rudemedic

Isn't it three with Swansea as well. As to Andy Liddle he was a quality player and if he didn't play at the highest league level then he was very unlucky (much like Mr. Eyres) but I'd wager with two operations on an achilles in as many years he's done as the achilles isn't something that fixes easily. It'd be nice to see him back in the squad and i'd think he'd give us options especially from the bench but I wouldn't give him a new contract (which i believe he's due for at the end of the season) he could do a job don't get me wrong but I wouldn't pay his kind of wages for someone that can only do a job and is now injury prone.

Taylor is a good player for this level and with some luck and improvement he could be a Premiership player. He has what only God can give you and that's some decent pace. His first touch isn't great and his crossing is a bit hit and miss but these are things which can be coached. It doesn't help that he's playing slightly out of position on the left without a genuine left back behind him. Ever since Ryan left he's looked poorer. I'd like to see him play on the right with another winger on the left (probably Smalley as I think Liddle may be done) or in a free role behind the front two where he could go on to either wing. It does seem that the wide players at Oldham come into a lot of stick and I don't think this is co-incidence. Taylor and Eardley are both genuine talents (as proven by the number of top clubs that have looked at either of them) and you don't become a bad player overnight but the abuse they get from the Lookers in particular would make you think otherwise. Taylor being an Oldhamite i think actually hinders him as he's getting a bit of a reputation for overly frequenting the local drinking establishments but he's only doing what most people his age do and doing it with people he's probably known for ages. If he was doing the same thing elsewhere I don't think he'd have the same reputation. As he's a local boy done good and an Latic to boot he is under some pressure to perform every time he plays and some of this is because he so obvioulsy wants to do well for the team he (and his family) supports. He's never going to be a tricky Ricky or an Eyresy but these were wingers who beat their man with skill and not pace (in Holden's case often more than once), if i was an opposition full back i'd know which i'd prefer to mark unless i was as quick as Taylor (which there's be at most 3). He's still young and is still learning and he could benefit from some constructive criticsm but no-one benefits from abuse.

I've developed quite a few superstitions recently. Everytime I've not worn a Latics shirt we've lost (Blackburn away 91, the 7-1 Cardiff game and the Huddersfield game this season) so I'm wearing a shirt for evermore (until we win and i forget it that is). Last season i got a new shirt for xmas but we went on a bad run then I wore both my previous shirt and my newer one and we starting winning again so I currently wear 2 shirts. Against Leeds I had an ear infection so wore my mum's beanie (i couldn't find my woolie hat) and my hoodie with the hood up. I was wearing both for the entire game apart from the first minute of the second half, did the same for the Everton game and as a result been doing the same ever since (until i'm at a game where we loose- and i've not forgot my shirt) so if you see an idiot in a beanie in the middle of roaring temperature you'll know its me.

I was In South Africa last summer (Cape town to be precise) and the impression I got of it was that it doesn't matter how much freedom the non-whites have they are still poor (with some exceptions) and some of them are very very poor (living in shanty towns and the like). Crime is in the main committed by the poor and the rich (mainly white) people have a lot of freedom to defend themselves by any means necessary most decent sized homes in the Cape Town have very strong security and there are a lot of guns/rifles about. Cape Town is not a nice city and a lot of it is a no go area around dark or if it is quiet. Its a city where its important to know exactly where you are at all times (as you don't want to end up in the wrong bit). Jo'burg and Durban are apparently worse and most people who go to Jo'burg don't venture out too much simply because its not safe. The people on the whole are friendly and its dirt cheap for food and drink. Apart from the big cities South Africa is a very rural country and its also quite big (took me over 2 hours to go from Jo'burg to Cape Town by plane) and as such it won't have good public transport even in the cities. But cabs are quite cheap (and i felt safer in them than i've felt in some cabs in england). Aside from the cities i've mentioned most areas are on the same scale as England when it comes to crime. One good thing though is I can't see England having problem with hooligans as if they have any sense (alas most don't) they won't go as they will get their asses handed to them by the locals.

