Perkins looks for positives after Stags fall to Oldham defeat

Stags battled manfully to limit the damage against their impressive opponents, whose performance on the day may well have merited upwards of 60 points against many other sides in the division.

“ I thought we competed really well and I can’t fault the players’ effort,” said Perkins. “Oldham is a difficult place to go to, and they haven’t been beaten at home all season.

“They are a very big team, with their wingers as big as our props, so defending for long periods was always going to take its toll.”

Hemel more than matched Oldham in the game’s first quarter, but Perkins said the difference in the end came down to the Roughyeds’ ability to turn pressure into points.

“We started well and I was confident we could go on and win the game, however the final 20 minutes of the first half we spent defending our line and conceded a couple of tries.

“The start of the second half saw us have several sets on Oldham’s line and, although we went close, we were unable to score.

“I feel if we could have scored in that period we would have been back in the game.”

Perkins reserved special praise for three of his players in particular

“I thought all of our forwards worked hard against a massive pack, especially our back row of BJ Swindells, Ciaren Clement-Pascall and Alex Ingarfield,” he said.

Stags, meanwhile, have secured the services of former Leeds Rhinos youth product Jamal Chisholm until the end of the season.

Chisholm has twice been crowned rugby league’s fastest man, and is a welcome addition to the squad ahead of the important matches which will determine whether Hemel play post-season rugby in September.

Perkins, who gave Chisholm his debut against Oldham on Sunday, is delighted to be able to strengthen his squad at this stage of the campaign and said: “Jamel is a quality signing for us.

“He has come through a fantastic junior system at Leeds Rhinos, he is a great finisher and will add plenty of pace to our back-line.

“He was playing in the Championship with Featherstone Rovers and, after spending a brief spell out of the game, was keen to get back to playing rugby league.

“He has plenty of speed and has won Super League’s fastest player a couple of times so I am looking forward to seeing him in open space.”