Back to basics call

TONY Benson and his Oldham RL players have had cards-on-the-table talks.

Chairman Chris Hamilton was also involved in the internal inquiry, which followed the Roughyeds’ 30-4 hammering by Rochdale. Benson’s men have now gone eight league games without a win and have slumped to sixth in a 10-club league.

“We had a good, hard look at ourselves,” said Benson. “Everyone was given the opportunity to speak his mind. No punches were pulled.”

He went on: “We’ve copped for a lot of criticism and rightly so. We trust and respect our fans in bad times as well as good. They deserve far more than we’ve been delivering.

“We need to get back to basics, start playing our type of game again and go back to building pressure.”

Hamilton added: “Everyone in the club is massively disappointed. We are doing our utmost to get out of it. I told the players to forget previous goals and aspirations; it’s about one thing only now and that’s winning the next game.

“This club has never rolled over in 15 years and it isn’t going to start now. Our fans have stuck with us throughout this dreadful spell and you can’t put a price on that.”

Oldham go to Whitehaven on Sunday. The club will take a first look tonight at winger Callum Mulkeen, a former rugby union man, who gets his first run-out in the Roughyeds Reserves side to play York City Knights at Whitebank (8pm).






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