Oldham winger outlines his goals

DALE Bloomfield is a man with a mission.

Having become the eighth member of last year’s Oldham squad to take a new contract, the winger has set himself a trio of targets for his second Oldham season.

Dale wants 20 tries - nine more than this year - to equal his 2011 haul for Rochdale, when he was third-best try scorer in Championship One.

He aims to win a place in the division’s end-of-season dream team, three years after doing so with Rochdale. And he cherishes an ambition to be part of a Roughyeds’ promotion-winning side that goes up automatically - as champions.

The 25 year old said he had never felt as low as after Oldham’s 32-18 defeat by his former team in the promotion-deciding final.

“I never want to experience anything like that again,” he said. “But we'll learn from it and come back stronger next season.

“In many ways we had a great season. The fans were brilliant. I can’t thank them enough. We are all sorry we couldn’t do it for them on the big day.”

Coach Scott Naylor concurs with Bloomfield’s belief that he is good enough to score a lot more tries than this year.

“He doesn’t realise how good he can be. At the same time he’s a dressing room character who never shuts up. He seldom makes mistakes. I would back him to score one-on-one and he gives us security at the back when we're defending.”