Oldham need tunnel vision

WHAT a week. Amid all the murky rumour and counter-rumour doing the rounds regarding the running of the club, the fall-out from a severely disheartening performance in the Nines at Blackpool last week and an 18-certificate injury list, it has almost been forgotten that Oldham have a game this weekend.

And not just any game, but arguably their most important one so far this season.

A welcome return to home comforts at Boundary Park on Sunday (3pm kick-off) is in store for coach Tony Benson and his squad, who do battle with a Keighley Cougars side sitting pretty in second spot in Co-operative Championship One, just ahead of Oldham having played a game more.

Barry Eaton's visitors won't be short on confidence, having beaten the Roughyeds 34-26 in the reverse fixture at Cougar Park back in March — the third successive season Oldham have succumbed at the famous old West Yorkshire ground.

Then again, with the playing talent available to Benson even despite the long casualty list, any side Keighley are capable of putting out should still hold few fears.

Especially when you bear in mind just how ruthless the Roughyeds were in their last league game two weeks ago.

Despite being down to 12 men at Workington following the 19th-minute red card dished out to Danny Halliwell, the Roughyeds played some scintillating rugby at times to run away with the game 60-6, full-back Paul O'Connor epitomising the great support play with a first-half hat-trick. Even against a poor Town outfit, it was a superb display.

The hope is that the uncertainty at board level surrounding majority shareholder Bill Quinn doesn't have too much of an adverse effect on the players.

No longer the chairman of the club having resigned his position on the board in May, Quinn originally said the move was an administrative error but now asserts that he won't take his position back until crisis summit talks have been held with chief executive Chris Hamilton.

"We are very professional in the running of the club and the players and coaching staff are not aware of there being any problems," Quinn asserted this week. "There are no excuses."

Like Oldham, Keighley also failed to perform well in the Northern Rail Nines and a 26-4 win over London Skolars in the Plate qualifying round was the team's only success in five.
Eaton is hoping to have key men Lee Mapals, Dan Potter and Jon Presley available for the game on Sunday.

Lightning-fast winger Mapals (knee and elbow), ex-Roughyeds loan centre Potter (ankle) and 21-try stand-off Presley (elbow) were all left out of the Nines competition as a precautionary measure, but the trio should take to the field this weekend.

A Roughyeds victory would see the two side swap places in the table.

That would leave Benson's men in pole position in the chase for the top play-off spot come the end of the regular season, which winds up with an away trip to Hunslet on Sunday, September 6.