Hawks wings need clipping

Paul Reilly: Scored a hat-trick of tries at Hunslet.

OLDHAM are bidding to keep the heat on Co-operative Championship One leaders Dewsbury by seeing off Hunslet Hawks this weekend.

With a line drawn under the Gateshead-gate affair, Roughyeds players, coaching staff and officials are all intent on pushing ahead with the team’s promotion campaign and three points at Boundary Park (3pm kick off) is a must.

The Rams have a 100-per-cent record at the top of the table with six wins from as many games played. They are two points clear of Oldham having played a game less, with Hunslet — who also have a fixture in hand over Tony Benson’s side — sitting in third, a further three points back.

That the Challenge Cup is now off the agenda for the Roughyeds is undoubtedly a blow in financial terms, particularly given the tough economic conditions at present.

It does, though, mean there is one less distraction for a squad intent on gaining promotion to the Championship this year at the third time of asking. Ultimately, that goal is more important than a one-off cup run when it comes to the club’s long-term future.

Anyone believing that Hunslet will travel across the Pennines as proverbial lambs to the slaughter on Sunday only needs to take a look at the team’s results this year under coach Graeme Hallas.

Defeating Workington at home (28-12) and away (24–16), the Hawks lost their opening match at Blackpool 34-26 but have since only gone down on one occasion, 30-10 in a tight game at Dewsbury.

Progress has been made, which must be a slight concern to Oldham bearing in mind the feathers the Hawks ruffled when the teams met earlier this season at the South Leeds Stadium in a Northern Rail Cup group match.

Benson’s men escaped with what was in the end a comfortable 32-14 victory, but Oldham found themselves 12-4 down at one stage close to half-time after a very bright start from the hosts.

It took a hat-trick of tries from Paul Reilly either side of half-time to bring the game back around in Oldham’s favour, but the second of those scores which put the visitors’ noses in front came on the back of what appeared to be a clear forward pass from Thomas Coyle in the build-up.

With a potent back line including former Oldham loan centre Michael Brown, quick winger Scott Childs — scorer of four tries in one match against the Roughyeds reserves last month — and big former Doncaster man Ayden Faal, the Roughyeds defence will again have to be on its guard when the ball is spun wide by Hallas’s men.

A fifth 50-plus points total also looks like being a stretch, given that Hunslet have yet to concede more than 34 in a league game in 2009.

The visit of the Hawks to Boundary Park represents the last time the pitch is used by Oldham for two months while the surface is repaired and reseeded.

In that period, the Roughyeds face tricky away matches at Swinton, York and Workington, plus the Northern Rail Cup quarter-final against Featherstone. That game is down as a home match for Oldham but is being played out at the Leigh Sports Village Stadium on Thursday, June 4, with Sky Sports providing live coverage.

Revenue will be tough to come by for the club during the Boundary Park shutdown and with that in mind, officials are hopeful of a big crowd on Sunday. The next game at the same ground has Keighley visiting on Sunday, July 19.