OLDHAM coach Steve Deakin said his side got what they deserved following Sunday's 30-28 defeat of Keighley Cougars at Boundary Park.

Despite playing 50 minutes with 12 men following the dismissal of skipper Rob Roberts, the Roughyeds withstood the visitors' late charge to record a 17th consecutive home victory, closing the gap on the top two in the process.

While Deakin was happy enough with the three points, he was not so enthused with some of the play from his side.

He said: "I thought we deserved the victory but they played their part. We played some good football but on the other side, we played some dumb football.

"We showed a massive amount of courage to play with 12 men in brutal heat, which is an indication of the amount of effort and commitment that the boys had.

"When we kept our discipline we played good football. However, discipline was our weakness and to be penalised twice in possession was a pretty poor effort.

"I'm not sure we’d have won the game if it'd gone on for another five minutes, you could see the energy draining out of our team."

Having admitted he did not see the incident which led to Roberts' dismissal, there was some better news for the Oldham boss on the injury front. With the Roughyeds entering the business end of the season, Deakin has Jason Boults, Adam Robinson and Simeon Hoyle all available for next Sunday's trip to York City Knights.

Neil Roden may also be in the reckoning, but if not, he should be OK for the visit to Doncaster on August 6.

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