Once again York Wasps Academy lost a game they could have won as they were beaten 34-18 at home by Oldham.

A little more self belief and concentration would have seen the Wasps home against a good Oldham side.

York almost opened the scoring in the first minute when a Danny Brown bomb, which appeared to be going out on the full, was plucked out of the air by Chris Spain but he was unable to ground the ball before the dead-ball line.

Oldham did open the scoring on five minutes, quickly moving the ball wide to out-flank the home defence.

The Wasps reduced the deficit four minutes later with an Andy Gargan penalty before Oldham touched down again to make it 10-2.

The Wasps tightened up their defence and dominated the game for the next 15 minutes, culminating in a try for in-form centre Chris Spain.

York then went to sleep allowing the kick off to bounce into touch and from the scrum feed Oldham were able to create the position to score an unconverted try. Worse was to follow as from the kick-off the visitors scored again to take a 20-6 interval lead.

Oldham scored again within 10 minutes of the restart and it looked as though the floodgates might open. However, the Wasps resolve was strong and they fought their way back into the game, with Andy Gargan jinking over for a try on 58 minutes, Paul Flynn converting.

From the restart York again failed to gather the ball and from the resultant scrum Oldham scored to take the match beyond the home side at 32-12 before adding a penalty.

The Wasps showed character by continuing to attack and were rewarded with a late Marc Dawson try, converted by Paul Flynn.

York visit Leigh on Sunday (1pm) in a curtain raiser to the first team game.

Updated: 09:56 Wednesday, June 27, 2001