Oldham seeking bumper turn-out

Stalybridge Celtic’s Bower Fold

OLDHAM RL Club went into today’s Kingstone Press Championship clash with Halifax at Bower Fold hoping to attract a four-figure crowd for the first time in four games this season at the Stalybridge venue.

Club officials were disappointed with attendances of 767 and 816 for the London Broncos and Dewsbury Rams home games — both down on two of the last three League One crowds at Whitebank late last season.

The 2015 Keighley Cougars home game last August pulled in 888, while the visit of Swinton Lions to Whitebank five weeks later was watched by 1004, the only four-figure crowd last season apart from the promotion-final game against Cougars, which pulled in 1,405.

Roughyeds hoped promotion to the higher division with games against better and more traditional opponents in a comfortable stadium, albeit a few miles away, would generate significantly improved attendance figures.

The Bradford Bulls game on March 6 would almost certainly have done so, but it was postponed because of a snow-bound pitch — for now, another opportunity gone for the club to earn a well-deserved pay day.

There was no money in the shared-gate Ladbrokes Challenge Cup tie against Cumbrian amateurs Kells (attendance 385).

All that could change in the next few weeks, however, with visits to Bower Fold by Halifax today and by John Kear’s Batley Bulldogs on April 3 and Mark Aston’s Sheffield Eagles on April 10.