Naylor's pride

TOUCHDOWN . . . Adam Clay scores Oldham's fourth try in the comeback against Batley.

ROUGHYEDS coach Scott Naylor expressed his pride at his side's fighting display at Batley - after they fought back from a 22-point deficit to earn a vital point in their Championship relegation fight.

The visitors looked to be staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat when the Bulldogs raced into a 22-0 lead after just 20 minutes.

However, Michael Ward's first-half try gave them hope before three scores in 11 minutes from Sam Gee, Ben Morris and Adam Clay earned Oldham a precious point in their survival scrap.

Naylor was full of his praise for his side's fighting spirit after they looked down and out, early in the game.

He said: "It's an enormous point and an enormous result for us.

"It was a poor 20 minutes but a very good 50-60 minutes from us. It was like what we did against Bradford. It is clearly obvious that the start of games is letting us down, but the attitude was fantastic after going behind.

"We kept Batley scoreless in 60 minutes of rugby never mind 40 minutes and the lads are made up. It's a place that is extremely difficult to get anything out of.

"EMOTIONS"
"My emotions are immense pride. The lads were out on their feet at the end, but that's what it is going to take to keep us in the division."

Dave Hewitt almost capped an amazing turnaround at Mount Pleasant with a late drop-goal, but it smacked against the upright before home winger Wayne Reittie let a home win spill through his hands as he failed to ground the ball in the dying seconds.

The try would have been extremely harsh on the Roughyeds, who are now level on points with Swinton Lions with four games to go.

Naylor believes that the Mount Pleasant result has given his side the momentum in the battle to stay up.

"It's going to take that kind of ethic and attitude to keep us in this division. I know they have got it in them," he added.

"For the first time in a long time, we are looking forward rather than looking backwards. This point could be the start of a great four games for us."