As far as I'm aware when City asked for a minutes applause Man utd turned them down (a story that i think was leaked by Man United and actually shows more about Man United than a lot of people realise as it should have been kept private to the point that we wouldn't have realised the story ever existed). I've no problem with England doing it to honour England players the same way Man United doing it to honour Man United players but for football as a whole to do it to honour footballers is a bit wrong as far as I'm concerned. EDIT: Not sure the Man United leaking the story is right and I didn't mean a bit wrong i meant a bit too far considering it happened before a lot of people can even remember

That just emphasises my point I was fairly certain the death rate was worse than what i said but i wasn't sure it was as bad as a Munich disaster every minute so i used every hour instead.

Niall Quinn gave all his money (from his testimonial) to the Paediatric unit at Sunderland Royal Hospital and they built a very nice, modern paediatric outpatient department from it and duly named it after him. As for Bryan Robson I've got in on good authority that he practically brought the MRI scanner at Booth Hall on his own which is no small amount. But both Quinn and Robson have made money from the original money they had as footballers (Quinn on the horses i think and I've heard Robson has quite a large share of Birthdays- the greeting card company). Plus you've got to remember that Robson wouldn't have earned anywhere like the money modern players make as wages were a lot less then. He'd probably be on about 100k/week if he was playing today but i'd reckon you could divide that by 10 or even 20 to get what he did make.

We are having a minutes applause on Saturday to celebrate the life of one of our own and I like the fact we are celebrating his life rather than mourning his passing. In some ways the club is fortunate as I believe we would have been having a minutes silence for Munich otherwise and you can guarantee at Oldham it would have been spoiled (we sing Munich songs too). It seems silly that the Beeb muted the crowd noise during the minutes silence yesterday only to mention it in their report (i watched the game in a pub without the sound so i didn't notice it at the time). Like the majority of people on here i'm only old enough to remember Munich as an anniversary but I can vaguely recall Hillsbrough as it happened (i was busy watching Latics and didn't understand what was going on elsewhere until I got home). I do think its very hippocritical for Man Utd to go on about the lack of respect for Munich when they sing songs about Hillsbrough (and although its never come up I'm sure they've spoiled a minutes silence for it before and will no doubt do it again). Respect is something you earn and although the people who lost their lives have earned theirs i'm not sure Man Utd has. Plus I'm sorry and this is going to offend people but it was a plane crash in bad weather which killed 27 people worse has happened before and will happen again if it was any other plane we wouldn't be talking about it. AIDS kills more people around the world every hour of every day but did we have a minutes silence on December 1st (world AIDS day) did we . I'm not even sure we had a minutes silence on September 11th 2001 (but I will stand corrected if we did).

Who are you kidding IC Darlo looks nice compared to Boro and Stockton but they are both sh**holes. You forget to mention that quality orange glow which appears mainly from the east and can be seen from miles away. It does have some nice countryside around it but then again so do most of the places up here and its only the Pennines on a smaller scale. I wouldn't live there but i'd be more than happy to work there (after all its only 25 mins on the train from the very picturesque city of Durham). As to Chris Moore he made his money selling computers to the NHS (at the taxpayer's expense), (I'm not going to comment anymore than that about his computers as it would be highly libellous and i'm not sure they'd fit but i'd try). He left Oldham in loads of debt (some of which was to the tax-man) and now he's back with a bigger company making money selling to the public sector again. I don't think he likes the tax man. Put it simply the only good thing he did was to do it when he did otheriwse we'd have gone down as the season later the -10 point penalty came in for going into administration and we only survived by the skin of our teeth. Its not a nice thought but i just hope that whoever his doctor is when it comes down to it knows what he did to the NHS.

