Deakin’s praise for show of character

DELIGHTED Roughyeds coach Steve Deakin paid tribute to his players’ strength of character after overcoming adversity to see off Doncaster.

Oldham lost the services of Ian Hodson, in at stand-off to replace the injured Neil Roden, early on in the first half with a broken nose and concussion to once again severely disrupt best-laid plans.

Other injuries to Craig Littler and Jason Boults followed and with Said Tamghart also struggling with his knee problem, it took a number of stand-out performances to see off Doncaster in front of a live television audience and 2,806 fans at Boundary Park.

But, despite a 36-16 victory which extends the club’s winning streak record at the ground to 14 games in all competitions, Deakin feels there is still room for improvement.

“We gutsed it out,” he said. “We didn’t have a massively high completion rate and made a fair number of errors during the game.

“We found ways to get down the pitch and we had a little bit of luck too. You can’t get away from that.

“We are not apologising for winning by 20 points, but we also know we have got a fair amount of work to do.

“We showed a massive amount of character, though. Against a team in there fighting with us it was a massive boost to deny them a bonus point and it also puts a bit of pressure on Gateshead now, too.”

The Roughyeds stay in third place in National League Two, just two points behind Gateshead, who are at home to Rochdale on Sunday, after the same number of matches played.

Oldham chief executive Chris Hamilton had hoped for a bigger crowd to turn up on the night given the £1 charity donation entry, but was able to look on the bright side.

“It is the biggest crowd of the season in National League Two, the pink kit looked really good and we achieved our two goals on the pitch of first, winning the match and second, denying them a bonus point,” he said.