Oldham capture Tiger cub

KEIRON Gill, a young centre from Castleford Tigers, has signed for Oldham on a month's loan and is likely to be fast-tracked into the side for Sunday's high pressure clash with Whitehaven at Bower Fold (3pm).

Highly regarded by Tigers, but now too old for the under-19s, Gill has been playing on dual-reg with League One side Oxford, but his Super League employers are keen for him to gain experience at a higher level.

Peter Carey, one of Oldham's assistant coaches, had Gill under his wing when both were at Salford Red Devils in the player's formative years.

Roughyeds coach Scott Naylor: "Keiron can play centre and stand-off. We needed to strengthen that area of the squad and he ticks the boxes.

"He trained with us for the first time last night and he looked good."

Continuing the upbeat theme ahead of a vital game in the fight to avoid relegation, Naylor reported that, for the first time in a long time, his casualty list was down to two ­- Jon Ford and Gary Middlehurst.

He will also have dual-reg personnel available ­- Sam Wood and Liam Johnson played at stand-off and right-centre respectively at London Broncos last week ­- in his strongest squad for many weeks.

Added Naylor: "We'll have to play well to beat Whitehaven, who I believe are in a false position and should be higher up the table.

"The importance of the game is obvious, but for me it's also about performance and grabbing the opportunity to start playing the sort of rugby we produced earlier in the season.

"We need to get back into the winning habit in our remaining league games and then kick-on into the Championship Shield."

Oldham (from): Briscoe, Burke, Chisholm, Clay, Files, Foster, Gee, Gill, Grimshaw, Holmes, Hope, Hughes, Joy, Langtree, Lepori, Owen, Palfrey, Roper, Spencer, Thompson, Ward plus dual-reg players from Huddersfield Giants.

Roughyeds are one of six clubs in the relegation scrap (two go down) and here are their fixtures for the remainder of the regular season, after which they each play another seven games in the Championship Shield:

DEWSBURY (14 points): Batley (a), London (h),Workington (a), Swinton (h), Leigh (a).

SWINTON (14): Workington (a), Halifax (h), Oldham (a), Dewsbury (a), Batley (h).

WHITEHAVEN (11): Oldham (a), Batley (h), Bradford (a), Workington (a), Sheffield (h).

SHEFFIELD (10): Featherstone (h), Oldham (h), London (a), Leigh (h), Whitehaven (a).

OLDHAM (8): Whitehaven (h), Sheffield (a), Swinton (h), Bradford (a), Workington (h).

WORKINGTON (4): Swinton (h), Featherstone (a), Dewsbury (h), Whitehaven (h), Oldham (a).