Naylor’s joy as Oldham tough it out

Scott Naylor

AFTER a blip at Whitehaven, Scott Naylor was chuffed with his Oldham RL team’s “fantastic” 16-14 win against Featherstone Rovers in the run-up to Saturday’s big Challenge Cup-tie against Warrington Wolves at Bower Fold.

Despite a long injury list and a small squad, Roughyeds have won four of their last five games, including the cup win at Hull KR, and have seen off Dewsbury Rams, Batley Bulldogs, Sheffield Eagles and Featherstone Rovers on home soil, the last three of them all in a row.

Their second-half set completion against Featherstone ran at 94-per-cent and in the last 20 minutes of a finely-balanced scrap they completed eight of their nine sets.

Defensively, at the half way stage of the regular Championship season, they have conceded fewer points — 259 — than Workington, Whitehaven, Dewsbury, Swinton, Sheffield and Batley and only five more than top-of-the-table Leigh Centurions.

Said Naylor: “It was a tough, physical, old-fashioned slog against Featherstone, but our work rate, determination not to concede points and eagerness to battle for each other won through in the end. It was a fantastic performance.

“In the games we’ve won we’ve always worked harder than the opposition — and the way we are playing is clearly a style that is good for us.

“The lads deserve enormous credit and support. They put their bodies on the line every week to produce solid rugby — the sort I like.

“We’ve some work to do away from home, but Bower Fold is becoming a fortress and it's good to see.

“It’s also good to see the lads who’ve come up with us from League One, with one or two additions, doing well at this level.”

Naylor rested prop Phil Joy, the only forward to start every previous game this year.

Added the Roughyeds coach: “Phil has done long spells in every game. He’ll benefit from his day off. He gives everything he’s got every time he puts on the shirt. He needed a rest.

“To see our middle unit playing as well as it did without him, and to see the forwards generally doing so well without Danny Langtree, shows that we have some strength in the player bank.

“And in the next two or three weeks we should have Craig Briscoe back in the forwards and Tom Ashton back in the backs.

“Jon Ford will be a bit longer, but Craig and Tom are getting closer.”

TICKETS for the Warrington tie (3pm Saturday) are on sale from Whitebank up to 1.30pm today; from 9.30am to 3pm tomorrow; from 9.30am to 1.30pm on Thursday; and from 9.30am to 4pm on Friday.

They will also be available at Whitebank between 6pm and 7pm tomorrow when the Challenge Cup will be on view to coincide with the start of the club’s Wednesday evening touch-rugby sessions, which will run throughout the summer.

The tie is not all ticket, but fans are urged to buy in advance to ease congestion on game day.