WITH due respect to everyone else, the current League One table indicates that the scrap to finish top, win the title and get promotion automatically will be between Oldham and Keighley Cougars and that the THREE matches between them this season — two at their place — will be decisive.
Of the clubs currently occupying the five play-off spots, Rochdale Hornets have already lost four, Hunslet have lost three, Midlands Hurricanes have lost five and Workington Town have lost four.
It will take something exceptional for any of those to overhaul unbeaten top-of-the-table Oldham (seven wins from seven games) or second-placed Keighley (seven wins from eight games).
Having lost only one, at home to Hunslet, Keighley will see their TWO home games against Roughyeds as their big chance to get the upper hand – an observation that makes Sunday’s game at Cougar Park one of those rare ’not to miss’ encounters, one that can reasonably be expected to give Keighley their biggest and most vocal attendance for years.
For our part, YEDS are running three big coaches and we expect hundreds more to cross the BRONTE hills from Lancy in a convoy of private vehicles, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.
It can perhaps be construed as ironic that so much hinges on one of our four loop fixtures and that so much depends on an artificial set of circumstances, but it is what it is and we must just get on with it in the knowledge that extra away games at Keighley and Workington are balanced out with additional home fixtures against the bottom two, Cornwall and Newcastle who, incidentally, have left their Newcastle home stadium after nine years to relocate to their former home this side of the Tyne in Gateshead.
Oldham and Keighley each have 14 points, but Sean Long’s men are currently top courtesy of a significantly better points difference and the best ‘for’ and ‘against’ figures in the entire division.
We also have a game in hand. Without doubt, we are currently in the driving seat but that could change on Sunday if Keighley, who need to win this one, can find a way to unlock our magnificent defence.
To concede only 42 points in seven games — six points per game on average — is amazingly outstanding and even more so when taking into account that Sean’s sizzlers have not conceded a single point in their last two outings, winning 74-0 at home to Newcastle and 42-0 down in Cornwall. Out of their seven league games, they’ve ’nilled’ the opposition three times and they have not conceded a single point in more than 160 minutes of action.
That’s down to sheer hard work, a great team ethic and a tribute to the squad’s mental attitude, their fitness, the attitude of the leaders on the field and the passionate belief of head coach Long that defence wins matches and titles.
Isn’t it ironic that both our coach and our managing director Mike Ford were both known as exciting attackers in their playing days, yet we have an absolutely magnificent defence ?
A huge part of the answer to that conundrum lies in Long’s experienced view that hard work and fitness are paramount and that you have to get the upper hand first by doing the essentials, like getting the defence right, taking control of the rucks, and gaining supremacy in the pack before you earn the right to throw the ball around and score the points.
It was no coincidence that Long said he was more pleased with Cornwall’s zilch than with Oldham’s 42 – a total that could have been a whole lot more if we hadn’t missed so many goals.
It was only 12-0 at half-time, Oldham scoring most of their points in the second half.
“We are a second-half team,”
said Long, paying tribute to his side’s fitness, stamina and hard work.
Those qualities will be the key on Sunday in what promises to be a fantastic game.
For the record, the other two games against Keighley are at Boundary Park on Sunday, July 21 and at Cougar Park on Sunday, August 18, 3pm kick-off in each case,
It would take a brave man to go for anyone other than one of these teams to finish top.
The RFL’s intention is to have three divisions of 12 in 2025 or 2026 and with that in mind the winner of the League One play-off this year will not necessarily go up, but will play the team finishing 12th in the Championship for the right to so — another reason why becoming League One top dog is so important.
To have divisions of 12. 12 and 12 eventually will require a new entrant to League One and the RFL has said a number of informal expressions of interest have already been received.
