Plenty at stake for Roughyeds

RICHARD Mervill, wearing Oldham’s colours against Rochdale, could be in a Hornets shirt in the local derby at Spotland on Sunday.

Oldham aiming to draw Hornets sting
THREE games remain in Oldham Roughyeds’ season - and every point will count.

Tony Benson’s side currently occupy the last of the six available play-off spots in Co-operative Championship One.

Second place, behind likely winners Swinton, is out of the equation now. However unlikely it appears given the table, though, a finish in any of the other five places is still possible.

The higher the finish, the less arduous the route to a potential FIFTH successive play-off final.

And while the prospect of an appearance in Warrington in early October appears to be remote, Oldham will certainly aim to put some pressure on fellow contenders Rochdale on Sunday (3pm) by winning at Spotland.

For Rochdale - one of the form teams in the division - ex-Roughyeds prop forward Richard Mervill could make an appearance in coach John Stankevitch’s matchday squad.

Full-back Wayne English is also expected to play despite being carried off with a neck problem at Gateshead in Hornets’ 48-14 win last week, with Stankevitch promoting the fundamentals of the game in training.

“At this stage of the season, sometimes the nervousness in the players means you come up with errors,” said Rochdale’s coach.

“It’s the little things that will get you your results. We’ve been concentrating on the real basics — catching, passing, and pushing up in support.”

Rochdale have won four of their last six league games, giving themselves a big chance of overhauling what is currently a three-point gap to second-place Keighley.

The start of the recent mini-run was a 31-30 win at the home of the Cougars.

Though that was followed up by successive losses at Swinton (22-20) and at home to Doncaster (26-16), Workington were dispatched 45-20 at Spotland and Hornets won 13-6 in South Wales before easing past Thunder on Sunday.