Phyllis labours to keep her Thunder on the road

Gateshead Thunder's hopes of getting through the rest of the season with a team of Geordie youngsters will be put to the test for the first time today at Oldham.

The North-east outpost has been through a month of upheaval, losing its coach, most experienced players, chairman and backers. What it still has is a reservoir of enthusiasm which could yet see it survive.

Phyllis Thorman is one of the board members who has taken up the slack and without her there would be some gaps on and off the pitch. Her eldest son, Chris, on loan back at Huddersfield after signing to play for the London Broncos, is Tyneside's most notable rugby league export. Paul, 19, is a regular for the Thunder and 17-year-old Neil could make his debut today.

"It's a huge task for them at Oldham, but two things they won't lack are commitment and enthusiasm,'' she says. "We've worked so hard, we just can't give it up.''

The commitment of the little pocket of rugby league enthusiasts in the North-east has been sorely tested. First there was the pull out by the Super League side after just a year. A humbler operation in the Northern Ford Premiership has been struggling to maintain a foothold, but has seemed to be slipping off the ladder in recent weeks.

But Phyllis refuses to be downhearted. There are talks with both the sponsor and the Rugby League about a rescue package that could include borrowing players from other clubs.

For now, however, Gateshead will have to manage with what they can find on their doorstep. That means young players from their Academy side, plus a sprinkling of older players from amateur clubs and the odd student with a smattering of professional experience elsewhere.

It sounds like a recipe for some heavy defeats, but Phyllis is adamant that the club will not be disgraced. "The lads are very determined,'' she says. "They were training themselves earlier in the week, but Ray Unsworth, the coaching co-ordinator from the Rugby League, came up.''

Chris Thorman set aside his commitments elsewhere to come back to Tyneside and help to promote the code at a development camp. There is a mood of everyone pulling together. "It's obviously not perfect, but it's not a perfect world,'' says Phyllis who has been staffing the front office, as well as helping raise a team.

It is, she admits, not going to be easy, but if Gateshead can come out of this crisis in one piece, Mrs Thorman and her canny lads will have done more than one family's share.