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21/ 5/2008

OLDHAM chief executive Chris Hamilton spoke of his relief after the club’s Northern Rail Cup quarter-final was finally rearranged for Sunday with a noon kick-off.

Sunday’s opponents, Batley Bulldogs, had wanted the Mount Pleasant match to take place at 3pm on Saturday to avoid clashing with Leeds United’s League One play-off final 24 hours later.

However, Oldham were unhappy that the initial request was not made until 7.30pm last Sunday and proposed an earlier kick-off this coming Sunday instead, a move accepted by all parties.

Mr Hamilton said: "Our argument was that it was short notice to be looking at changing a game.The other consideration from our point of view was our fans because, as expected, we’ve had to move two games away from Boundary Park, then there’s the rearranged league matches as a result of the extra games in the Northern Rail Cup and Challenge Cup.Those games are all now midweek games and we’re hoping the fans will support the team in those, so we thought it (Saturday) was putting them out when there was no need for it."

Having beaten Swinton Lions last weekend, Oldham head to Batley in good form, hoping to send another Co-operative National League One side out of a cup competition after winning 58-12 at Dewsbury Rams in the last 16 of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

The Bulldogs currently lie sixth in National League One with 11 points from seven games, albeit only two points adrift of third-placed Sheffield.

Consequently, all connected with the Oldham camp are anticipating a difficult afternoon at Mount Pleasant.

Mr Hamilton added: "It’ll be a tough one because we’ve always found it hard at Batley, and although we’ve had some success this year, we’re aware we’re a second division club up against a first division club with home advantage.

"I’m sure they’ll be fancying their chances, but as with Dewsbury, we’ve nothing to lose and there’s a chance of reaching a semi-final. That’s a big motivating factor for both teams so we’ll be looking to go and give a good account of ourselves and try to get near to the level of performance we showed at Dewsbury."

Richard Mervill (elbow) is the club’s main doubt after being withdrawn as a precuation during last Sunday’s victory over Swinton.

On-loan Luke Menzies is expected to figure in the 17 for his final game before holding talks with the Roughyeds on whether or not to extend his stay from Hull KR.