Greenwood on the glory trail

LEE GREENWOOD is hoping to claim a slice of glory all of his own this weekend.

While Oldham are playing at Gateshead in the fifth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup, the 28-year-old winger has an extra set of big-game concerns to deal with.

That is because Siddal, the Halifax club that Greenwood coaches, are taking on East Hull at Post Office Road, Featherstone, in the National Conference League premier division grand final on Saturday afternoon.

The game represents something of a revenge mission for minor premiers Siddal, who lost 24-4 at home to the current champions in the first qualifying semi-final before securing a final place at the second time of asking with a tough 22-18 win over Oulton last week.

“East Hull came to us and did a job,” said Greenwood, in his first season in sole charge at Siddal after spending two years coaching alongside fellow former Siddal junior and Huddersfield Giants scrum-half Luke Robinson.

“They surprised us, but now we know that we will have to play well to beat them and we are grateful to get another shot.

“We have had to squeeze in a lot of games recently and it has been difficult, but you would rather be involved than not at this stage.

“We have got two big finals left now — this and the National Cup final against Wigan St Cuthbert’s — and though we feel it has been a good season already to get to where we are, you don’t want to be losing either of them at this stage.”

Greenwood currently has a knee twinge and when you add Lucas Onyango’s strong performance on the left wing in the record effort against London Skolars last week into the mix, it points to his being able to take to the sidelines to direct the action for Siddal rather than travelling to the north-east for Oldham’s huge tie against Gateshead at the Darlington Arena.

A number of other minor injuries will be looked at during tonight’s training session before Roughyeds coach Tony Benson names his squad for the game.




THE draw for the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup will be broadcast live on BBC2 after the St Helens v Catalans clash on Sunday (3.15pm kick off).