WE must not take anything for granted at Hunslet

IT would be human nature to some extent if high-flying Oldham, joint third in the Championship, or fourth at the very least, were to go to bottom-club Hunslet tomorrow with, shall we say, an attitude of superiority or one that's a trifle below par.

It would be only natural, I guess, to look at the table, to see that Hunslet are rock bottom with only two wins from ten outings — and to think fourth-placed Roughyeds don't necessarily need to be at their best,

That view might well be strengthened by the fact that, in League One last year, we won both home and away games easily, 62-0, in fact, at the South Leeds Stadium, when Cian Tyrer saw his name go up in lights by scoring six tries.

However, Sean Long doesn't need me to tell him that results don't always go according to form and that Hunslet won at Sheffield last week. Hunslet would love nothing better than to climb off the bottom with a win against Oldham. Confidence and self belief will have soared with that 22-18 win at Sheffield.

They also won at Batley in April and the month before that they held Widnes to two points at home in the 1895 Cup.

We must also remember that lots of changes have taken place in south Leeds recently and that the side Oldham will face tomorrow will not be the one we hammered 62-0 and Cian Tyrer hit the headlines and became a club hero. To start with, they didn't have our former player Mackenzie Turner.

Nor did they have former Castleford star Greg Eden or ex-Halifax forward Kevin Larroyer.

Interestingly, our squad tomorrow, is made up of the 17 who beat Halifax last time out, including debutants Matty Pons, a French kid , on the left wing and Zane Musgrove , a Samoan from NZ in the forwards, plus Logan Astley, Lewis Baxter, Jack Johnson and Elijah Taylor' who's back after injury and whose constant graft and willingness to do the really hard work was badly missed in those home defeats by Featherstone in the cup and by Bradford and Toulouse in the league.

Team selection won't be easy for Sean Long, but he will know what to expect this time from a very different Hunslet to the side we met before.

Hunslet have spent a lot of money of late and the side that won at Sheffield, just a week or two after winning at Batley, will show no resemblance at all to the one we murdered 62-0 more than a year ago, Oldham will be much-changed, too, in a different sort of game altogether.

Even before their ambitious signings, Hunslet showed they had the capability of causing upsets, like winning at Rochdale in the play-off and then shocking Swinton at Heywood Road in the Final to win promotion when nobody but themselves would have thought it possible,

If ever a side showed that attitude, self-belief, and a willingness to scrap on the day, work hard for each other and put bodies on the line, counted more than anything in rugby league, it was Hunslet in last year's play-off.

Clearly, they are no mugs, no easy-beats and despite that excellent win against Halifax last week, Oldham will have to be on their mettle to come away with the two points they need ahead of their much-needed mini break which will give some of the walking wounded a much-needed rest.

I'm taking Oldham to get there because they were so good against Halifax, and superior ability can count in the end.

IT WON'T COUNT AT ALL, THOUGH, IF OLDHAM GO INTO THIS GAME UNDER-COOKED OR THINKING THEY DON'T NEED TO BE THE BEST THEY CAN POSSIBLY BE.

After Sunday's visit to the South Leeds Stadium, Roughyeds have no game on June 8 or on June 15, two blank Sundays followed by Toulouse away (6pm) on Saturday, June 21, and Halifax away on June 29, followed by Widnes at home on July 6

In short, we don't play after tomorrow until we go to Toulouse on June 21 and we don't play at Boundary Park again until Widnes come here on July 6 --that's six weeks without a home game between Halifax on May 25 and Widnes on July 6,

We are not at home at all in June when essential maintenance work will take place at BP, but the key thing about all this is the upcoming period of no Oldham rugby whatsoever – essentially important in terms of rest and recovery and all the more important when several players are carrying long-term injuries.

It also means Oldham must win tomorrow if they are not to drop down the table during three weeks off and six weeks without a home game.