AS SOMEONE who won every trophy on offer during his glittering Bradford career, Scott Naylor's enduring affection for the Bulls is understandable.

A rugged centre in the star-studded side of yesteryear, Naylor returns to Odsal on Sunday for the second time as Oldham Roughyeds head coach.

His only previous visit was a 60-6 Challenge Cup defeat to the Bulls in April 2014 – but this weekend his men arrive on a level playing field as league rivals.

Championship survival is the aim for Oldham, who Naylor reckons have the lowest budget in the division, as they bid to avenge last month's 48-4 loss to the Bulls at Stalybridge.

Naylor, who guided Oldham to a long-awaited promotion last season, saw his men beat Swinton 26-24 at home last weekend.

"The players are absolutely good enough to stay up," he said.

"It has been a long, hard struggle so far and, had a couple of results gone our way, we would sitting comfortably in mid-table now.

"But I'm still confident that we're going to stay up because of what I see from the lads when we're together on the training field. They have it in themselves to beat anybody.

"It's nice to be at a club having been improved year on year and got to the Championship, with the chance now to stay here. I think most clubs who get promoted don't stay up.

"It will be nice to go to Bradford with a group of lads who believe in themselves and consider themselves to be Championship players.

"This division was unknown for a lot of them but they have grown throughout the season and we've had an horrendous run of injuries which haven't helped us.

"The quality of the Bradford team is enormous and playing there is extremely difficult. I know they haven't done as well as many people expected this year but they still don't lose many games at Odsal.

"The challenge is huge – but this is the reason why we wanted to get promoted. Hopefully the novelty of going to places like Odsal will wear off and the expectation at Oldham will increase."

Naylor's reputation as a coach has steadily grown following his success at Oldham and he was linked to the Bulls job when Jimmy Lowes quit in April.

But the straight-talking Leyther said: "Bradford obviously had no interest in me at all because they didn't get in touch.

"There might be jobs out there which interest you but if they already have other people in mind then you can't do anything about it.

"It was disappointing but in another way it kind of made me think 'okay, maybe they don't think I'm ready for that kind of job yet'.

"I'm a big believer that things happen for a reason and, for whatever reason, they don't want me to do the job.

"There are reasons for that but I'm okay with it. I like the job I have and the club I'm at. The people I work with are fantastic and the players I have are top class."

Naylor combines his commitments at part-time Oldham with running a coffee and sandwich shop in Atherton, near Leigh.

The roles demand that he manages his time carefully and the 44-year-old explained: "The two don't really mix.

"The shop is extremely busy and I want to put more time into the rugby, so I try and sneak a bit of time here for a bit of video work.

"At Oldham we train Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and obviously play Sundays. I do a lot of video work on Monday and Wednesdays, so I give myself Friday night off."

Nowhere was the difference between the haves and the have-nots in the Championship better illustrated than Bradford's recent visit to Bower Fold.

A huge entourage of backroom and coaching staff from the Bulls was in stark contrast to the team behind Naylor.

"I think Bradford are still hoping to get back into Super League and have people in position in case they get there," he said.

"It's nice to have a lot of staff to do things but if you don't need them then you don't need them, do you?

"I have four employed staff – two assistants, the physio and the kitman – and two or three other people who are pretty much voluntary."

Naylor reckons the Bulls' hopes of winning promotion remain alive and well.

"The thing with Bradford is that because of the past 15 to 20 years, the expectation levels are enormous," he reasoned.

"It's like Keiron Cunningham at St Helens – the fans there expect him to win the league, the Challenge Cup and the Grand Final because that's what St Helens in the past have done.

"It's the same thing going on at Leeds with Brian McDermott. The expectation levels are huge at Headingley and at Bradford because down the years they have become used to winning games and winning trophies.

"The expectation is still there at Bradford and I don't think it's a bad thing.

"Maybe this season, with the disruption of Jimmy leaving, it has just been unfortunate that a few results have gone against them and they have ended up in the position they have.

"There is nothing to say they couldn't win their last three games, scrape into the last four and make the Million Pound Game.

"You never know and when we got to the business end of the season at Bradford, we put our best team out and the previous league games weren't really that important.

"Hopefully the Bulls can get into that top four with their strongest side possible and have a real go at it.

"It obviously hasn't been the season that everyone was hoping to have, so maybe it's a step backwards this year to go forward again."