Joy is happy to sign

PHIL JOY

PHIL JOY'S emotion matched his name today when he signed a new one-year contract to stay with Oldham RL Club in 2017 - his seventh season with his hometown club.

Apart from Danny Langtree, who is half-way through a two-year deal, 24-year-old Joy is the first Oldham player to commit to the club for next year.

"I've never wanted to go anywhere else, so I'm happy," said the big prop (pictured), whose new deal in sporting circles quickly follows a promotion in his professional life.

By day, the man who plays his rugby in the front-row, where the sport is at its roughest and toughest, is a suited and booted Model Risk Oversight Manager at the Leeds head office of the Yorkshire Building Society.

And he believes he's not taking too much of a chance to suggest that Roughyeds WILL stay in the Championship at the end of their inaugural season in the sport's second tier.

He said: "I'm confident we'll do it. It's been a big step-up from League One for us, but we always knew it would be.

"We've had our ups and downs, but it's been a very enjoyable ride and a huge challenge. "We've had some great wins against Sheffield (home and away) and Featherstone, Dewsbury and Batley at Bower Fold.

"We haven't done as well against Swinton Lions and the two Cumbrian clubs, but I think our inconsistencies have depended on our attitudes on any specific day."