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Where to go?

Gavin Browne
25/ 5/2005

THE Roughyeds are continuing to look for a new temporary home after the Rugby Football League refused them permission to play three games at Manor Park.

RFL operations manager Emma Rosewarne visited the Oldham RUFC ground with Oldham chairman Chris Hamilton on Monday to assess its suitability.

The Roughyeds were hoping to stage games against Rochdale Hornets (June 5), Halifax (June 26) and Featherstone (July 3) at Manor Park with Boundary Park unavailable because of remedial work to the pitch.

The decision was not a total surprise with Manor Park failing to meet minimum standards in the absence of turnstiles and seats.

A move would see another ground added to the Roughyeds' list of homes in recent years, including the likes of Blackpool, Preston, Rochdale, Ashton United's Hurst Cross ground and Stalybridge Celtic's Bower Fold stadium - site of their Challenge Cup tie against St Helens in 2002.

With the club also racing against time to settle their outstanding debt with the Inland Revenue, some supporters have been hoping that Oldham Athletic's owners would come in and save the day.

Although discussions have taken place between Latics, Roughyeds and Oldham Council, Latics director Ian Hill has again ruled out the possibility of that happening.

He said: "At the present moment in time, we're trying to get the football club into a solvent state to safeguard it for the future - we have to make sure it's not continuing to lose money.

"It wouldn't be practical to take on another business which is losing big lumps of money. There's no chance of us taking it over - I wouldn't want people to think we're sitting in the background waiting for something to happen and then jumping in.

"I know there's been a meeting with executive director Simon Corney but to be honest, we haven't really been asked for anything.

"What we have done is let them play on our pitch for free and two games at half-price, which effectively costs us money.

"He (Mr Hamilton) has come to us to explain the difficulties in terms of having to move his games, but there's nothing we can do about that."