Cookson set to get thumbs-up

David Cookson

DAVID Cookson may get his first senior game of the season for Oldham RL Club in South Wales on Sunday.

The Roughyeds line-up hasn’t yet been announced, but coach Scott Naylor has confirmed Cookson will be in contention for this fourth and final group game in the Northern Rail Cup.

He missed the squad's pre-season work because of a six-month RFL ban, but he has played twice at centre for the under-20s in order to regain match fitness.

For the third game running there will be no dual-registered players, but Naylor will tinker with selection to share the workload and keep all his players match-fit.

"I want to keep everyone fresh so I'll be switching things around a little bit this weekend (from the side that beat Gateshead Thunder) and tweaking how we play in our opponents' half to make us more clinical.

"I don't know much about South Wales and haven't been able to acquire footage of them, so we've been concentrating on how we will play."

He will pick from the 17 on duty in the 34-16 win against Gateshead plus Jamie Dallimore, Chris Tyrer, Michael Ward and Cookson.