ROUGHYEDS face another tough test in the sun when in-form Doncaster come to the Vestacare Stadium on Sunday, kick-off 3pm.
We are told it’s going to be hot — very hot — and squad and coaches know they have to produce a performance to match if they are to conquer an in-form Dons side which will be seeking its fifth win in a row.
In recent weeks they’ve won at Swinton (26-12) and at North Wales Crusaders (26-18) as well as demolishing Hunslet 36-6 at home, so last week’s 44-10 win at Cornwall was no surprise and, together with other recent results, sent out a message that Richard Horne’s men are gunning for glory.
Equally, Oldham know they desperately need a win after a disappointing run of results, culminating in last Sunday’s 50-24 derby-day defeat by Rochdale in one of several performances this year when Stu Littler’s men have played both superbly and well below expectations in the same 80 minutes.
“It’s often been rocks or diamonds,” said Stu. “We need to be more consistent and we certainly need to be more resilient in adversity. We spoke about that on Tuesday. Against Rochdale we completed sets at 100 per cent for most of the half and finished the half on 95 per cent. Nothing wrong with that !
“But in the second half we didn’t get going. We suffered a couple of early setbacks, giving away a penalty and then, almost immediately, a six-again, from which Rochdale scored. After that, they had all the ball and all the momentum and we had two yellow cards to their one.
“Our fans were bitterly disappointed. Shez and I get that because nobody was hurting more than us. We’ve talked about it as a group, about where we want to be and how to get there. We clearly have a lot to do, but the lads are determined to pull things round and the beauty is now, unlike earlier in the season, we can get straight back on the horse this weekend when we are at home again to Doncaster.”
He said the medical staff would this week be monitoring several players who picked up knocks in the derby, in particular James Thornton, who failed a head test and didn’t get back on the pitch, and Emmerson Whittel and Tom Spencer, who clashed heads in the first few minutes; went off for attention; were replaced by Thornton and Jordan Andrade; passed their head tests and returned to the action with their heads strapped.
Doncaster have won three of the last five games against Oldham, but it’s more realistic to point out that they’ve been well beaten in their last two games at the Vestacare, Roughyeds beating them 40-14 in the 2019 league game here and then smashing them 22-12 in that same season’s promotion semi-final en route to a fantastic Promotion Final win against Newcastle Thunder.
