Ford now one of our own — Naylor

JON FORD . . . outstanding try-scoring record for Oldham.

FORTY-SEVEN games and 45 tries since he made his Oldham RL debut on loan from Salford in 2013, Jon Ford has finally signed as a fully-fledged Roughyeds player.

“We can call him our own now, and that’s really good news,” said coach Scott Naylor, of the former England academy centre. Ford didn’t hesitate to sign once his three-year deal at Salford had run its course.

The player, who will be 22 on Sunday, follows Adam Files, Gareth Owen and George Tyson in coming to Oldham initially on loan from Salford before signing permanently. Tyson has since joined Championship high-fliers Sheffield Eagles full time.

Naylor, last season’s League One coach of the year, said: “It’s good to know that young players who have been on loan with us are then happy to sign on a proper basis. It shows we must be doing something right.

“Technically, Jon’s a new signing, but he’s been with us on and off, on loan or dual-reg, for the past three seasons and he’s been a big part of everything we’ve achieved. He’s a great lad and it speaks volumes for Oldham that he’s decided to leave a Super League club and sign for us.”

Ford said: “That I’m no longer at Salford will make a huge difference to the amount of coaching I get from Scott and assistant boss Lee Spencer.

“During my loan spells I rarely trained at Oldham on Tuesday nights, so I’m going to be much more involved now and I’ll benefit from learning more of Oldham’s coaching techniques, rather than those at Salford.

“We have a young squad with a lot of energy so it will be interesting to see how we go in the Championship. We’ll give it a good crack and I feel quietly confident.”



OLDHAM’s first pre-season warm-up game will be at Keighley Cougars on January 10 — a re-run of last season’s promotion final.