Summerdeep

Penalties being awarded for accidental handballs have been a feature of the game for at least the last two decades. A very regrettable phenomenon.

Probably just a few years too young to have been a teammate of Graham Bell, who left Chadderton to join Latics in 1972. Must at any rate have played alongside John Regan, who was a Chadderton FC legend in the 1970s and 1980s. Sorry to hear of his passing.

His face and voice are very reminiscent of Tommy Docherty, though character-wise he seems a good deal more dour.

I'd like to see him score at his earliest convenience.

I said something about this being an obvious banana skin fixture in that previous thread that was locked. If Mellon thought he could mould the current squad into promotion contenders without major surgery, he might have to think again. Could be a good thing over the medium term.

Any subscription-free or registration-free audio commentaries available? I can't find anything on BBC local radio.

I know that on the form book this should end up as Fylde 0-6 Latics or similar, but I also know that this kind of fixture is potentially classic banana skin territory, especially when you consider our poor recent showings against bottom four outfits like Maidenhead and Dagenham and Redbridge. I'll be listening to the commentary, assuming one is available, and hoping for a ruthlessly efficient and professional performance!

^ Well, I don't know anything about that if you're referring to a recent event. I was talking about the situation in the 70s after our promotions to Div 3 and then to Div 2. I saw Latics play at Bolton several times in the period 1971-77, and our supporters gave very little visual or audible indication of their presence. It was the same with games at Blackburn, the only exception being the game in August 1975, when a hundred or two Chaddy Enders can be seen celebrating our goal in the Darwen End (at around the 1:30 mark). NB this is a response to the post of oafcmb on the previous page.

We took the Sandy Lane and all that's in it We're gonna take you in just a minute..... The hardcore Laics fans didn't take many ends in those days, apart from Rochdale and Bury, though I remember them making their presence felt at grounds like Crewe, Stockport and Chester in 1970-71. Once we were promoted to Div 3, our fans were pretty minor league in the hardcase stakes. Where were they at places like Bolton and Blackburn?

Are these idiots going to get the game abandoned? The corner flag's been stolen?

Even just following the game from the commentary, you could sort of sense that the side had eased off after the second goal. Really effective teams don't do that!

You couldn't beat home games against Bolton in the early-to-mid 1970s for atmosphere. First time I ever saw huge numbers of away fans at Boundary Park was the opening game of the 1971-72 season v Bolton. I was heading towards the ground over Clayton Playing Fields from the Chadderton direction, and heard the strains of 'One Man Went To Mow' from about a quarter of a mile away - knew something was up as that wasn't a song you ever heard at BP! That was surpassed by the January 1973 home game, when there was a crowd of 19,000 for the top of the table Third Division clash (there'd have been more, but quite a lot of fans were told by police that the game was called off due to fog, and went back home). For the Boxing Day 1975 match, there was a crowd of 25,137, I don't think the ground has seen an attendance of that size again to this day, has it?

Does anyone know why Mellon left Dundee United after just one year at the helm in 2021? A ninth place finish in their first season back in the SPL doesn't seem too bad.

It doesn't sound quite that bad to me, but we've certainly faded as the half wore on. Hogan and Hobson seem to be excelling at the back.

Dickinson off - seemed to go over awkwardly on his ankle. Latics taking a bit of punishment now.

Alty commentator has just said that the Latics team is 'packed with top class professional footballers'. We seem to be playing well.

Didn't the ex-Latics player John Bingham (late 1960s) represent Australia? I think I've read that at least he might have been in their 1974 World Cup squad. Interesting interview here with Bingham. He briefly discusses his time at Oldham, and there's plenty on his Australian experiences, but no confirmation as to whether he represented the nation at international level.

Thanks for that. Much appreciated.

That's my recollection as well. It was an incredibly tightly contested game, and Chesterfield didn't create much either, but they took their only real chance ( a guy called Kowalski scored about midway through the second half). Deep into stoppage time Groves played a one-two with George Jones, and when he got the ball back, he found himself unmarked in the six yard box, with the keeper stranded out of position, and just a tap-in required to equalize. Somehow he managed to put the ball wide, and there wasn't even time to take the goal kick. I don't think I ever saw a worse miss at any football match I have attended!

Yes, that's the Lady Chatterley reference I had in mind. In the 1973-74 season the Latics lost 4 consecutive matches around the Christmas-New Year period, which saw them plunge from 2nd place in the old Third Division to about 8th place. After the 3-0 defeat at Port Vale on New Year's Day, John Lowe had a meeting with Frizzell and told him he was fired, but a couple of hours or so later he suffered a fatal heart attack and died before he could communicate his decision to the board. That's the story I've read at any rate, possibly from Paul Hince via Jimmy himself originally ; Frizzell remained in his post, the side then won 10 consecutive league games, and that set us up for promotion and the Third Division championship. That's interesting, is it not? If true, did that deliver a wake-up call for the manager, which galvanized him into action, or would it all have happened anyway? Apologies to all 21st Century people who believe, probably rightly, that I'm a throwback to a long lost era, LOL.

LOL, I love you too, mon ami! There's something to be said for not living in the modern era, believe me....

"Gazza job, I could do that...." (apologies to Yosser Hughes). More seriously, didn't the judge in the early 1960s Lady Chatterley trial make a similarly unintentionally funny remark, though admittedly not in a football context? In February 1972, John Lowe staged a boardroom coup against Harry Massey and two other directors. He said they'd resigned, they claimed that they were forced out, but in any event Lowe installed himself as chairman and ruled the roost for the next two years, but died of a heart attack in January '74.

On a point of information, I have no idea who Barry Owen is either. This site needs some better emojis as well.....

I don't know what to make of Twitter. I haven't yet graduated to the 'social media' era, just as I haven't yet got into the 21st Century football wise, LOL.

This is interesting and a bit worrying at the same time. It was a pretty explosive state of affairs in the boardroom at the end of the Ken Bates era, and again during the John Lowe v Harry Massey period in early 1972, but this has the potential to be equally destructive, at least if I'm reading that stuff quoted from Twitter correctly.