Oldham must beat Workington Town to stay in title race - Nanyn
Last updated 12:29, Wednesday, 02 July 2008
Ex-Whitehaven record breaker Mick Nanyn warned that ambitious Oldham must use Workington Town as a stepping stone at Derwent Park on Sunday to stay in the NL2 title race.
The Roughyeds, in third, trail unbeaten leaders Barrow by six points and Nanyn reckons they can afford no more slip-ups for the rest of the campaign if they are to achieve their pre-season goal of winning the championship.
“It you look at the table, we have to win pretty much all our games to get near Barrow,” the big centre said. “And if we do that, we won’t be far off.
“They have made a phenomenal start to the year, but we are still fighting for top spot. We stuttered a little at the start of the season, but we have found a little form now.
“We were favourite to win it but have been caught cold a couple of times. At times, teams have raised their game and we haven’t quite been on top of ours. We haven’t really played that well as a team and have seemed to win games through bits of individual brilliance.”
Nanyn has noted Town’s uneven home form this season, though he knows they are capable of pulling off a surprise. “They beat Doncaster up there, which was probably a bit of a shock,” said the big centre, who has broken scoring records at all four of his former clubs, Swinton, Rochdale, Haven and Widnes, and is, unsurprisingly, the top points scorer outside Super League again this term.
“Though they have come unstuck against some of the supposed lesser sides. It’s not the nicest place to play, but Workington use that to their advantage.”
Twelve months ago, Nanyn bagged 22 points for Widnes in their Northern Rail Cup final demolition of Haven.
He later left the Vikings after they went in to administration and their future was uncertain, and he has no regrets over how the season has panned out.
“Oldham were probably only four minutes away from a Northern Rail Cup semi-final, so I can’t really complain at that,” he added.
“And we got to a Challenge Cup quarter-final.
“Obviously I’m not 100 per cent happy with our league form, but you can’t have everything, and we have picked up over the last few weeks.”
