Naylor takes positives from second-half show

Photo: Dave Murgatroyd

GET OUT OF MY WAY: Oldham’s George Tyson tries to break free.

THOUGH well beaten by a bigger and better side from the upper reaches of the Championship, Oldham surprised their hosts in the second half by scoring three tries in the last quarter and looking stronger the longer the game went on.

That was the hook on which Scott Naylor hung his post-match analysis and his search for positives in a Challenge Cup defeat.

“It’s disappointing to be knocked out of the Challenge Cup, but playing Sheffield away from home was always going to be an enormous task,” he admitted.

“After 25 minutes, when we trailed 18-0, it was effectively all over, so at half-time we spoke about what we were going to do about it.

“We talked about what was important to us; our standards, our qualities, our work ethic and our ethos as a team and as a group. The lads went out for the second half trailing 30-6; concentrated on everything we had worked on during pre-season and clearly showed what kind of a team we are.

“We can take massive positives from our second-half performance in which looked a lot more like ourselves and matched them three tries apiece and 14 points apiece.

“That was a massive turnaround by any standards from what had gone on in the first half and the lads can take a lot of credit for that.”