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by ROGER HALSTEAD THE Oldham club moved quickly today to assure supporters that the board was fully behind coach Steve Deakin, who had hinted that he would be considering his future in the aftermath of a poor performance against Blackpool Panthers. Roughyeds won the game 38-26, but Panthers scored five tries and got a bonus point and in his post-match media interviews Deaks questioned his players' honesty, character and attitude. He added: "If this means there has to be a change of coach I'll step aside. This is not a kneejerk reaction -- it is something I need to think seriously about." The club was inundated with press and media calls this morning as reporters sought clarification of the situation with Deaks, who had also let his frustrations be known to listeners of Radio Manchester. Chris Hamilton, the club's chief executive, immediately killed speculation that Deaks might be leaving and made it abundantly clear that what he had said immediately after the game was a comment made in the heat of the moment "when passions and frustrations are sometime running high." Putting the club's point of view, Chris said: "In fairness to Deaks he had received a bit of personal abuse from the crowd and that didn't help. "At the end of the day people do say things when they are steeped in emotion and disappointment after a game and that's what happened with Deaks yesterday. "It shows he cares and that he is passionate about his job, the team and the club and nobody can knock him for that. "I can assure fans of this: he ain't going anywhere and everyone at the club will now put this behind us and get on with the job of pulling in the right direction and preparing for an extremely important Carnegie Challenge Cup tie at Dewsbury on Sunday." Commenting in more general terms, Chris added: "Deaks was upset with the performance yesterday, but we have to keep things in perspective and look at the overall picture. "We would all like to be going out blitzing teams every week, but in reality things are never as easy as that. Ask Rochdale, beaten at home yestrday by Hunslet. "That further underlines what we keep saying: that there are no easy games in this division. We keep stressing that for no other reason than it is the truth. "Yes, we know there are improvements that can and will be made by the coaching staff and by the players, but we have to recognise that sport can't be made to order. There isn't a team in any sport on this planet which goes out in every game knowing for certain it is going to stroll to an easy win. Sport isn't like that, and it shouldn't be like that. "People would soon get bored if we were putting 50 or 60 points past every team we played, and knowing that we would do that before we even took the field. "Don't forget, we did BEAT Blackpool yesterday, and if we are disappointed about that what would NL1 sides Salford and Whitehaven think when they both LOST to us, or how do you think Rochdale would react yesterday when Hunslet turned them over at Spotland? "In the overall scheme of things, we have won five of our six games in NL2, we are in the last 16 of the Carnegie Challenge Cup and we are in the last eight of the Northern Rail Cup, a stage of the competition we have never reached before. We are unbeaten at Boundary Park all season -- for eight months and 12 games, in fact, going back to September last year. "We have so much to look forward to over the rest of the season, including possible progress in two cup competitions as well as the push for promotion from NL2. "I know of a lot of clubs, players and supporters who would give anything to swop shops with Oldham right now and who would recognise that we had made a very good start to the season. "The game at Dewsbury on Sunday is an extremely important one for the players, the club and the supporters. We are, after all, bidding to reach the quarter-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup in the knowledge that we have already beaten two NL1 teams this season, admittedly at home. "Fans can be assured that everyone at the club will be pulling together with that objective in mind." |
