Naylor encouraged by Oldham effort

Date published: 24 April 2018


by Ryan Booth

Oldham Head Coach Scott Naylor was pleased with his side’s effort despite being dumped out of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup as Super League outfit Hull Kingston Rovers ran out deserved 32-0 winners at Bower Fold.

A hat-trick from Adam Quinlan, coupled with tries from Chris Atkin, Will Oakes and Will Dagger saw Rovers progress into the next phase of the competition following a thoroughly professional display in Stalybridge - but Naylor was more than happy with the fight his side showed.

“I was very proud of the team’s performance. It showed that a lot in our game is right,” said Naylor.

“For instance, they only scored one try from a play near our line which indicated that we did a lot right in that area [goal-line defence].”

Despite producing a creditable performance, Naylor revealed there is still things to improve on if his side are to endure success this season.

He added: “The disappointing thing was in our yardage defence when we might have switched off a little bit, expecting kicks.

"They got us a couple of times on their last tackle with off-the-cuff stuff.

“At half-time we talked about completing, getting in the game with no penalties and going set-to-set with them.

"When we do that, and the game is flowing, we look a lot better and after 15 minutes of the second half we had conceded only one more try.”

Despite coming out second best, Oldham more than matched their higher counterparts for the majority of the contest, something that encourages Naylor.

The Oldham boss added: “We were tough, resilient and we put in a massive effort.

"The lads showed they wanted to play for each other and play for the club and that alone will take us a long way.

“The penalty count [15-8 to Rovers] weighed heavily against us.

"We were often conceding back-to-back penalties and you can’t do that against a Super League team.

“I would have liked to see us with a bit more chance to go at them, but we didn’t get that chance because of all the penalties against us.

"It was refereed at Super League level. Our commitment, effort and sheer hard work were all first class and I’m very proud of that.”

Meanwhile, Oldham chairman Chris Hamilton said: “In a game like this it would have been easy for the lads to lose heart when things were going against them, as they did, but they never once let their heads drop and full credit to them for that.

“As Scott had said previously, there was no way Hull KR were going to be anything less than 100 per-cent ready after what we did to them two years ago, but the effort and determination we showed was fantastic."

Roughyeds return to Betfred League 1 action when they travel to Workington Town this coming Sunday [April 29] - kick-off is 3pm at Derwent Park.

Meanwhile, Oldham have announced two changes to their fixture list involving home games against Hemel Stags and Doncaster.

The Hemel game, originally postponed on March 4 because of snow, will now be played at the Vestacare Stadium on Sunday, May 13 (3pm kick-off).

And the home game against Doncaster, originally scheduled for Sunday, May 27, has been put back seven days to Sunday, June 3 (3pm) because the Vestacare Stadium is unavailable over the weekend of May 26 and 27.