Naylor salutes his young guns

CAPTAIN MARVEL . . . star man Lewis Palfrey applauds the Oldham fans after his team’s thumping of London Skolars at Whitebank yesterday.

SCOTT Naylor will be proud to walk out ahead of his young Oldham side in Sunday's Championship One play-off final at Leigh Sports Village.

He has played in Challenge Cup finals at Murrayfield, Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium and Super League grand finals at Old Trafford - but none will compare to the buzz he will get when involved in his first final as head coach in his home town, Leigh.

Having built his team from scratch and taken it to within 80 minutes of promotion, Naylor is ready for the final push.

After caning London Skolars 64-8 at Whitebank yesterday, Roughyeds take on derby rivals Rochdale Hornets for promotion — Oldham's fifth final in seven years.

Said Naylor: "I'm full of pride for these Oldham boys, whose work ethic and attitude has been first class since we first started training together last November.

"All they want to do is to improve as rugby players, listen to advice and absorb information.

"We have no chips on shoulders, no issues, no problems. They are just a great bunch of young

people who are only interested in playing for their team and for their club.

"It will be nice to be in a final. The fans will turn up for us and the lads will be ready to play."

Skipper Lewis Palfrey, delighted by the 11-try win against Skolars, said: "If we play like that in the final we are going to be very hard to beat.

Seat tickets went on sale shortly after the Oldham-London game yesterday. They will also be on sale inside the ground each day this week, Monday-Friday (10am-1pm and 5pm-6.30pm).