Summerdeep

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.

Blackburn away, 23 August 1975. This footage is described as missing on the first page of the thread, but here it is..... Great link up between Groves and Blair to put us in the driving seat at half time. All thrown away after the break by some appalling defending. This kind of performance was sadly all too common in some away games during our first three seasons in the old Second Division (1974-77), and with a record of just 5 wins from 63 away fixtures, it was always a bit of a mystery to me how we managed to avoid being relegated in that period. See also Bolton away later on in the same season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwV1nrgP5uc

I don't disagree with that assessment at all. I just meant that the circumstances of Frizzell's appointment owed something to luck, not that he lacked ability in any way. I'd rate him as our best post-war manager, some way ahead of Royle.

As well as the somewhat bizarre mini-saga involving Frank Lord prior to Frizzell's appointment as manager in 1970, there was the even more bizarre saga of Jim Lyness: I wonder if anyone else has any recollections of it.... Lyness was a private detective with no background in football management or coaching, though I think I can vaguely remember reading that he once played at schoolboy level for Leeds United. His application for the manager's job caused a real stir, and a surprisingly large number of fans wrote letters to the Chronicle and the Green Final urging the club to take a punt on him. Jim Williams wrote a scathing anti-Lyness piece in the Chron, provoking a furious response from the latter which may have included the threat of legal action. It'd be interesting to know whether he got an interview, though I think it's unlikely. Lyness came briefly to public attention again in the late 1970s with some controversial theories about the Yorkshire Ripper, though I'm not entirely sure what they were - I think he claimed to know Peter Sutcliffe personally and to have been aware of some of his activities well before he was arrested. There was also quite a bit of speculation about other possible applicants for the manager's job, most notably the Rochdale manager Dick Conner and Alan Ball Senior, who was with Halifax at the time. One man who definitely seems to have applied was Workington's Brian Doyle, who later went on to manage Stockport. I'm glad we didn't get him.