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A lot of togetherness — Stuart

WHILE refusing to get carried away by a 34-26 away win in a pre-season friendly, our head coach Stu Littler was pleased with many aspects of the Roughyeds’ winning performance at Keighley against one of the bookies’ favourites for Betfred League One honours in the coming season.

Latest odds see Swinton Lions as 13-8 favourites with Keighley second favourites at 7-2 and Oldham down in sixth place at 9-1 behind Swinton, Keighley, North Wales Crusaders (9-2), Doncaster (8-1) and Rochdale Hornets (8-1).

Then come Hunslet (12-1), new-club Cornwall (25-1) and Midlands Hurricanes (formerly Coventry, 33-1).

Both Stuart and his assistant, Brendan Sheridan, have said previously it suits them to go in under the radar and to remain as rank outsiders for as long as possible.

After this win at Cougar Park, in which resilient Roughyeds came back from an early 12-0 deficit to score six tries to three, coach Stu said:

“We showed glimpses of what we are about and a lot of togetherness after going behind early on. There were some good performances.

“Keighley are a good side with a lot of quality and, as such, they are one of the favourites for promotion.

“I know they made a lot of changes at half-time and used 27 players in total, but we made a lot of changes as well. We are happy to win, but we are under no illusions about how tough this season is going to be.

“Happily, we came through relatively unscathed although Sean Slater was taken to hospital with a knee injury after going down in the second half. We’ll know more about that later.”

Roughyeds trailed 16-12 at half-time, but they ‘won’ the second-half, playing up the slope, 22-10 with stand-off and captain Martyn Ridyard putting the issue beyond any doubt with a try which he also converted AFTER the final hooter had sounded.

Other tries came from hooker Brad Jinks, full-back Owen Restall, winger Tommy Brierley (2) and sub winger Liam Copland, with Ridyard landing five goals from seven attempts.

Both sides struggled to hold possession early on and some of the Roughyeds’ defensive work wasn’t the greatest as the home side went 12-0 up inside quarter of an hour with tries by scrum-half Jack Miller and stand-off Alex Stephenson, both improved by Miller.

Second-row forward Jake Webster caused Roughyeds a lot of trouble down our left side, but he seemed to tire after a strong, opening 20 minutes and the introduction off the bench of Tom Spencer and Jack Coventry finally got Oldham in the ascendancy forward with the result that first Brad Jinks scored from dummy half before Owen Restall also crossed the home line, Ridyard converting in both instances.

Just before half-time, centre Charlie Graham scored wide out to give Cougars a 16-12 interval lead, but straight after the break right-wing Tommy Brierley put the visitors back in front – and we never looked back !

Josh Slingsby scored for Cougars against the run of play, but Brierley was soon in for his second — courtesy of Ridyard’s long, cut-out ball to the right — and when Liam Copland crossed in the other corner it was all over bar the shouting.

A Ridyard penalty goal gave Roughyeds an eight-point advantage with ten minutes to go and although Aidan Scully’s converted try again cut the deficit to two points, Ridyard went in after the final hooter and converted his own kick to put the issue beyond doubt.®

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