Oldham to play NRC tie at Leigh

Oldham will play their Northern Rail Cup quarter-final against Featherstone at the Leigh Sporting Village Stadium on June 4, live on SKY.

The Roughyeds cannot play the game at usual home Boundary Park due to pitch repair work and had planned to play at Sedgley Park, home of Swinton Lions.

But after the game was selected for SKY TV coverage, a new venue had to be found due to the lack of facilities at Sedgley Park.

Roughyeds’ chief executive Chris Hamilton said: “We are keen to get our matches screened on television in order to raise the profile of the club.
 
“We didn’t want to lose this opportunity because we couldn’t play at Boundary Park, but we had 24 hours only in which to find a suitable venue and inform the RFL that we had acquired an acceptable stadium.
 
“We spoke to various other venues, including Spotland (Rochdale) and Stalybridge Celtic, but venues where football is played were all keen to protect their pitches in June.
 
“However, we agreed in principle with Leigh Sporting Village and later I had a three-hour meeting over there in order to tie up the loose ends.”

Tickets will be priced at £14 for adults, £10 for concessions and £5 for juniors.

Hamilton added: “This will be another big occasion for the Oldham club and the first time one of our ties in the Northern Rail Cup will have been televised.
 
“We will be pulling out all the stops to get as many supporters as we can over to Leigh that night.”

In the three other quarter-finals, Halifax face Leigh, Widnes host York and Dewsbury travel to Barrow.