No fears over Hawks rematch, says Roden

DETERMINED: Martin Roden on the run against South Wales.

ROUGHYEDS round up: MARTIN Roden insists that Hunslet can be beaten by the Roughyeds should the teams meet again this season.



A 60-4 demolition of the home team by a rampant Hawks side at the Whitebank Stadium knocked Tony Benson’s side off their perch at the top of Co-operative Championship One.

It was a second defeat in three matches at the club’s new base and the heaviest ‘home’ loss since York’s 62-0 triumph at Sedgley Park in the relegation season of 2006.

Hooker Roden, though, says the final result could have been so different had Oldham’s pressure been turned into tries in the opening quarter.

And, should the same two sides meet for a fifth time in the play-offs later this year, the player-conditioner reckons that fewer errors and a bit more experience on board will do the trick.

“I am still absolutely gutted,” said Roden, who admitted to a sleepless night on Sunday when running the game back through his mind.

“We put everything into our preparations for the game, and we had a game plan to beat them.

“But we had so little ball, we just couldn’t enact it.

“On the day, everything stuck for them and not much did for us.

“In the first 20 minutes, it was a close game with us slightly on top.

“Then towards the end, it was men against boys.

“Look at their completion rate and it was up near 90 per cent — they would beat most sides in the division above playing like that.

“It sounds daft I know, but even after the game I still think that we are capable of beating them.”

Roden’s cousin Neil has been a big loss in the halves due to his broken toe in the last three matches.

But the former Leigh and Blackpool player also points to another player with oodles of know-how who is currently being badly missed: Marcus St Hilaire.

“Neil takes us round the park and is a massive, massive loss,” added Roden.

“You just have to look at our left edge, players like Joe Chandler and Mick Fogerty were scoring tries for fun when Neil was playing but now they have dried up.

“I also think that our missing Marcus St Hilaire at centre is just as big a loss.

“It is not just his ability at reading the game, but the way he talks to players and guides them through.

“You are talking about two professionals there with a heck of a lot of experience — and while I know Paul Reilly has lots of that too, it isn’t so much at centre.

“But if we want to win the league, then we have to perform in adversity.

“We let in a total of 60 points and made a lot of errors during the game.

“We have to now make sure we don’t make the same ones again.

“We won’t dwell on it. But those errors will show up on the DVD and we are all grown-ups. There are no excuses.

“Then tomorrow night we will start our preparations for the Workington game.”

The trip to Cumbria gives Oldham a rest from a pitch at Whitebank which will take some getting used to, particularly as it is not as spacious as other grounds on which the side has enjoyed success in 2010.

“I do think bigger pitches suit us and I think if we had played Hunslet at Sedgley Park, we would have possibly been three tries up,” Roden added.

“It was the same against York and it could be a problem for us.

“We will have to change slightly how we play, to try to run straight rather than outwards to open things up.

“We are all gutted that away from home we strung a run of wins together yet at home we have lost two out of three — and we were embarrassed against Hunslet.

“It will be another tough ask this week at Workington. But we will dust ourselves down and get down to the job in hand.”