Excitement builds for massive challenge

Sam Gee

Roughyeds’ Sam Gee previews the coming Championship season

ALL the players absolutely can’t wait for Sunday now. We’ve had three good friendly games and the lads are buzzing.

Obviously we’re heading into what will be a massive challenge and I’d be lying if I said we weren’t a bit nervous, but there’s loads of confidence in the camp and we’re really looking forward to challenging ourselves.

Like Scott Naylor has said, the London game is just 13 men against 13. We’ll step out on the pitch together and then it’ll be a case of who wants it more, regardless of whether they’re full-time or not.

At Oldham we have a tight-knit group and during the winter we’ve been able to bring in a few really strong players who can do a job in this league.

Pre-season has been awful! But seriously ask any of the players and they’ll tell you they don’t really enjoy it, but there’s a really good vibe in the camp and every player enjoys being at Oldham. That makes life so much easier. It’s been good, but tough at the same time.

In terms of expectations, people were writing us off this time last year, saying we’d finish sixth or seventh in League One. Then look what happened. It feels similar this year, people aren’t expecting that much I suppose, so we’ll use that as motivation.

The teams that went up last year pretty much held their own, and I think we can do the same.

Fans will see a lot of hard work on Sunday, and they’ll hopefully see how much hard work has gone in during the close season. They’re going to see a bunch of excited players determined to make their mark in the Championship.