Championship 1 Preview: Oldham v Gateshead Thunder

Both sides look to be at full strength for Sunday’s Kingstone Press Championship One clash at the Whitebank Stadium.

Determined Oldham coach Scott Naylor is urging his men to continue their emphasis on solid defence after conceding just 58 points in four games.

Naylor said: “We’ve worked hard on our defence and we’ve improved loads since the Northern Rail Cup.

“It’s also about scoring points. I wasn’t happy with our attack against Oxford, but we played with a lot more attacking freedom at Hemel and hopefully that will continue.”

The Roughyeds beat Gateshead 34-16 in March, but Thunder coach Kevin Neighbour has set his sights on a better result this week.

Neighbour said: “We’ve definitely improved since then, but so have Oldham.

“They got a good result against Hemel in their last game and it’ll be a decent game on Sunday.

“Oldham are fairly physical up the middle and they’re a very capable team, so we’ll have to be ready for them.”