BRENDAN Sheridan is still pinching himself at the prospect of working with the legendary Brian McDermott in Oldham’s fight against relegation from the Betfred Championship.

Roughyeds stunned the rugby league world on Monday by announcing the capture of 51-year-old McDermott as a coaching consultant to the end of the season.

It followed the departure of head coach Matt Diskin, whose contract was terminated half a season early with Roughyeds on the slide, down in the bottom two and without a win since May 1.

Sheridan, who was coaching amateurs Dewsbury Celtic in the National Conference up to a couple of years ago, kept his job as assistant coach and now finds himself in tandem with McDermott, the most successful coach in Super League history.

He had a brief chat with McDermott on Monday before the former Leeds Rhinos and Toronto Wolfpack boss met the Roughyeds players and backroom staff for the first time at training last night.

Sheridan said: “It’s a huge opportunity for me to be in a position to pick the brains of a man like Brian Mac. He’s a rugby league icon.

“I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Matt for inviting me to be his No 2 in the first place. Matt is a top guy and a top coach and I’ve learned a lot from him. But we are looking ahead now and it will be all about buying into Brian’s knowledge, experience, ideas and coaching philosophies and seeing where it takes us.

“It’s a fresh start and the next 10 weeks will define our season. The players also have next season’s contracts to think about – that’s another incentive on top of the more obvious ones if we can achieve our goal of staying up.”

It is ironic that McDermott’s first game as coaching consultant should be against Bradford – his only club as a player and one for which he turned out 251 times before going into coaching and eventually spearheading the rise and rise of Leeds Rhinos.

Online tickets for Sunday’s Bower Fold clash are on sale now via the Roughyeds website.