Oldham coach Naylor losing sleep over his side’s inconsistent performances

Oldham head coach Scott Naylor has admitted that his side’s inconsistent performances are providing him with sleepless nights.

For the second year running, the Roughyeds threw away a healthy lead at the Summer Bash, this time going down to bitter rivals Rochdale.

Naylor saw his side relinquish a 26-8 lead in Blackpool as they fell to defeat to the Hornets, a year after surrendering a 20-0 lead at Bloomfield Road against Swinton.

It was the latest in a string of inconsistent performances for the Roughyeds this season, and Naylor bemoaned his side’s inability to perform for a whole match.

“That’s what is keeping me awake at night,” he said.

“We did it last week against Batley, we did it again today. We’ve had games where we’ve been fantastic, we have a talk at half-time about doing the simple basics stuff, field position and all that, because when we do that we haven’t lost a game, other than the London game which we beat by two points.

“It’s having a catastrophic effect on us as a team.

“I’ve tried and tried to fix the basics but I can’t go on the field and make them do the basics.

“At the end of the day if could haves and should haves had gone right we’d be in the top six. At present, I think we’re ninth and it is all by us. It’s all to do with us, it’s our fault, it’s my fault, it’s the team’s fault and what we’re doing on the field.

“Until we sort those basics out, and I mean the absolute basics that you learn as an amateur rugby player, we will continue to lose games.”