RUGBY LEAGUE: Only history on side of Goodway's men

Dave Hadfield meets a cautious rugby league Challenge Cup semi- finalist

Andy Goodway, the Oldham coach, is philosophical about suggestions that today's Silk Cut Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan could produce a record score. "If we score more than 71 points, I'll be very happy," he said.

Beneath the bravado, Goodway knows that his old club are widely expected to run up a score comparable with their 71-10 victory over Bradford Northern in the semi-final three years ago. "It's a bit insulting, but we've been insulted all season," he said. "Not by the media, who have been pretty good, but by plenty of people who have been surprised by how well we have done."

These matters are relative. Doing well for Oldham amounts to steering clear of relegation and earning an outside chance of a place in the top eight play-offs for the Premiership, as well as this unexpected semi-final appearance at the Alfred McAlpine Stadium in Huddersfield.

"We have been a bit better than average, when everybody expected us to be very poor," is Goodway's assessment. He will have to find a new way of describing the season if Oldham do the unthinkable and reach Wembley for the first time.

Goodway could find inspiration in the last time that Oldham - or anybody else - beat Wigan in the Challenge Cup. That was in the first round eight years ago and Goodway played alongside the now Wigan coach, Graeme West, in the beaten Wigan pack. Unlike West, who regularly dusts down memories of that match as a reminder of what can happen when your guard slips, Goodway has long since forgotten it.

"It should have been worse for me than anyone, because we were beaten by my old club, but I won at Wembley the next four seasons and that wiped it out of my mind," he says.

The Oldham side today has less pedigree and experience than the one which won in 1987. What it does have is a wealth of players who have performed beyond expectations all season. The fitness of the former Wigan scrum- half, Martin Crompton, has been crucial to Oldham's progress, while Joe Faimalo has emerged as a match-winning second- rower who impresses even a coach who was so outstanding in that role himself.

Wigan, however, have the ominous look of a side in a familiar groove; a collection of players who know exactly what is required, freshened up by a couple of newcomers in Martin Hall and Henry Paul. All the players who missed last Sunday's league win at Salford, including Martin Offiah and the one man who has played in every Cup-tie back to and including that defeat at Oldham, Shaun Edwards, are fit to tackle the last obstacle separating Wigan from their eighth successive Wembley final.

Wigan: Paul; Robinson, Tuigamala, Connolly, Offiah; Botica, Edwards; Skerrett, Hall, Cowie, Betts, Cassidy, Clarke. Substitutes: Mather, Farrell.

Oldham: Gibson; Belle, Topping, Abram, Ranson; Marsh, Crompton; Sherratt, Stephenson, Temu, Lord, Faimalo, Kuiti. Substitutes: Richards, Bradbury.

Referee: R Smith (Castleford).