Oldham were embarrassingly inept in defence and were exposed again when Scales got to Laughlin's grubber kick for his second try.The home side had little in the way of attacking ideas apart from launching high kicks at the Bradford fullback, Nathan Graham.When he failed to get to one of them, Darren Abram recovered the ball and David Bradbury charged in to hint at the possibility of a better second half.Instead, Bradford hit them again after the break, James Lowes starting a flowing move with a dazzling run and long pass to the wing and Bernard Dwyer arriving in support to finish it off.Before Oldham could recover, Paul's deft short pass had sent Graeme Bradley in for Bradford's 6th try.Already badly affected by injuries, Oldham lost David Bradbury, Francis Maloney and Abram during the match to make it an even more depressing evening for their coach, Andy Goodway.Matt Munro went over from close range for a late Oldham try but their had been no way back into this game for them after their dreadful start. Oldham lost a league match at their bleak Watersheddings ground for the first time since October-an outcome that was inevitable from the first few minutes when the Bradford captain,Robbie Paul,took them apart three times. On the sort of night that summer rugby was meant to make a thing of the past - Bradford saw snow on their way over the Pennines - Oldham were the ones who found the ball impossible to handle in the opening stages. Twice in the first five minutes the Bulls took maximum advantage of squandered possession.Paul was the architect of both tries, his long passes opening up Oldham on the left for first Jon Scales and then Paul Loughlin to score, even if that second try se emed to involve a forward pass.Oldham could have no complaints about the next, Paul wriggling out of the tackle to set up Brian McDermott. And after the deserving Dale McIntosh scored Pontypridd's fourth try, it was left to Walker and Rayer to have the final words PONTYPRIDD: C Cormack; G Jones, J Lewis, S Lewis, G Lewis; N Jenkins, Paul John; N Bezani (Captain), Phil John, N Eynon, P Owen, M Rowley, M Spiller, D McIntosh, M Williams CARDIFF: M Rayer; S Ford, J Davies, G Jones, N Walker; A Davies, A Moore; A Lewis, J Humphreys, L Mustoe, J Wakeford, D Jones, C Mills, H Taylor (Captain), O Williams REF: D Bevan (Clydach). Within two minutes a sequence of forward rushes culminated in a try by Neil Jenkins.

The rest of the first half was almost exclusively Pontypidd's: an exquisite pass by Jenkins freed Geraint Lewis for a secon d try and John added a third on half-time.The second-half was altogether more precarious, Walker running the length of the field for a Cardiff try when it was Ponty who should have been scoring. With the Ponty forwards committed to withstanding a strong Cardiff s hove, the future Richmond player sauntered through the blindside and Rayer, another disappointed tour absentee, converted.This was the galvanisation Pontypridd needed. The complicated arithmetic of bonus points means Neath will go top today if they score seven tries for a maximum five points at Treorchy and the title will finally be decided when the top four - Cardiff v Llanelli and Neath v Pontypridd - battle it out o n an attenuated season's last day, next Tuesday. Pontypridd paraded the Swalec Cup beforehand and there were emotional scenes in the second half when their 39-year-old captain, Nigel Bezani, retired hurt on his farewell home appearance. Cardiff's emotions were of a different colour, however, and Derw yn Jones was fortunate the card was only yellow when he stamped on Mark Rowley. Jones compounded his felony by then fighting with Walker when the former Olympic hurdler remonstrated with him.It had been asking a lot of Pontypridd to pull out another big performance after last Saturday's and the early auguries had been distinctly unpropitious.Three minutes had elapsed when Andy Moore, included in the Wales tour party for Australia to the chagrin of locals who prefer their own scrum-half Paul John, scored Cardiff's first try.