Competition for places is hotting up

ALTHOUGH Oldham will play safe and leave Liam Copland’s comeback after injury for a little while longer, Stu Littler says his squad is now looking healthier than it has done for a long time.

The recruitment on loan of forwards Dane Windrow and Nyle Flynn and centre Connor Carr, plus the return to full training of several players after injury, means competition for places is inevitably on the increase.

Because this is the weekend of the Betfred Challenge Cup Final and the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Final, the London Skolars v Oldham game on Friday night is the only other game taking place this weekend.

Roughyeds trained last night (Tuesday) and they will be in again tonight (Wednesday) before travelling south on the day of the game.

Said Littler:

“The boys are looking forward to taking part in what is traditionally a special game for Skolars the night before our sport’s big day out in London.
“Hopefully, we’ll have the support of our fans down there and maybe others from the North who are in London for Saturday’s two Finals at Tottenham.
“It will be a good opportunity for us to get back on the horse and put right some of the wrongs in our performance at North Wales Crusaders.
“The fact that Dave Hewitt didn’t get a suspension is a plus for us.
“Liam Copland is back in full training after his back problem, but with an injury like that we don’t want to take any chances. We’ve got to be smart in how we handle this and the smart thing to do is definitely to leave it a little bit longer.
“We are getting players back now after injury and we are in a much healthier position than we were not so long ago.
“For instance, Sean Slater and Calvin Wellington are both in contention.”