Oldham ready for cup final

Oldham coach Scott Naylor says today’s match against Swinton is “another cup final” for the Roughyeds.

Oldham picked up their first away victory of the 2016 season against Sheffield with a 24-16 win last weekend and moved up to tenth in the Kingstone Press Championship table, one point clear of the relegation positions.

They face local rivals Swinton Lions this afternoon.

Swinton have sealed victory in both derby games this season, the most recent at the Summer Bash in Blackpool. Oldham were leading 20-0 in that game at half time, before Swinton fought back to win with a late drop goal.

Coach Scott Naylor has described the game as “another cup final”.

“There’ll be no need for me or anyone else to give the players a pep talk before this one,” he said.

“Swinton have beaten us twice and what happened at Blackpool is still a tender subject and one it will take us a long time to forget. The lads have been talking about this return match for the past couple of weeks.”

Jack Holmes, Steve Roper, Sam Gee and Adam Files are all being considered for the team to play Swinton.

Dave Hewitt and Jack Blagbrough have also joined Oldham on loan until the end of 2016 from Sheffield Eagles and could be up for selection.

Swinton Lions were defeated 62-12 by Halifax last weekend.

Coach John Duffy said: “We were poor on Sunday. It’s obviously disappointing for us but Halifax are on fire at the moment.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down and prepare for a massive game this weekend against Oldham.

“They’re playing really well at the minute though and they’ll be difficult to break down. It’ll be a very tough and physical game. We’re looking forward to going there and hopefully we can come up with the result.”

Connor Dwyer will return for the game.