Roden up for familiar challenge

COUSIN v cousin, mates v mates... and coach Tony Benson pitting his wits for the first time against the club that sacked him eight months ago.

Oldham’s clash at Whitebank on Sunday (3pm) with Benson’s rugby league new boys Oxford promises to be just as impassioned and intense as any family feud.

This time last year Benson was Roughyeds’ coach while players Valu Bentley, David Ellison, Martin Roden, Chris Clarke, John Clough, Tommy Connick, Lucas Onyango, Alex Thompson and Sean Robinson were battling to keep Oldham in the top half of Championship One.

Most if not all of them will be back at Whitebank this weekend -this time in the away team’s dressing room, having followed Benson to the new club.

“It will be the strangest game I’ve ever played in,” said Oldham’s long-serving half-back Neil Roden, who is preparing for his 294th appearance in the Roughyeds jersey and going head to head with opponents he classes as “really good mates”.

Among them will be his cousin Martin Roden, who finished last season as Oldham’s caretaker-boss, but later moved on when Benson’s successor, Scott Naylor, brought in his own No 2 in former Salford colleague Lee Spencer.

Of all the players in Oldham jerseys, none will know the Oxford team better than Neil Roden, who captained most of their players for two years and some of them for three.

He added: “I suppose it’s just another game really.

“Once we kick-off they’ll be doing their best to win and so will we. We’ll be opponents for 80 minutes and then, no matter who wins, we’ll have a couple of drinks together in the bar after the game.”