His eldest was the year above me in school and him and my dad know each other well enough to say hi. I think he's got something going on at Bury and before he became a full-time coach he often did a bit of scouting for Latics. His lass is probably a bit unlucky not to be in Australia playing cricket at the mo (she's in a Lancashire development squad - for the boys). It could be that he's gone back to his previous job (which was something in finance i think) but I'm not sure.

Alas I'm not going to Donny as i'm away (and i'd imagine some people are elsewhere too). I did however go to the FA cup game and thought our section was quite well filled given it was a mid week game in the middle of winter and it looked like we were going to loose. Crewe might be a massive gate if we have a good or a bad run between now and then as its a piece of pi** to get to and the following Monday is a Bank Holiday. I might well go to quite a few of the others especially as I've only been to Port Vale once and we battered them and won 3-0. TBH i'm one of those people who doesn't know what he's doing the next day never mind in 6 weeks time.

Your write up is funny though i've told many a joke from it but most of the time they are ones i've heard before. I can't remember the last time either me or my Dad didn't get a programme (usually my Dad TBH as i've got into the habit of staying later in the pub) even at away games when you don't really care about what merchandise they have on sale or what community function a player you are going to hate for 90 minutes has been to. A programme is also quite good to read at half time or during boring bits of the game or even to look up the name of the player who has been taking us apart for the last 5 minutes. Having said that there is definately a mark up for certain select programmes such as cup finals or big games. They can be a good investment as something you paid 20p for 30 years ago is now worth £100.

Cheers I'm not going to comment on how good it is, but the best bit was the bloke who used to write about his away days someone on here i presume

How much is a programme these days as i could swear its £2.50 but I got charged £3 the other day.

Do they let you touch it if you ask nicely? Having said that i did once nearly destroy the Stanley cup (it was probably a replica).

Anyone could have scored a pen? Ask Pearce, Waddell, Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard etc. That was a very good penalty firmly struck daisy cutter which was very near the corner even if the keeper had gone the right way (which i think is part of the battle when taking penalties) i'm not so sure he'd have saved it.

I didn't know Posh had ever been accussed of being racist

The game i was thinking off was therefore against Dynamo Tibilsi who are Georgian (but would have been USSR in those days). I can't see them bringing a lot given the Berlin wall didn't come down until 3 months later .

The Cape Town ground might only be 10% built but I'd imagine with 2 years to go it would still be ready in plenty of time. A lot of the grounds are being re-developed or already exist as Rugby stadia. You get this sort of rumour all the time whenever a competition is being hosted outside Germany and surprisingly the big contender for a replacement is always Germany. South Africa will be fine to host this and I look forward to going if i can get time off work and a ticket

Can't be mate didn't start going til 88 and then i missed the first few games of the season.

If i was Sheridan I'd pick the two players who are most likely to score/set up goals against a given opposition. If the opposition have two big but not quick players at the back I'd pick Davies and Hughes (and this would be my first choice strike partnership). Lewis or Deano would play if either one is injured (Deano would play for me as an extra winger but that's by the by) or if the strike partnership isn't working or to shake things up slightly if the opposition are looking like being able to handle Davies and Hughes. I remember last season we played Porter and Hall for the last 30 mins against Orient i think and Porter who hadn't had a kick all game suddenly looked dangerous as their best centre half went to mark Hall for the ball in the air. Hall beat him more times than not and Porter was able to latch on to the knock downs by out pacing the other centre half. I think its important to consider that OK sometimes Davies doesn't score or do a lot but could that be because he is being marked by the better centre half leaving the other striker against weaker opposition.

Milton Keynes Dons in the first season as such brought about 30 to Boundary park but they were the loudest 30 people at football. Outsinging people who had brought a lot more. I remember Bury bringing about 100 for a game once which is pitiful since they are so close. Oh and when we had our first pinch-me season didn't we batter some big Russian team 4-0 in a pre season friendly and they had about 4 people following them.

