Rangers target top-flight return

AMATEUR RUGBY LEAGUE: SADDLEWORTH Rangers chairman Terry Flanagan hopes that a win at Myton Warriors tomorrow (2.30pm kick-off) will help the club get closer to the glory days.

Third in National Conference League division one, a Rangers victory in their final game of the season would leave fourth-placed Normanton with an enormous mountain to climb to overhaul the Greenfield outfit in the final promotion spot.

With a six-point cushion and a large points difference advantage over Normanton, premier division rugby now beckons for Saddleworth for the first time since the club was relegated from the top flight in 2002.

“We have been far too long away from it,” Flanagan said.

“If we manage promotion back there, it would be fantastic for everyone who has put the work in to help rebuild the club.”

Flanagan feels the club is on an upward curve due in no small part to a strong youth set-up.

And a few possible first-team stars of the future are in action on Sunday, when Saddleworth travel to take on Ince Rose Bridge in the first play-off round in the Gillette National Youth League.

Rangers finished seventh at the end of the regular season — outside the play-off places — but were invited in as a result of the withdrawal of Crusaders Colts as a result of other commitments.