COVENTRY Bears have been handed the toughest of ties in the first round of the League 1 Cup with an away trip to Oldham.
The Roughyeds reached the play-offs in Championship One last season and Bears Head Coach Tom Tsang believes the clash with the Greater Manchester outfit will be their hardest game yet.
Tsang said: “It’s going to be tough draw, Oldham are arguably the toughest team in the competition. It will be really good to test ourselves early on in the season and depending how we go we can kick on from there.”
Despite not being given a home draw for the club to make their professional debut, Tsang is in no doubt what a great opportunity this is, saying: “Ideally, we’d have liked to have a home game but we have to just take what we get, we feel blessed to be in this position to even be playing in this competition so whoever we got it’s a great opportunity.”
With pre-season training well underway, Tsang is impressed with the attitude his players have shown so far, commenting: “Everyone is working really hard, its pre-season so its tough hard work but everyone has come to training with great attitudes working hard for each other and so far we seem to hit the ground running.”
Asked how the cup game fits into their schedule, the Bears Head Coach said: “It fits into our pre-season schedule really well, we are two weeks into pre-season now and we’ll train right up until Christmas. We’ll then have a break over the festive period and then hit the training pitch hard in January.
After that we’re going away in February to Spain to do a 4-day training camp and then we’ll have a couple of friendly matches before taking on Oldham in the League 1 Cup.”
England and Wigan player Dan Sarginson made a special appearance at the League 1 Cup draw held at BBC Coventry and Warwickshire.
Commenting on the Bears breakthrough into professional Rugby League, Sarginson said: “It just makes me happy to see teams in this competition outside of the north, obviously Coventry are a growing side, I’ve spoken to people in and around them and it’s looking really promising for them and I wish them well for the season.”
The League 1 cup ties are to be played over the weekend of February 28 and March 1 2015.
By Robin Allen