St Hilaire out of Blackpool event

MARCUS St HILAIRE: Achilles problem.

CHECKS will be made on injured pair Phil Joseph and Jamie I’Anson at training tonight as Oldham prepare for the Northern Rail Nines in Blackpool – a competition that Marcus St Hilaire won’t be involved in.

Roughyeds coach Tony Benson is keen to name as strong a 15-man squad as he can for a competition which the club is taking very seriously.

Joseph has tweaked the groin injury which has been troubling him up and is regarded as a big doubt for the weekend, while I’Anson is set for a precautionary x-ray on a forearm injury he picked up during the weekend’s 60-6 win at Workington.

St Hilaire has an Achilles problem which forced him off in the second half at Derwent Park and is to be rested, along with Paul Highton (knee).

One other man Benson won’t be able to call upon is sacked skipper Robert Roberts and the Oldham coach has spoken of his disappointment at losing such an influential player.

“I am very sad to see ‘Two Bobs’ go,” Benson admitted. “I have a long association with him going back to our time at Leigh and he is somebody I really respect as a player. We will have to work very hard now without him.

“But there are certain standards that need to be maintained at a club like Oldham, which has a proud tradition.”

Elsewhere, an eventful day on the Co-operative Championship One scene saw York City Knights dismiss player-coach Paul March for gross misconduct, the culmination of a chain of events which began with a raft of suspensions following an outing to a Super League match at Headingley.

James Ratcliffe has been named as his successor and the new head coach will remain in place for the remainder of this and the 2010 season.


TICKETS are still on sale from the club office for this weekend’s Northern Rail Nines, priced at £9 (adults) and £5 (concessions) and granting access to both days.

Should Oldham make it through to the final of either the main competition or the plate on the Sunday, those games will be played as curtain-raisers to Sunday’s sell-out Northern Rail Cup final between Barrow and Widnes — with those same tickets validating entry to Bloomfield Road, Blackpool, free of charge.