HAVING won 48-10 at Workington and 54-6 at home to Rochdale, Oldham go to Hunslet in second place in Betfred League One and with easily the best defensive record in the division.
The only team above them, Keighley Cougars, have won each of their three games, but they don’t play this weekend so Sean Long’s men can go joint top if they win.
Moreover, Roughyeds have the third best attacking record and easily the best if you don’t count the teams who have played three.
This includes Keighley, who are averaging 52 points a game and who won 42-14 at Hunslet last time out. This was Hunslet’s only defeat in three and they were off to a flier in which they went 8-0 up inside ten minutes, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
Keighley hit back in style but, despite the final score, Hunslet did enough to suggest they will be tough to beat at home – an evaluation of which Sean Long is well aware.
Nevertheless, even at this early stage of the season, there is enough evidence to suggest that the THREE games against Keighley, two of which will be played at Cougar Park, will prove very important indeed in terms of who finishes top. We were given the four loop fixtures which are Workington and Keighley away and Newcastle and Cornwall at home.
This year, of course, only the champions go up automatically, with the winners of the five-club play-off (2 to 6 inclusive) having to play-off against a team in the Championship, all adding even more importance (though that was purely incidental) to finishing top of the pile.
All thoughts this week-end turn to Hunslet, for whom left-wing Jack Render has scored in each of the last four games against Roughyeds and for whom Josh Jordan-Roberts in the second-row, son of a former Oldham captain, Two Bobs, apparently had a very good game.
Hunslet will miss the guile and experience of old-timer Matty Beharrall, who is suspended, but even so they will be formidable opponents and Sean’s men will have to be at their best to win at Hunslet for the first time since 2019,
