Our fans pledge: To win and look good

AS A team, our first objective in games is always to get the win.

After that, the next objective is to entertain. If people are paying to come and see us then we want to give them something to enjoy.

The fans will always acknowledge value for money and I am absolutely fine with that.

The reactions we experienced at half-time in our last two home games may have been very different, but I wouldn’t have wanted to have paid to watch that first half against Blackpool!

As I have said a few times, we are training on a proper field now and you can really see how things are improving as a consequence. We are getting quick play-the-balls, meaning we can play good rugby off the back of them.

Likewise in defence, we were able to slow the opposition down. That we are able to do these things now is no coincidence.

Some people have suggested that we were slow to start again against Workington but I tend to disagree.

We began the game well yet made three mistakes — Phil Joseph not playing the ball properly and our spilling of two kicks — but they weren’t anything to do with our approach as a team. Our line defence was good as was our defence at the ruck, while we controlled the speed of the play-the-ball.

While it was good to get the win, the other results around us told a story. Rochdale went very close to beating Dewsbury and Keighley lost at Swinton, who I have always said will be right up there this season.

Anyone who thought this division was going to be a walk in the park was always due to get a slap in the face.

It is a tough competition week-in and week-out and whenever sides come up against us they will treat the game as a Grand Final. We are scalps, as are Dewsbury, and that is something we just have to deal with.

There are no stragglers in the competition, with the only side really battling at the moment being London Skolars. You only have to look at the recent results of two sides we have played this year, Hunslet and Blackpool, to see that teams must play well to win against them.

o Got any questions to put to Tony? Simply email the new address below:

tonybenson@oldham-chronicle.co.uk