Oldham coach Naylor issues warning

COACH Scott Naylor has warned his Oldham squad they can’t afford to let their standards slip against Newcastle Thunder on Sunday.

Top of the table Roughyeds gun for their 10th win in a row at Kingston Park.

Last weekend the side started badly against Hemel Stags before settling down to finish with their biggest win of the season, 70-6. Naylor has revealed that at half-time, when Oldham led 22-6, he had a “rant and a rave” because he wasn’t happy with the performance.

“We were poor in the first 20 minutes, but we fixed things at half-time and then went out and showed what we could do,” he revealed.

“We are in a strange position. We are close to a top-two play-off situation, but we are also a long way off it because we’ve four games left, all of them tough, interesting games.

“We’re top now, but in another month we could be fourth. We’ve got to keep up the pressure and can’t afford blips like early-on at Hemel.

“We have to show Newcastle huge respect, but we have also to go out and play like we’ve been playing for the past two and a half months.”

“I’ve known Stanley Gene (the Thunder coach) a long time. He’s a good fella, a fighter, and he won’t like how his team has been playing in the last four weeks.”

Thunder have lost their last four games, but before that they beat York and Barrow at home and won on the road at Rochdale and at North Wales Crusaders.

Gene said: “Oldham are a tough side, but I’ll be calling on the boys to dig deep and see if we can repeat last year's big win in Gateshead.”

Naylor will pick from the 17 who won at Hemel plus Tom Dempsey, Richard Joy, Steve Roper and the other new signing Will Hope.