We don’t drop our guard now: Long backs Oldham to finish the job

Head coach Sean Long has challenged his players to maintain their red-hot form for the rest of the season to clinch promotion to the Betfred Championship, while revealing that prop forward McKenzie Yei is close to an Oldham debut.

Sunday's thumping 44-6 win over closest challengers Keighley Cougars gave the Roughyeds a three-point lead at the top ahead of this weekend's eagerly-anticipated trip to local rivals Rochdale.

Long's men still have to go back to Cougar Park too - where they lost in May - as well as home fixtures against Midlands, Cornwall, Newcastle and Workington. Only the champions go up automatically.

And speaking to Roughyeds TV ahead of the trip to the Hornets, Long revealed that he and his squad have been open and honest about what they have to do to capitalise on the platform they have built.

"If you don't turn up with the right mentality you will get out-enthused," Long warned.

That is one thing we have spoken about - we don't want to drop our guard now going into the last six games. We don't want to get complacent, we want to keep our standards high coming into this week.

We don't want to be a team that has good wins and then drops off our standards the week after."

Long has also confirmed that most of his injured stars are nearing returns to full fitness, making an almost impossible job of team selections even tougher. Craig Kopczak, George Hirst and Ben O'Keefe are all progressing well after missing out of the Keighley win through injuries, while Papua New Guinea prop Yei has joined his team-mates in full-contact training this week for the first time as he nears an Oldham debut.

"It is a relief for me to have big Mack back for the last six games of the season," Long added.

I will see how he trains - I don't think the rest of the lads are looking forward to playing against him in training! I always watch the boys in training and see how they go. It will be tough to change the team now but the quality is there.

This is a local derby and anything can happen, but the boys have come up with a plan and talked about preparation and having the right mindset.

You are always learning and fixing things. We just keep chipping away at it."

To view Sean Long's 21-man squad ahead of Sunday's game, CLICK HERE.