ROUGHYEDS fans have taken to social media in their droves to welcome Martyn Ridyard to the club and to express their excitement at the arrival of the former Leigh Centurions stand-off.
A few hours before tonight’s 2021 Awards Night at the Oldham Event Centre at Boundary Park, the list of supporters lauding the Ridyard signing on Facebook looked like this:
- Ritchie Hawkyard (heard of him ?) — ‘Class signing’
- Sarah Robinson — ‘Mint signing’
- Wendy Kelly — ‘Great news’
- David McKown — ‘Very encouraging news’
- Dave Lewis — ‘Good signing’
- James Baxendale — ‘fantastic news’
- Stuart Widdall — ’the old head we’ve been crying out for’
- Richard Hynes — ‘Cracking signing’
- Adrian Heywood — ‘Class act’
- Catherine JoeTom — ‘Fantastic news’
- Steve Hayes — ‘Great player, great fella’
- Tony Ford — ‘Great signing’
- Wendy Armitage — ‘Fantastic news’
- Joe Cass — ‘Good player’
- Jack Butterworth — “What a good signing'
- Tony Linney — ‘Great news’
- James Ridyard — ‘Good luck our kid’
- Allison Wild — ‘Brilliant signing’
- Jim Boycott — ‘Excellent signing’
- Jon Collinson-Taylor — ‘Super signing’
- David Singleton — ‘More like it’
- Craig Ian Halstead — ‘Bring it on’
- Anne Kearns — “Can’t wait'
- Gareth John Hughes — ‘absolute quality’
Fans attending tonight’s big event at Boundary Park — access the venue off Broadway and on to the big car park (Oldham Event Centre is straight in front of you) — will discover who won the coach’s Player-Of-The-Year award; the players’ Player-Of-The-Year prize; the Supporters’ Player-Of-The-Year trophy; the Unsung Hero recognition; and the Club man (or woman) Of The Year accolade.
David Murgatroyd will be MC, making his comeback after a long illness which required major surgery, and fans will welcome new vice-chairman John Roddy, who will head a large contingent from our chief sponsors, CDX Security of Warrington.
The player exodus leaves the path open for new players to come in and we welcome on board new head coach Stu Littler and the four new signings so far, namely Callum Cameron, Will Cooke, Jack Coventry and Martyn Ridyard, plus the six who have signed new deals to stay, Ben Holcroft, Joe Hartley, Brad Jinks, Luke Nelmes, Tommy Brierley and Dave Hewitt.
Talks with other players are going on all the time in the background and we hope to be able to announce the arrival of more new players next week.
Four players from last season are retiring — Gareth Owen, Phil Joy, Danny Bridge and Shaun Pick – and we can now confirm the departure of Jack Spencer, who has signed a one-year deal to join his home-town club Swinton Lions at the age of 30.
Like his father before him — our one-time assistant coach ‘Spanner’ — Jack has given Roughyeds good service across six seasons and we wish him well on his move to the Lions where he will join his fellow Roughyeds Matty Wilkinson, Dan Abram and Max Roberts.
With those four over there and Stu Littler and Martyn Ridyard here, next season’s League One derby games should be something special.
