Naylor aiming to buck the trend

SCOTT NAYLOR . . . the Oldham coach has stuck by the players which clinched promotion last season.

OLDHAM RL coach Scott Naylor has one mission for his team this season: to stay up.

Teams who have gone up from League One in recent seasons have tended to struggle, and with that in mind a campaign of consolidation could be on the cards for the fiercely determined Oldham squad.

Boss Naylor is certainly not going to be content with a scrap to finish third from bottom, but has to be realistic.

“Our target is to stay in the division, it’s as simple as that Over the past couple of seasons no-one has gone up and stayed up. You can argue it’s getting more difficult to stay up each year, and look at Doncaster and Hunslet, who went down last year - two good clubs, coached well and with big name players.

“It took us a long time to get promotion, so it would be a nightmare to go straight back down. But if we have a go and the players give 100 per cent every time, I think we’ll be okay - in fact more than okay.

“I don’t think we’ll be finishing third from bottom or anything like that — we’ll surprise a few people.

This group is so keen I think they can take us a long way.”