Hamilton daring to dream

Chris Hamilton,: if any of his sides can win promotion, it’s this one.

THIS is the third year in a row that Oldham are 80 minutes from promotion - and most of the players beaten in those grand finals will be back to try again in Sunday’s promotion final at Whitebank.

If experience counts in a final, Roughyeds will be well equipped to face Keighley in the biggest game ever played on the compact little Limeside ground.

Jon Ford, Lewis Palfrey, Kenny Hughes, Phil Joy, Josh Crowley, Danny Langtree, Michael Ward and Liam Thompson played in both finals against Rochdale and Hunslet. Richard Lepori, Sam Gee and Adam Files also figured in 2013 while Adam Clay, Steve Roper, Gareth Owen and George Tyson played in last year’s final.

Those who played in both are at the end of their third season at Oldham. They’ve grown up together. And Naylor and his assistant Lee Spencer, each under contract for two more years, have been behind them every step of the way.

Oldham chairman Chris Hamilton: “There’s a lot of stability there. We’ve kept the core of the squad together for the last two or three years and collectively they have developed and matured as a group and as individuals. We’ve won a few games this year that we would have lost previously.

“Scott deserves a lot of credit. He brought in a lot of lads he and Lee Spencer had worked with at Salford and they’ve all done well in an incredibly tough competition.”

Hamilton has been in charge for 18 years and has seen Roughyeds lose six of the last eight grand finals in the third tier. But they have never had a better chance of going up than this year, having earned home advantage with 13 consecutive league wins.

Hamilton added: “I dare to dream, but there is a realistic slant on it. I still have doubts because of our previous record, but we’ve put ourselves in a good position and there’s no reason why this group of players can’t finish the job.”