YORK WASPS Academy failed to reproduce the excellent form they showed last week when they lost 34-28 at Oldham.

However, the defeat came in the face of some controversial refereeing decisions and some rough-house tactics by the hosts.

York opened the scoring on four minutes when a Paul Flynn bomb was knocked back by man of the match Chris Spain to Paul Hagan who powered over. A second high kick from Flynn caused panic in the Oldham defence allowing Ben Jones to score in the corner, Flynn converting.

Oldham opened their account after 22 minutes, the referee awarding a penalty try for ball stealing on the advice of the touch judge.

The Wasps hit back on 35 minutes with a try from centre Spain, Flynn converting.

York were reduced to 12 men seconds before half-time when scrum-half Ritchie Hunter was sin-binned for not handing the ball to his opposite number to feed the scrum - this after 40 minutes of unpunished spoiling tactics by the hosts. From the resultant penalty Oldham went over in the corner.

The second half started well for York as Marc Dawson broke from half way and off-loaded to Chris Keld, who went over for the try of the match.

Oldham hit back with two converted tries to equalise at 22-22 before Nick Caldwell barged his way over for a try converted by Flynn.

York needed three players to be replaced due to head injuries, yet York were on the wrong end of the penalty count.

The hosts levelled on 70 minutes and then snatched the points with a try and two drop goals in the last four minutes.

Updated: 11:49 Tuesday, August 21, 2001