SCOTT Naylor emphasised that Oldham hadn’t won a close game all season when reviewing his side’s 26-22 defeat at Doncaster.
It was the Roughyeds’ third away defeat in a row — 16-12 at Hunslet, 15-8 at Keighley and then this one.
In between there was a 16-14 loss to Workington Town at the Vestacare Stadium.
Of his side’s seven league defeats two were by two points; two by four; one by seven; and one by eight.
Of 12 league wins, the smallest margin of victory was 14 points.
Said Naylor:
“We don’t win close games and that’s something we need to quickly address and change.
“We can’t keep losing games by the odd try or goal.
“The lads gave everything.
“IF we’d been a little bit smarter in the first half . . .
“IF we’d taken our chances in the first half . . .
“IF we’d made a better start to the second half . . .
“IF we’d done all those things we might have had a different outcome, but there are a lot of ‘IFS’ there and that just about sums up our season so far.”
The Roughyeds’ boss said he was also disappointed because his squad wasn’t strengthened before last Friday’s signing deadline.
He went on:
“Other clubs got new players in, but our squad is going smaller.
“We’ve lost Danny Bridge (suspended) for the rest of the season and today we’ve lost Luke Hooley for at least a month with a shoulder injury.
“We’ve not kept up (in terms of strengthening) with clubs who have ambition to improve so they can get out of this division.”
