Latics and England

Presumably this is a response to the trouble in Horwich before the game at their place.

Underdog If Simon B's role at the club on matchday has been reduced, perhaps it would be a good idea for him to make himself available to fans before the game for a chat. This could be in conjunction with increasing membership (this might already be what you are planning). 2.30-3.00 each game, moving to different stands for different matches. At least it would get his face known amongst the fan-base.

The 3% share holding gives the Trust a seat at the table. If the Trust nominated director is not being given the oversight opportunity that his position entitles himself to, the Trust has a right to demand answers. That in itself may tell them much of what they need to know about how the club is being run anyway. Without the seat on the Board, the trust, or any replacement, would be completely toothless? When not being given answers they would be in no position to justify why those answers should be forthcoming. The weakness the Trust has is that it doesn't have the full backing of the fans. I suspect that partially this is because a large proportion of the fan-base don't believe that oversight is required. If the club was in imminent danger (and perceived to be so) I suspect that interest in the club would increase significantly.

The club should not tell the fans everything that is going on and taking out a loan is not something that requires any kind of announcement. They should, however, be taking any such decisions at a Board level and the person who is representing the Trust on that Board should be fully in the loop. We all know that the Trust has little or no influence in the Board Room and ultimately that is a decision for the Chairman to take and it is his right to leave it that way. The representative, however, is there to ensure that the club is being operated in the interest of the fans and whilst he may have no genuine influence, as a Director he should have some oversight. I have lost count over the years at the number of times Simon Corney has come out and said that the club does not owe money to any third parties. In recent years, this has changed to not owing money to third parties with the exception of Brassbank with whom he has an agreement (unclear as to whether written or not) that they will not chase the debt whilst the club is outside the Premier League. Simon's repeated comments along these lines shows that he recognises the importance of not having external creditors who may start to chase the money. If this is something he accepts is so important, why would the full Board not be involved in any discussions that might change the situation?

I'm not sure why ChaddySmoker is being criticised for "Scouring Companies House". That doesn't seem too unreasonable to me, though it is unlikely to be done every day. The question about whether the Trust were aware is a very fair one. We have a representative on the Board of the club who should be involved in decision making. The nature of a Board of directors is such that they have collective responsibility for the running of the business. There has to be a real danger that it key decisions are being made with one or more directors being excluded from the process, those directors may reach the point that they feel unable to remain on the Board. Whilst I am not suggesting for a minute that this is the position that Simon Brooke is in (I have met him a few times but don't know him and certainly haven't had any such conversations with him), I would be very concerned if he was. Reading through the minutes on the Trust's website, there is a definite suggestion that SB is not being treated the same way as other directors with his exclusion from the Boardroom on matchdays. As a member of the Trust (I think) SB represents me on the OAFC Board and I expect him to be given the full access that any director should have.

What song does the tune come from for our current Aaron Holloway song? It's being sung by everyone with various players and managers being inserted but I am so not down with the kids and have no idea what it is. As Kylie once nearly said, I just can't get it out of my head

What's the situation with the A554 this weekend? Is it closed again?

Looking at the arguments that Oxford fans seem to be having with each other today after making the final of the EFL Trophy was something that I think we are lucky to have missed out on. I genuinely believe that if we had made the final it would have divided our fan base massively. Here's my views outlining how difficult a decision it would have been for me. http://www.ernieflag.co.uk/site/index.php/bloggs/17-football-issues/194-a-dreadful-conflict-of-emotions

Our goal difference is only 3 better than Swindon and we have scored considerably less.

I think last night will be the key result in keeping us up... though I do suspect that we might be in the bottom 4 at 5pm on Saturday.

Sadly, that game is the defining image I have of Gerrard. He was a fantastic keeper but that spell he had counts against him

In the wake of Connor Ripley moving from hero to demi-God yesterday, who would you say are the 5 best keepers you have seen at Latics? Base it purely on what they did with us, whether in a one month loan or over many years as our number one. 1. Gary Kelly 2. Connor Ripley 3. Paul Gerrard 4. Les Pogliacomi 5. Andy Rhodes This is purely subjective so let's try not to abuse each other over it.

Article in the Mirror repeatedly refers to him as an Oldham Athletic player. No suggestion in there that we released him. Often we deserve it, but on this occasion we seem to be having our name dragged through the mud unfairly.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Shez has done a fantastic job and has given us a real chance of staying up. To start talking about this squad as giving us the foundations on which to build a genuinely competitive team next season, I am far from convinced. How many of our current squad would get into the starting eleven of Sheff Utd, Scunthorpe, Bolton, Bradford etc? I would suggest that the answer is 2 and neither of them will be with us next year. There is a cornerstone of a team that could stay up more comfortably next year but I struggle to see past that at this point. This isn't supposed to be downbeat, it is simply an emphasis of what an amazing job Shez is doing with pretty ordinary squad.

That is great news. Being a member will give the Trust more credibility and potentially more influence. I was always uncomfortable that it was neither a member of FSF or Supporters Direct.

This is a totally random thread for people who find themselves singing old songs and chants for no apparent reason (may well just be me). This morning I have woken up with this classic which I can't get out of my head: We signed the lad to score us goals Abbott, Abbott And Oldham was the team he chose Abbott, Abbott Like half of England, he's a Pole He gets the ball and he scores a goal Pavel Abbott, Oldham's number nine

If it is 3 after 68 min I am so singing "we want five".

We have to remember that last year we stayed up by playing pretty defensive football. It was better than what we'd seen previously but it was all based upon 1-0 wins. I don't see Shez changing anything dramatically this time round. It worked once and with a 50% win record since coming back it seems to be working again.

4 goals scored by strikers this season (league games) or 5 if you include McLaughlin as he was playing up front. This has to be a record of some sort. Our 35 year old centre half has scored twice as many for uws this season than all the strikers we have on the books! As already mentioned it doesn't matter who scores but it is hard work when you have nobody upfront you can rely on to pop up from time to time.

Quick question for NNN. We're these minutes of the meeting shared other the chairman prior to being published on here and do you have a response from him confirming that they are an accurate reflection of the discussion?

I would guess that it is Leyton Orient as they have had "Leyton" in and out. I think "Greenock" has been in and out of Morton's name too.

The specific name change is purely an example, it is probably more apt to look at a sponsorship deal whereby the club would be come Oldham Red Bull or similar. The same principal stands. At the moment this must be one of the closest polls we have had in a while which is interesting in itself. As Glossop points out, however, there is a bigger picture with some fans being alienated and walking away.

I caught the end of a discussion on TalkSport tonight regarding owners trying to make significant changes to clubs. It was focussed on the likes of Hull and Cardiff but got me thinking. As a purely hypothetical question, if someone wanted to take over Latics but insisted on making some fundamental changes how would you feel about it? For the sake of a poll, if our mystery Chinese interested party decided to take over and put £100m into the club but as we are entering the year of the Rooster said he would only do so if we changed our name to Oldham Roosters, would you take it?

If there is any kind of outside chance that they might be willing to put some money in and help us out of the state we have ended up in, can we please cut out the causal racism (at least until they have signed up)? I love a take-away or name that sounds Chinese joke as much as the next man but they might end up looking on here during their period of due diligence (some people actually do it rather than just talking about it). Sorry if I am just being miserable and need to lighten up!

What a load of garbage. They sacked him because of results. He was 4 games into a 5 game ban. Surely if he was sacked for his actions that led to the ban he would have left 4 games earlier. A full month passed between the Wycombe game and them dismissing him. I struggle to believe that an internal investigation would take that long and if they were genuinely so disgusted he would have been suspended during any investigation.