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Deakin considers his future at Roughyeds

Gavin Browne
6/ 5/2008

OLDHAM coach Steve Deakin admitted he would be considering his position despite leading his team to a fifth victory from six league games.

Bank Holiday Monday's 38-26 victory over Blackpool Panthers saw some fans turn on Deakin as well as the team.

He said: "I can't take anything away from Blackpool but we should be doing better than that. They got a bonus point from us and we don't have enough pride - whether that takes a change of coach I don't know, it's something I seriously need to think about.

"That isn't a knee jerk reaction. At this moment in time, we're letting in points alarmingly and we just can't do it. I can't put my finger on it.

"In the two years plus since I've been here I don't know if it's the worst performance we've come up with but I'm struggling to come up with one worse.

"There's an acute lack of honesty in the changing room at this moment in time. I thought I was a good judge of character but I was disappointed with the character most of them showed today, I thought we were poor in every facet of the game."

The fall-out threatens to overshadow Sunday's Carnegie Challenge Cup tie at Dewsbury Rams where victory would send Oldham into the last eight. Nevertheless, Deakin said a repeat display would not suffice and warned his players to buck their ideas up.

He said: "Dewsbury is a million miles away from where we are. Perhaps too many people are starting to think of Dewsbury before they got here today but I'm fed up of people turning up with their head on other things.

"It's just not good enough; this isn't a social club, a pub team or anything like that, people get well paid for performing. I understand the frustration of the fans because I was frustrated by the performances today."