Hamilton hails spirit
Reporter: by MATTHEW CHAMBERS
Date published: 17 August 2009
ROUGHYEDS chief executive Chris Hamilton praised his side’s character in claiming a draw — and two points — at Blackpool following a stirring late comeback.
Down 30-14 in the final quarter of the match, the Roughyeds ran in three unanswered late tries to pull level against a team reduced to 12 men following a red card for prop Simon Bissell.
Though the point dropped gave rivals Keighley the chance to overtake the Roughyeds and go second in Co-operative Championship One, which they took in dispatching Hornets RL 44-18 at Spotland, from an Oldham perspective it is far from doom and gloom.
“We showed a lot of character,” said Mr Hamilton. “Quite a few teams wouldn’t have come back like that and if there had been another five minutes played, we would have won the game.
“We made things difficult for ourselves at times and it wasn’t a complete performance.
“But considering we had Paul Reilly, just back from injury, playing in an unfamiliar loose forward role and new signing Craig Lawton on the bench having only taken part in a running session, we are looking on it as two points won rather than one dropped.”
Lawton, a rugged second row forward who was a mainstay of the Doncaster pack before his contract was cancelled due to ongoing financial problems at the club, put pen to paper on a deal with Oldham late on Friday. He will stay until the end of the season.
Another man sticking around is Jamie Russo. The Australian centre was on the scoresheet for the third game running yesterday and now that personal issues have been overcome, his initially planned brief stay has been extended to cover the remainder of the season.
Injuries-wise, Lucas Onyango is struggling with a knee problem and Jamie I’Anson played despite being in a lot of pain with his injured forearm.
Paul Highton (knee) and Marcus St Hilaire (Achilles and calf) will push hard for a place in the squad to face York at Boundary Park on Sunday (3pm), while Richard Mervill (bicep) will be assessed at training tomorrow.
OLDHAM’S reserves lost 48-26 to Leigh on Saturday, Ben Seru scoring a length-of-field effort on his return to the sport after a serious knee injury.
