Roughyeds hope for more Panthers gloom

CELEBRATIONS after Chris Clarke (second left) registers a try in Oldham’s recent 42-30 win over Swinton — but for the same faces to be bearing smiles come Sunday evening, the Roughyeds will need to be at their best.

A DARK cloud hangs over Blackpool ahead of their crucial home fixture with Oldham.

No change there, then — weather-wise, at least. On the rugby side, Panthers coach Martin Crompton hasn't had things easy this season despite the team's best league run in years.

Currently three points adrift of second-placed Roughyeds in Co-operative Championship One, the club aim to avenge last month's

40-26 defeat at the Whitebank Stadium on home soil this Sunday (3pm kick-off).

But the match — one of huge significance at the top of the table — is being played against a backdrop of a possible points deduction for the club.

An RFL tribunal, originally penned in for earlier this week, has been postponed until Wednesday. The governing body's investigation relates to "contractual irregularities" at the Fylde RUFC-based Panthers, though it is believed the case is not as simple as being merely a breach of the salary cap.

Outgoing chairman Bobby Hope still owns 51-per-cent of the club's shares, with the scheduled take-over of Blackpool yet to be completed.

It leaves Crompton and company in limbo as far as the future is concerned. But the former Oldham Bears skipper is simply concentrating on the task in hand.

"These players will see the season through with me, I can assure you of that, and they still enjoy the environment at the club," Crompton told League Express.

"We have five games to go and we're really looking forward to it — the lads are really up for it.

"If we win all five games then it will come down to points difference, if we beat Hunslet at home and stop them getting a bonus point.

"We also have Oldham to play, and we're sticking together and taking it game-by-game."

Blackpool have a number of former Roughyeds within their squad.

Prop forward David Best is fit again and played in the Panthers' 46-18 win at Doncaster two weeks ago, as did Danny Halliwell and Damian Munro.

Experienced half-back Simon Svabic is also on hand to be called upon, while former Saddleworth winger Marlon Miller was a try scorer in that recent victory in South Yorkshire.

Oldham enter the contest on the back of a five-game winning streak and in the knowledge that a victory, especially one without the conceding of a bonus point, would make Tony Benson's side heavy favourites to finish at least second come the end of the season.