Naylor’s salute to self-belief

ON THE CHARGE . . . Matthew Haggarty powers forward for Oldham.

WINNING becomes a habit — and Oldham are relishing their role in an exciting two-club race for the Championship One title.

The 44-24 win at London Skolars was the Roughyeds’ seventh in a row and their 11th in 13 league games.

They have lost only once in seven away games and are the only side in the division to have taken at last one point from each of the 14 games played.

Said coach Scott Naylor: “London isn’t the ideal place to go so soon after we had put everything into that great display against North Wales Crusaders. We had a long journey down then we stepped into a tough environment.

“It was always going to be a massive ask of us, but we keep finding a way to win games - and that’s down to our self-confidence. Our start was fantastic, but we then took our foot off the gas and London played some nice rugby. We did well to go in at half-time eight points in front.

“We spoke at half-time about the need to start winning the ruck again; about the forwards picking things up a bit and about our halves imposing themselves a bit more. In the second half we did all of that, and more besides.

“To do that we showed a lot of character, just as we have done all season no matter where we have been playing.”