2024 season – A great success for the Roughyeds!
The 2024 season has proved to be a remarkable success story for the club and congratulations are in order to Bill Quinn, Mike Ford and everyone who has contributed to the wonderful 2024 campaign. Not least of these are Sean Long and the Oldham players who finished clear leaders of League One to become deserved champions therefore gaining promotion to the Championship for 2025.
So well done to the Board of Directors, the players, staff and the fantastic supporters, especially those who have stuck with it through thick and thin and now have real hope for the future of their beloved ‘Roughyeds’.
Some of the stand-out facts for the season are listed below
There was only one league defeat which is the best ever in the history of the club but you have to keep in mind that there was only 20 league matches. The next best are:
1897-98 – 2 league defeats (26 matches).
1907-08 – 2 league defeats (32 matches).
1981-82 – 2 league defeats (32 matches).
Much of the success was built on a miserly and resolute defence that kept seven clean sheets, the most times our opponents were ‘nilled’ since the 1910-11 season. This included four consecutive home ‘shut-outs’ at the end of the season, the best since 1905-06.
Cian Tyrer’s 29 tries is the best in a season since Paul Lord got the same number in 1989-90 and Geoff Munro in 1979-80 but if you include the one Cian scored on loan at Workington you have to go back to 1959-60 when Ike Southward scored 31.
Also three players scored more than 100 points.
Jamie Ellis: 14 matches – 1 try 61 goals 126 points.
Cian Tyrer: 13 matches – 29 tries 12 goals 140 points.
Kieran Dixon: 7 matches – 9 tries 39 goals 114 points.
This has only been achieved twice before in 2004 and the championship winning season of 1956-57.
What is more remarkable about the 2024 effort is that all three players only played part of the season.
The attendance (2,681) for the final match of the season against Workington Town on September 1st was the highest since the 2,806 watched the game against Doncaster on July 17th 2008. The average attendance, including the home friendly against London Broncos, is 1,579 more than double that of 2023 (741).