A home fifth round tie against the Sheffield Eagles awaited the winners of a Sunday evening fourth round game between the Swinton Lions and Oldham as the Championship met Championship One, two sides who have recruited well over the close season and whose sides contained vastly experienced players.

It was the League One side who were the favourites with the bookies, despite travelling to Heywood Road in Sale for the game, and it was the home side had a six-point start on the coupon.

The Sean Long factor, and his recruitment of a strong side, meant that it was his side who were expected to make progress into the fifth round.

The final round of the regular season was critical for both sides and the mathematics were a little complicated depending on who you were pulling for as Halifax needed to win and hope that Barrow Raiders lost to York RLFC Knights to get a play-off place, while Swinton Lions needed to avoid losing by more than four points to send Whitehaven down, or do better than Keighley Cougars result, to maintain Championship football for 2024 by the narrowest of margins.

Swinton showed massive character to beat their relegation rivals Whitehaven last week by a single point to grab themselves a massive lifeline, and they would be confident about kicking on from that and spoiling Halifax’s party.

A fifteen-minute delay to the kick-off, to allow half a dozen Halifax players time to negotiate traffic around the ground, added to the pre-match atmosphere.

Eighth placed Bradford Bulls had a Championship game against a Swinton Lions in twelfth spot as both sides knew that a win was crucial for them to keep alive their play-off hopes as the season edges towards its mid-season.

Bradford were the favourites with the bookies, with few pundits giving Swinton much hope despite the Bulls recent coaching issues and six changes made to last week´s Bulls starting line-up.

Lee Greenwood was interim Bulls coach, but many supporters were happy that past coaching messiah Brian Noble was also involved in the set up as an advisor.

A place in the Championship for 2023 was up for grabs as Doncaster travelled to Heywood Road insouth Manchester to take on a Swinton Lions side who were looking to bounce back at the first time of asking and join the Keighley Cougars in next season’s second tier.

Swinton won comfortably in the play off semi-finals a fortnight ago when they ran out as 32-12 winners with both sides having won a game each in the regular season games, Doncaster by 26-12 at Swinton and Swinton by 64-22 in a high scoring round three encounter at the Eco-Power Stadium.

The Lions were big favourites for the win and promotion, but Doncaster came into the game on the back of a big win against the Rochdale Hornets last weekend and full of hope that they would be the ones celebrating at the end of eighty minutes.

A place in the Championship was up for grabs as Leon Pryce’s Workington Town travelled down the M6 to take on Stuart Littler’s Swinton Lions in the last game of the domestic season.

Having finished bottom of the Championship ladder the Lions knew that they would be up against as they welcomed the side who pushed York and Bradford all the way in Championship One and now hoped to join them in the second tier next season.

This crucial game was being held at Swintons home ground of Haywood Road in Sale as the lower division side were forced to travel.

The two sides last met over two years ago when Swinton won by 19-12, but with Swinton not having won in their last four, this was anyones game as the Lions took on the Marras.

CLUB STATEMENT - SATURDAY 8TH JULY 2017

Last Thursday night at Swinton Royal British Legion, remaining directors Alan Marshall and Steve Wild gave a full and frank disclosure of the club's current financial position.

After a superb nip and tuck game between Dewsbury Rams and Batley Bulldogs saw the Bulldogs emerge with the two points to put them up to third, attention switched to the bottom half of the table when Oldham Roughyeds took on Swinton Lions in the fifth game of the Blackpool Summer Bash.



A win for Oldham would see them overtake Swinton and grab ninth spot but a win for Swinton, would see them go above Sheffield Eagles into seventh spot in the Kingstone Press Championship.



This was the first Summer Bash for both teams, having both been promoted to the Championship at the end of last season.