Naylor salute to top dogs’ tough nature

COACH Scott Naylor pointed to his Oldham’s side’s determination after their hard-fought victory at Newcastle Thunder.

The visitors had to withstand a huge effort from the hosts - and also had recover a six-point half-time deficit to record their 10th win in a row.

Naylor said: “It wasn’t our best performance, but we spoke about a few things at half-time. We weren’t doing ourselves justice in bringing the ball out from our own line. We were making lots of mistakes.

“You can’t keep letting sides like Newcastle - with the quality they have - have a go at your try-line.

We made it tough for ourselves in the first half, and to come in with the score line at 10-4, we were confident we could turn it round, which we did, and finish the game strongly.”

He added: “That was as tough a game as we’ve played all year and I’m glad we got across the line. This was a huge part of our season, to come to Newcastle and win. The lads showed a lot of guts and while it wasn’t our best performance, it was good enough.”

With a four-point gap to second place, Oldham are within touching distance of securing top spot and a home play-off date.

Naylor, though, won’t look look too far ahead: “It’s one game at a time,” he said. “We’ve got two home games and one away and we’ll just have to see where we finish.”