We were off the pace, admits Sheridan

Brendan Sheridan. Image courtesy of ORLFC

Roughyeds assistant coach Brendan Sheridan felt Sunday’s loss against Midlands Hurricanes, Oldham’s third in seven days, was a game too far.

There were four changes to the side which beat Workington at Boundary Park with Joe Hartley, Jack Blagbrough, Dom Newton and Callum Cameron coming in.

Oldham have scored an average of 33 points a game across the season, but their threats were nullified against a determined Hurricanes outfit.

“What people have to understand is that off the back of these three games in seven days, our guys have got families and are working 40, 50 and 60 hours a week,” said the Oldham assistant coach.

“We had to rotate the squad quite a bit to get some minutes into others, but we didn’t get things right and we were off the pace with our skill level not where we wanted it to be.

“At the same time, though, I’d like to congratulate everybody involved with the club after these seven days.

“It’s a tough gig for semi-pros to back up full-time work as well as the three games we’ve had.”

Sheridan had high praise for Midlands, who are no pushovers having comfortably beat Doncaster 41-10 a few weeks back.

He added: “I’d like to give Midlands all the credit, they came and they out enthused us but as disappointing as the result is, we have to move on and focus on the play-offs now.

“To achieve our goals we have to beat the best whether it’s home or away.

"The two best teams will fight it out in the final.

“Ahead of the game, we have to dust ourselves off and give the boys the best recovery we can – we can’t push them too hard in training as we need to get the best out of them for Sunday.”

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