‘Ticking off’ does the trick

Date published: 15 July 2013


OLDHAM RL players did not make it to the top of Championship One without a few bumps along the way.

They took a rollicking from coach Scott Naylor after a poor first-half performance against South Wales Scorpions and lost winger Dale Bloomfield at half-time with a painful wrist injury.

The hard words worked. After trailing 22-18 at the interval, they battered South Wales into submission in the second half, rattling up 32 points without reply.

Said skipper Lewis Palfrey: “We were out-enthused in the first half, but Scott (Naylor) gave us a ticking off at half-time. It was a real reality check and it did the trick.

“We went out for the second half and put in a thoroughly professional performance.”

Two-try man of the match Josh Crowley added: “It was one of those days when we thought we had only to turn up to win, but Championship One is not that sort of a division. It doesn’t work like that.”

The boss’s hard line at half-time became a softly-softly approach by the end of the game when he gave them a pat on the back with the promise of a few days off.

“They’ve earned a rest and a little break,” said Naylor. “We’ve no game next weekend so we’ll take a few days off to recharge our batteries and come back fit and fresh for the final push over the last four games of the regular season.”

North Wales Crusaders, league leaders all season, now trail Roughyeds by two points, but they have two games in hand.