Latics take some hard knocks

RARING TO GO . . . Eric Noi poses with the Athletic players before the tough work-out.

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“IT’S only a feeling, tiredness, like being happy or being sad. Let’s enjoy it.”

The words were barked out by Eric Noi as he put Athletic’s players through the mill in an early-morning training session at Oldham Boxing and Personal Development Centre on Greaves Street.

While they didn’t knock seven bells out of each other, the squad will still have felt the weight of the heavy-hitting work they were put through.

Agility and endurance were tested in various drills in the hour-long session, the second time the club has used the facility during pre-season.

“It is about fitness and a bit of bonding and it provides something different and a change of scenery,” said first-team coach Paul Murray.

“Eric has been really good, the facility is brilliant and the lads have really enjoyed the work.”

Towards the end of the session, the players lay on the mats in a period of relaxation. Those with their eyes still open may have glanced to the wall featuring a framed quote from Olympic boxing great Teófilo Stevenson: “What is a million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?” it reads. There are similar food-for-thought quotations dotted around from Mohammed Ali and Ernest Hemingway.

Noi prides himself on the centre being far more than simply a spit-and-sawdust boxing club. And he is encouraging other sporting outfits to make use of the facilities on offer.

“It’s symbiotic,” said Noi of the understanding with Athletic. “We’re an Oldham organisation, they are an Oldham organisation and it is about collaboration. It is the way forward for everyone in this town.”