Nayl-ed it!

Photo: Pictures, Darren Robinson

Oldham chairman embraces Steve Roper at the final hooter.

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CHAIRMAN Chris Hamilton has spoken of the moment Oldham turned the corner in their magnificent promotion-winning campaign.

The Roughyeds’ wonderful 31-20 defeat of Keighley Cougars at Whitebank secured a place in the Kingstone Press Championship next season.

But it was back in June that Hamilton, who has been chairman of the club since its inception 18 years ago, believed this side could achieve something special.

Oldham followed up a crushing 64-0 victory at home to Oxford with a 32-26 win at one of their big promotion rivals, Swinton.

The Roughyeds have triumphed in every game since — 14 on the spin, clinching the leaders’ shield and yesterday’s promotion final along the way.

Hamilton said: “The run we’ve been on has just been awesome. The three games we lost were in the space of four weeks and people were writing us off because they were against the top teams.

“But that win at Swinton is when we turned the corner. The lads came of age that day and since then they’ve been absolutely outstanding.

“This was a typical Oldham performance against a very good Keighley team. We’ve done that quite a few times this season. We haven’t panicked if the opposition had the ball. It’s been about game management and being in control. For once, everything has fallen into place.”

Oldham’s roll of honour in 2015 reads well. If the club didn’t have a trophy cabinet before, they certainly need one now after a clean sweep of awards.

As well as winning the promotion final’ and the shield, coach Scott Naylor picked up the League One coach of the year prize and skipper Lewis Palfrey the League One player of the year award at the recent Kingstone Press presentation ceremony.

This was Naylor’s third attempt at promotion with Oldham after defeats in 2013 and 2014.

“I think Scott and Oldham are a good fit,” added Hamilton. “He is a good coach and he’s in a good club.

“He’s not changed the culture of the club because we had a good culture before, but he has done in terms of the quality we’ve able to bring in, which includes people who thoroughly respect him.”

Hamilton went on: “I’m so happy we’ve done it. We are going to enjoy this and nobody can argue that we don’t deserve to go up.

“I was confident before the game, without being over confident. The only time Keighley threatened us was when they got offloads away, but we knew our fitness and everything else would count and it did.”