing but there are areas we can work on.”

He added: “Things like that go against you. You have just got to deal with it and not let it rattle you. At the time of the first interception we were probably on top and holding field position and winning the energy battle but Oldham stopped us scoring and they went up to the other end and scored. You have to deal with it.

“Momentum changes and sometimes it doesn’t go for you. But you have got to give yourself the best chance and we didn’t do that today.”

Oldham, led by former St Helens legend Sean Long, are now in pole position to qualify for the quarter finals.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Finn revealed. “It was basically a Championship game against a team who have got a good squad and a good coach.

“We knew it would be nip and tuck and down to the last ten minutes. Just how it went down to those last ten minutes was disappointing in how much pressure we put ourselves under.”

He went on: “We didn’t deserve to win the game in terms of our performance but we were still only two goal kicks away from drawing the game.

“There are signs there that we have got something but there is a lot to work on, no doubt it. But we need to make sure we fix the areas up in terms of composure and errors fast and get back on the horse next week.”