We are the highest scorers of the current play-off candidates

THE Betfred League One table tells us much about what we can expect over the next few action-packed weeks.

Not much has been happening at our level because of the many blank Sundays, but we are certainly going to make up for lost time in the weeks ahead, with important league games still to come against Workington Town and Midlands Hurricanes at home and Rochdale away. Even this away fixture will feel like a home game when compared with the likes of London Skolars, Cornwall and Workington away, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.

Then we can look forward to the play-offs and our very good chance to put the record straight against the likes of Hunslet and/or Doncaster and beat them when it really matters, hopefully on our way to promotion and the Championship next season.

“We think we’ve got a good chance of promotion,” says interim head coach Mike Ford – and that’s where the table comes in with its facts and figures which don’t lie or speak with rose-coloured specs in the direction of any one club.

All clubs might be guilty of that now and again, including us. It’s the inevitable nature of club websites. A league table, though, compromises no one. It gives the FACTS and the TRUTH, nothing less, nothing more. It deals not in “may be”. “could be”. “should be”, but gives it to you straight, like it or lump it.

So what does the table tell us right now as we look forward to what’s left of this season and then the move to Boundary Park for 2024, be it in League One or in the second tier just one down from Super League?

Well, it tells us that Dewsbury Rams, the team we held to a draw at the Vestacare Stadium and should have beaten, are up as champions. They can’t be caught mathematically, so they win promotion with one game left — at Doncaster, no less, on the last weekend of the regular season.

Mathematically, Oldham could still finish second, but the table doesn’t tell you (because it only deals in fact) that for that to happen there would need to be at least one major surprise ; that Oldham would need to win all three regular-season games first; and that Dewsbury would have to win at Doncaster, which will be no foregone conclusion given that the Dons will have much to play for while the Rams have already achieved what they set out to do way back in March.

It all hinges, of course, on what happens during the rest of August, but the likelihood is that Oldham will finish third or fourth, the spot they occupy now courtesy of their 56-4 win in Cornwall and Workington’s 38-8 loss at Dewsbury.

What else does the table tell us? Quite a lot really. To start with, Hunslet, Doncaster, Oldham and Workington, currently in that order, are guaranteed play-off places with the fifth and final place going to either current occupants North Wales Crusaders or Rochdale Hornets, with whom we clash at the Crown Oil Arena on Sunday week.

There could be a lot riding on that game for both clubs, but that’s another story for another time.

For now, back to the table, and three columns in particular; points for, points against; points difference.

Of the current play-off five, Oldham are No 1 in terms of points scored; No 2 in terms of points conceded; and as near as damn it to joint No 2 in points differential.

That surely shows there is next to nothing between Oldham and the two sides above them in the play-off five right now, namely Doncaster and Hunslet.

It also shows the relevance of each club’s remaining regular-season games which go like this: