Oldham efforts deserve credit

Date published: 07 April 2014


IN Scott Naylor’s thinking, the score had no relevance: he was more concerned with how his part-timers tackled the Herculean task of squaring up to Super League opponents.

For that, he gave them full marks – as did Bradford boss Francis Cummins: “Oldham worked hard, stuck to their guns and did well,” said the man charged with keeping the Bulls in the elite division.

“They are a young side, clearly very well coached and at certain periods in the game they made life difficult for us.

“Though they scored only the one try they created other chances by opening us up. We have some big forwards and I was impressed with how Oldham coped with them.”

Naylor - twice a winner of the Challenge Cup with Bradford as a player - described his pack’s effort against all odds as “brilliant” and paid tribute to his players.

“I’m proud of every one of them,” said the Oldham coach. “We learned a lot, and that will be good for the boys. One missed tackle, one mistake, one penalty, and at this level those things usually result in a try conceded. We need to take lessons like that into the rest of our season.”