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by ROGER HALSTEAD
 
ROUGHYEDS are banging the drum in the hope of whipping up support at Sunday's National League Two clash with York City Knights at Boundary Park, kick-off 3pm.
 
Club officials were pleased with the attendance of 1,168 when Hunslet Hawks were beaten 40-12 at Boundary Park on Easter Monday, this being better than any NL2 attendance at BP last season apart from that at the Celtic Crusaders game at which special conditions applied.
 
Now, Roughyeds are working hard to build on that in the hope that attendances will get better as the season unfolds.
 
Posters are out around the town advertising the York game, as they were for the Hunslet match, and the club's chief executive Chris Hamilton has today made an impassioned plea for fans to turn up in numbers on Sunday.
 
Roughyeds will be defending an unbeaten home record this season --- even NL1 club Salford City Reds couldn't win here in the Nortern Rail Cup -- and they are anxious to take that record into their next clash with an NL1 side at Boundary Park when Whitehaven come here in the last 16 of the Northern Rail Cup on Sunday week, April 6.
 
To do that they must beat York this Sunday to make it three wins from three in NL2 in pursuit of achieving their stated aim of winning the division outright as the bookmakers' odds-on favourites.
 
The bookies fancy them to win promotion outright because the club, now backed by chairman Bill Quinn and the Wm.Quinn Group, has invested heavily in building a squad that has raised a lot of eyebrows throughout the National Leagues.
 
Said Mr Hamilton: "The crowd on Monday was slightly better than for the first league game against Featherstone a year ago and, as such, it was bigger than anything we attracted last season in the regular NL2 season apart from the Celtic Crusaders game.
 
"We hope everyone enjoyed their visit to Boundary Park last weekend and that, wherever possible, fans will come back again this Sunday to enjoy the rugby league on offer and to get behind the team.
 
"Home support in this division is particularly important. There are some reasonable away followings in NL1, but you don't get that in NL2 and that made Monday's attendance all the more pleasing because
with odd exceptions they were all our own supporters who were in the ground.
 
"The feedback we get is that supporters are enjoying their rugby now, but we really do need fans to get behind us in numbers whenever we are playing at home, if for no other reason than the fact that attendance figures are the barometer to measure what amount of interest there is in what we are attempting to do and attemping to achieve.
 
"The club has made its intentions known with its investment on players and we like to think we are offering fans good entertainment, value for money and lots to look forward to in the future.
 
"The level of support we get from fans is vital to the future success of the club so we are hoping we can build on last Monday's attendance and that, wherever possible, fans who are enjoying their Roughyeds rugby this season will help us to spread the word and perhaps try to bring somebody else with them on Sunday.
 
"Attendance figures, and the size of a club's fan base, make a massive difference as to where the club can get to in its push to move forward, so let's bang the drum for Oldham in our efforts to take the club upwards and onwards."