Hamilton: We’ll bounce back

Tony Benson: rueful in the light of his team’s heavy defeat

OLDHAM RL chief Chris Hamilton and head coach Tony Benson have promised that Roughyeds will hit back from the wreckage of a 68-24 mauling by Swinton Lions at the Whitebank Stadium.

Having lost two of their first three games in Co-operative Championship One — they lost only three in the league all last season — Benson’s men must now face up to another tough test at Keighley Cougars on Sunday.

They are due a win against the Yorkshire outfit after five losses in the last six meetings, home and away and in a Grand Final, going back to the summer of 2007.

Hamilton said: “We’ll stay strong, and as we have shown over the years we’ll bounce back from this to get to where we want to be. We always knew it was going to be tough, given that we had only 14 fit players at training last Thursday night.

“On the positive side eight of the 17 players used against Swinton were Oldham lads and we had debut-makers in Shaun Robinson and Alistair Williams who both acquitted themselves well.

“Shaun only trained with the squad for the first time on Saturday morning, but everything he did was first class.

“Alistair also did well after showing his commitment to the cause the week before.

“He is not the earliest of risers and by the time he got our call he had missed the team bus.

“Rather than let anybody down, he immediately jumped into his car and drove to Workington and that says a lot about him and about his attitude.”

Currently ruled out by injury or illness are John Gillam, Ben Heaton, Luke Sutton, Matthew Fogarty, Neil Roden, Marcus St Hilaire and Tom Wood-Hulme.

Gillam (eye socket) will be out for a few weeks while club captain Roden (groin) and joint vice-captain St Hilaire (hamstring) are almost certain to miss the Keighley game.

Benson, pictured left watching events unfold at the Whitrebank Stadium yesterday, said: “We’ll be taking stock and seeing where we are up to, but we’ve got to bounce back and put up a creditable performance at Keighley.”