Hull KR vs Oldham Prediction: Full-strength visitors should beat the handicap

Betfred Super League leaders Hull KR kick off the Betfred Challenge Cup fourth round with a home tie against Championship newcomers Oldham on Friday in a tie they will be heavily backed to win at Sewell Group Craven Park (kick-off 20:00 GMT).

Willie Peters' pacesetters lock horns with a side who were in League 1 a few months ago, but who are fiercely ambitious of rising up the tiers towards Super League themselves. My Hull KR vs Oldham predictions will take this into account, and are to be found below alongside full team news and Betfred's match odds.

Hull KR vs Oldham Odds

The Robins are such heavy favourites that you won't even get a price on them winning in the straight match-result market. Sean Long's visitors are 25/1 to progress to the quarter-finals, making them a 3.8% implied shot for victory in 80 minutes, while it's 28/1 (3.4%) for the game to be tied after regulation time.

The standard two-way handicap marker is placed at 40.5 points, with Rovers 5/6 to overcome that huge disadvantage. Oldham are 10/11 in that scenario, while you can get 11/5 (31.3%) for the Roughyeds to keep the deficit within 32 points on alternative three of the three-way handicap.

Team News

Hull KR name a strong squad for the visit of the Championship side as they bid to reach the quarter-finals of a competition they finished runners-up in two years ago.

Niall Evalds returns after missing last week's win at St Helens through concussion protocols. Dean Hadley, though, is out after picking up a head injury at Saints, and there is no Michael McIlorum or Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.

Bill Leyland, Leon Ruan, Lee Kershaw and Eribe Doro are all included and could make their Robins debuts.

Oldham named a slightly weaker squad in the Championship on Sunday and came unstuck with defeat at Barrow Raiders. But head coach Long goes much stronger this week, with the likes of Josh Drinkwater, Danny Craven, Gil Dudson, Matty Ashurst and Iain Thornley back in the squad. Craven is in line to make the 250th appearance of his career.

Thornley and winger Kieran Dixon are both expected to start for Oldham, having been in the Hull KR team which lost to Oldham in the Challenge Cup in 2016.

Handicap 2-way Oldham 40.5 @ 10/11

Much of this tie will depend on how hard Willie Peters goes with his matchday 17, as a very strong Hull KR side is going to be almost impossible to beat.

If he opts to throw in the odd debut and rest a couple of key men, then Oldham can have a crack at this. The Robins are bouncing along very nicely with four wins from four and shouldn't really have a problem navigating past the Roughyeds.

But Oldham are a far better team than their most recent result suggests. They are a club undergoing a rapid upward transformation under new ownership, winning the League 1 title last season and starting off 2025 with an eye-catching demolition job on York. They are still alive in both cup competitions too.

The defeat at Barrow on Sunday was just a really bad day, when fringe players were given a chance and it didn't click. I'm confident we will see a different Oldham travel to Hull on Friday evening.

Will they be strong enough to cause an upset? I don't think so, but I would like to think there is the talent in that squad to keep it respectable and stay under the handicap.

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