SCOTT Naylor described Oldham’s performance in a 24-16 home defeat by Hunslet as “unacceptable’ and “not good enough”.
“It needs sorting out,” said a furious Naylor after seeing Roughyeds throw away a 16-6 lead midway through the second half.
Even at that stage the home side should have gone 22-6 ahead, but Craig Briscoe was judged to have lost the ball in the act of scoring a fourth Oldham try under the posts.
Said Naylor:
“From a position of ten points to the good at home we shouldn’t be losing. We should be kicking on and winning comfortably.
“That’s nothing to do with structure, the coach or with match officials; it’s down to the players and whether or not they want to finish the game and win it the right way.
“WE NEED TO HAVE A GOOD, LONG LOOK AT OURSELVES AND DECIDE WHAT WE WANT FROM THIS SEASON .
“I WANT PROMOTION . . . THE PLAYERS NEED TO DECIDE IF THEY DO.
“What we dished up today was a huge disappointment. For whatever reason we are producing some pretty average performances.
“We can’t seem to string together quality rugby for any length of time. We’ll do ten minutes here and there, then things go wrong. Then we’ll go behind and it’s a case of when are we going to wake up.
“IT’S NOT ACCEPTABLE; NOT GOOD ENOUGH; AND IT NEEDS SORTING OUT.
“I take responsibility for it and I’ll take all the criticism I expect to get but the players have also to act like grown men and do exactly the same.
“There is one answer to the problem and it lies inside the players.
“In spells when we do the basics right and do them to a high level teams struggle massively against us.
“The flip side is that when we don’t do those things properly we struggle with every team.”
Oldham have now lost three of their first five Betfred League 1 games and are seriously in urgent need of a return to form when they take on Keighley Cougars at the Vestacare next Sunday (3pm), ahead of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup fifth round tie against Hull KR at Bower Fold on the following Sunday, April 22.
