COACH SCOTT Naylor and his captain Lewis Palfrey have raised the bar in their expectations for Oldham Rugby League Club in the 2014 season.
The boss has banned all talk of that heartbreaking play-off final defeat by neighbours Rochdale last September which cost Roughyeds promotion from Kingstone Press Championship One.
And neither Naylor nor Palfrey was afraid of going public with their team and club goals for the season that started on Sunday, March 2 at South Wales Scorpions where the match was dramatically abandoned after 72 minutes with Oldham leading 18-4 due to the atrocious conditions which saw players treated for hypothermia-like problems.
The Rugby League will this week decide whether the result should stand given only eight minutes remained.
In short, nothing less than promotion will do for Roughyeds.
This year, there’s one big difference though. Only one team from the nine-club division will go up as opposed to two in 2013.
And unlike last time, when the team finishing top was promoted automatically, the only one to move up this season will be the outright winners of the five-team play-off.
Now Oldham don’t have a good record in play-off finals, having lost five of them in the last seven years.
But not even that could diminish the high hopes of captain and coach.
All hush-hush maybe, but it will take them a long time to forget the fact that they finished only two points behind promoted North Wales last year and a massive nine ahead of third-placed Rochdale, who went on to pip them in the final and thus earn the right to move up to the Championship.
Palfrey said:: “As a group of players, we all feel we belong in the Championship after what happened last year. We’re definitely good enough. We’ve already proved that.
“We’ve no need to fear anybody in our division and if we keep our house in order I’m sure we’ll be fine.
“We know it’s going to be tough, but we need to win promotion this time instead of slipping up at the last hurdle and I’m sure we’re good enough to do it.”
Naylor was similarly optimistic adding: “After the season we had last year we’ve got to be looking at securing promotion this time.
“We’ve kept most of last year’s squad and they’ll benefit from having had last season together. A lot of them stepped up to first-team rugby for the first time and they learned a lot.
“Now, they’re a year older, stronger, more experienced and wiser — and I think that will count for a lot.
“I’ve a squad of 22 and overall I firmly believe it is stronger than last year, better balanced and with more quality.
“I’ve got six props, three half-backs, three hookers and two full-backs and in the main those key positions form the spine of any team.
“There’s competition for places right across the board and that’s something I’ve been striving for since I got to the club in late 2012.
“It means I’ll have tough selection decisions to make, but that’s how I like it. It’s what the job is all about.
“We lost two of our first three league games last year and ultimately that indifferent start cost us promotion. Needless to say we need to hit the ground running this time.”
The Roughyeds’ first home game is against Hemel Stags at Whitebank on Sunday, March 9 (3pm kick off).
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