STUART Littler, our head coach, says the 22-22 draw at Hunslet in April will have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on Sunday’s winner-takes-all clash of the two teams at the Vestacare Stadium (3pm).
Sunday’s showdown is not only Oldham’s 20th and final game in the regular Betfred League One season; its a must-win head-to-head which will determine whether Roughyeds or Hunslet take the fifth and final play-off spot.
Oldham have to WIN to go through. Hunslet need only a draw — and the memory of the huge Hunslet fightback which earned them a draw at their place five months ago is still etched in he memory of Oldham fans who travelled to the South Leeds Stadium on the first Sunday in April.
Roughyeds led 22-4 early in the second half, but it finished all square at 22-22 after the Yorkshiremen dominated the second half.
Things didn’t go our way, Centre Calvin Wellington had to leave the field after 20 minutes to go to hospital, feeling unwell; Dave Hewitt picked up a hip injury which caused his withdrawal just after half-time; and new-boy Jack Arnold, playing his first game for the club, didn’t last long off the bench before he too quit with a leg injury.
Three members of that 17, which had to be completely rejigged in the second half, are no longer at the club – namely, Brad Jinks, Jack Arnold and hooker Ryan Wright.
With Tommy Brierley ruled out long term with his broken leg, players like Kian Morgan and Liam Copland and various young stars on loan from Super League clubs have come into the side, while Jason Muranka is back in the forwards after a long absence with a head injury and prolific try scorer Owen Restall is in the process of being converted from a full-back to a winger.
The Hunslet line-up is also much-changed from back then and just as Littler has injuries to key forwards Emmerson Whittel and Johnny Openshaw to think about, so his Hunslet counterpart Alan Kilshaw has to worry about his star winger Wayne Reittie, who ruptured a calf in the 32-20 home defeat by Doncaster last week.
Reittie has always troubled Oldham in the past, going back to his Batley Bulldogs days, and if he doesn’t play on Sunday it will be a massive boost to our chances of hitting the play-offs.
Littler, meanwhile, is adamant that the 22-22 draw in Leeds will count for absolutely zilch come Sunday.
He said:
“Both teams have changed massively in the past five months. That’s a long time in sport. There are a lot of changes in both sides but, that apart, both teams are playing better rugby now than they did so early in the season.
“We fully expect Hunslet to be the best they can be on the day and we are working hard to ensure the same applies to us.”
Hunslet boss Kilshaw, formerly of Rochdale Hornets, said:
“It was a blow losing Reittie early on against Doncaster, but we seemed to lack confidence too and it’s important we sort that out before we go to Oldham.”
He was impressed with young prop Harvey Hallas and full-back Jordan Paga.
He added:
“We were as good in the first half (they led 20-12) as we’ve been all year, but ultimately we made far too many errors with the ball in the second half.”
It was Hunslet’s fifth defeat in a row, but they include away losses at the top three — 36-26 at North Wales Crusaders, 60-18 at runaway champions Keighley and 38-12 at second-placed Swinton.
They’ve lost five of their nine away games, and they only beat Cornwall 36-24 down in the deep south
From their point of view, more worrying, perhaps, was their shock 24-0 defeat at home to Midlands Hurricanes — results that tell you two things about Hunslet.
Firstly, they reserve their better performances for the better teams and, secondly, they are just as unpredictable as the Roughyeds and are just as likely to be good in one half and not as good in the other.
Kilshaw, known throughout the game as ‘Killer’, told League Express:
“In recent weeks we’ve played the top three away from home. We’ve been competitive in two of them and we could have beaten Crusaders if we had had a full squad at our disposal.
“The Midlands game we take in isolation due to the number of players we had missing. Our performance that day wasn’t up to our standards.
“The other three we were bang in — and even in the Keighley game there were elements in which we were strong.”
Hunslet hope to have a healthier squad on duty at the Vestacare Stadium with Jacob Doyle, Sion Jones and Ross Peltier all pushing to return from knee injuries.
Added Kilshaw:
“We’ve faced a lot of adversity. We lost Jimmy Watson for the season and Duane Straughier recovered from a hernia op, broke his arm and then broke his arm again.”
