‘Great leader’ targets final push

NEIL RODEN: vast experience

NEIL RODEN will make his 250th appearance for Oldham in this Sunday’s promotion play-off final against York.

The influential stand-off (pictured above), who was named in the Co-operative Championship One team of the year along with team-mate Paul O’Connor, also has 98 tries — a record for the new club — to his name cross two spells at the Roughyeds.

Neil’s huge influence on his team-mates is shown by the fact that in every one of the three games lost in the league by Oldham in 2010, he has been unavailable.

And when a recent questionnaire was handed out to the squad, the feedback showed just how important he, along with fellow experienced men Marcus St Hilaire and Martin Roden, is considered to be by his peers.

“We did a 360-degree survey to get feedback on all the players,” explained Roughyeds coach Tony Benson.

“What came through from his team-mates was that Neil is a great leader on the field and a good all-round player.

“He is very calm and in control but at the same time behind that he is very determined and passionate about what he does.

“He knows the game so well and I know that what I ask of him he will carry out on the field.

“Junior (Marcus St Hilaire) is the same. And there is also Martin Roden.

“People don’t realise the influence that Martin has. The feedback from his survey was the strongest in the group in that he is a natural leader who drives the team round the field.”

It was originally thought that Sunday’s final would be Neil’s 249th outing and that he was still three tries short of reaching his century of touchdowns.

Further scrutiny of the records, however, has revealed that the original statistics did not include a Northern Ford Premiership game against York Wasps at Hurst Cross on January 6, 2002, in which he scored one of the six Oldham tries in a 32-16 win.

Later that season York Wasps went out of business and failed to complete their fixtures so their statistics for the season were expunged from NFP records.

“It’s great to know that I’ll see up the 250 on Sunday,” said 30-year-old Neil. “What a game in which to do it. Two more tries would be nice as well, but that’s perhaps asking too much.”

As for York, they are expected to be unchanged from the team that saw off Blackpool 38-18 at the Huntington Stadium last week to land their shot at promotion.

That means former Super League half-back Chris Thorman will pull the strings from scrum-half, with the likely absence of Ian Bell leading to Mike Mitchell coming into the side at centre.

Ryan Esders, formerly of Harlequins and a star performer in the Knights’ 41-32 defeat at the Whitebank Stadium two weeks ago, is set to play.

James Haynes is in at full-back with Danny Ratcliffe moving up to stand-off for a York side who, like Oldham, are hoping to claim a place back in the professional game’s second tier they lost through relegation in 2006.

The Knights’ only previous appearance in a final came in 2004, when as a National League Two side they lost 34-30 to National League One Halifax, missing out on promotion after finishing second.