Tyson returns to the action

KEEPING COOL . . . That's the challenge for fiery Oldham player George Tyson

YOU couldn't have scripted it . . . George Tyson going head to head with Rochdale again in his first game back after a four-match ban.

Hornets let him know they were around in the Law Cup game at Bower Fold, twice getting three men into the tackle early in the game and bundling him into touch on the first play of Oldham sets.

Talisman Tyson was a marked man from start to finish - and it all proved too much for him at the end when he reacted in the wrong way to sledging and goading and got himself sent off and landed with a suspension that cost him his place in the Roughyeds side against Sheffield, Featherstone, London and Hull KR.

Tyson's test at the Crown Oil Arena (Spotland) on Sunday is to prove to everyone, not least opponents Rochdale, that he has learned the lessons of that Bower Fold flashpoint.

DISCIPLINE

His discipline has to be spot-on; he has to regard special attention as a compliment; and he must keep his cool and concentrate on what he does best with ball in hand.

That's the way to put the record straight and that's the message he will have been given over and over again by Scott Naylor and his coaching staff.

The big Tyson issue is one of several tit-bits that add even more spice than usual to this tough-to-call derby.

Rochdale will start slight favourites after an impressive start to life in the Championship with three wins out of their first five games, plus a Law Cup triumph at Bower Fold and home advantage in this one.

By an odd twist of irony it was two former Oldham players who clinched their surprise win at Featherstone with Josh Crowley making the vital break and getting a penalty and Lewis Palfrey landing the winning goal with all the pressure upon him.

Palfrey and the man who replaced him at Oldham, Scott Leatherbarrow, will each be at the epicentre of the thrusts and counter-thrusts.

BATTLE

Palfrey and Danny Yates would claim to have won the battle of the midfield masterminds against Leatherbarrow and David Hewitt in the Law Cup game.

The Roughyeds pair will be out to be the more creative this time and to come up with the better kicking game.

Then there's the clash of Crowley on Rochdale's left side and Danny Langtree on Oldham's right.

They used to be the best of second-row pals at Whitebank, one feeding off the success of the other and inseparable even when player-of-the-year gongs were dished out.

Said Crowley, man of the match at Featherstone: "Oldham will be fired up and smarting after our Law Cup win.

"It was my decision to leave Oldham, but I still feel I've got a few things to prove."

Oldham - and Tyson - will also have more than a few things to prove after their Law Cup loss, so it promises to be one of the best and most fiercely contested derbies in recent times.