Hornets coach aiming for fairytale ending

Rochdale Hornets Coach Ian Talbot

Rochdale Hornets coach Ian Talbot is dreaming of a fairytale ending to the 2013 season with victory in the 2013 Kingstone Press Championship One Play-off Final at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday.

Rochdale and Oldham have already met in the play-offs, with Hornets triumphing thanks to a last-minute drop-goal from Paul Crook, but they will have to beat their local rivals once again to clinch promotion – and their first silverware in almost a century.

“To win promotion would be a fairy tale ending to the season,” said Talbot. “Obviously there’s a lot of competition between the two clubs but it’s been a long time since Rochdale won a trophy, over 90 years, so it would be fantastic for us to change that.

“Rochdale are sleeping giants in Rugby League. The fans deserve success and there are a lot of people who have been working hard behind the scenes at Rochdale who deserve it as well.

“But we are not taking anything for granted. We know that we will have to be at our best to be in with a chance of winning the game.

“We also know that they are a good side but both teams are looking towards that much-coveted promotion.”

Hornets have been climbing the Kingstone Press Championship One table gradually over the last few years but Talbot, who joined the club for the 2013 campaign, was forced to bring in a host of new faces in the off-season, which brought its own challenges.

“We always knew that if we played to our potential promotion was a realistic aim,” he said. “We have definitely gelled as a team very quickly.

“In the off season I was behind in terms of recruitment at one point, and that’s just testament to the players who have come in and the hard work they have put in to gel quickly.

“Towards the end of the season we really started to get that consistency. We had a slight blip in the middle of the season and at one point I had 10 players out through injury, but we had to keep going, knowing that we would come good in the end.”

The 2013 Kingstone Press Championships Finals Day at Leigh Sports Village on Sunday 29 September features a feast of first class Rugby League action with three matches kicking off: 

• Rugby League Conference Challenge Trophy Final, Leigh Miners v Wigan St Patrick's (11.30am)
• Championship One Play-off Final (2.00pm)
• Championship Grand Final (4.30pm). T

Tickets cost from just £15 for adults, £10 for concessions and can be purchased by visiting www.rugbyleaguetickets.co.uk or by calling the RFL Ticket Office on 0844 856 1113. 

For people with any form of disability the RFL offers a free assistant place when booking tickets. For people with a visual impairment or non-sighted disability an audio visual descriptive commentary is available.