Well done for working this out but is this using the aa route or the one given in the programme. As the one given in the programme had you go much further down the m5 and hang a left going on some quick country roads to yeovil. The aa route had you go kinda through Bristol and straight south. I did both that day and i'd reckon the programme one is the right route (unless you don't know how to overtake or drive at 70mph on the motorway). The programme route (from the point it divided) was about 5-10 mins quicker and it ended up being 240 miles from my house (in heywood) to Yeovil so i'd think it'd be about 235 from Oldham. As for supporting your home town team where i've lived since before i started going to football is technically part of Rochdale (Heywood). But I once got from my house to Boundary Park in 5 minutes (speeding most of the way and getting lucky with the lights) getting to Rochdale would always take me triple that. Should I support Rochdale or should I support Oldham which is closer (in terms of time and possibly distance), how about Bury (where i went to school). But what about the two big Manchester clubs (after all when anyone asks me where i come from i say Manchester- technically true since i was born at St. mary's). My Dad is a born and bred welshman and if you'd have asked him what football team he supported 35 years ago he'd have said Cardiff, ask him now and he'll say Oldham, which was down to a grateful patient. I've got no problem with people from the Oldham area supporting either Manchester team (nor anyone from Greater Manchester, Lancashire, most bits of Cheshire and even some bits of Staffordshire). Quite often these people would go to watch ManUre or Thasskin town if they could (mainly i'll admit Manure) but they don't. Why not, because they are the nearest big team to their location and when it comes down to it if you are growing up and mainly watching football on the TV you are going to support a team in the premiership. What i don't like is people from anywhere else who supports Man Ure (or any team no where near where they live/brought up), who stop those fans from going. An Irish team would have probably done something in Europe if all those people that travel week in week out to teams like Manure or Liverpool went to watch their local team (or instead of buying the kit brought their local teams kit instead). Go anywhere in the world and say your from Manchester and people will talk to you about Man Utd, the rich ones even spend money on the official merchandise. They don't remember Man Utd being in the then second division or Fergie being saved from his job by a very fortuous cup run all they remember is George Best, or Cantona or whoever. They don't remember a cold spring evening in Oldham all they remember is Munich, Barcelona or the last time the team went to their part of the world to play a lucrative friendly. Football has tribal roots and it was one tribe against another and you couldn't change tribes just because yours wasn't as good as the opposition. I keep suggesting to exiled fans with no connection to their club should read 'Soccer Tribe' by the famous anthropologist Desmond Morris who explains things much more eloquently than I. Or if you want a bit of humour try the fast show skit with the glory hunter.

For me my lack of attendance at Swansea was down to the fact my Dad (who has family in Wales is some 7500 miles away) and the weather, in case you didn't notice it was snowing a lot in the North east on Friday (and one road i occassionally use to go South was shut entirely). Swansea for 2pm due to a rugby game i want to see (but not in a Welsh pub thank you very much) is not the easiest place to get to. I went to Yeovil (made a weekend of it) but i won't be going to Bristol Rovers. A trip to Chelsea would be nice but its a darn site easier to get to than Swansea. We were top of the league last season when we played Swansea but only took 250 odd and a lot of people stayed away due to the attrocious weather we had. We could be top of the Premier league and riding high in whatever competition you want but keeping the same amount of home support roughly the same number of people would have gone to the games you mentioned because they are pains in the ar**s to get to unless you live round the corner. It strikes me as silly that the FA don't look at things like distance when arranging mid week fixtures (OK so the Gillingham game was rearranged but how many people would we have took there on the first weekend in january and why is there a fixture list for our league that day when on average at least half the clubs are playing in the FA cup). Not everything about attendance is down to how the club (or the opposition) are playing but i will admit it does help. These threads are often more about people showing how much of a fan of Oldham they are and it is one thing i don't like about this site is there seems to be a lot of competetion as to who can be the biggest fan. Not everyone is going to turn up to every home game, away game, reserve game, council meeting or whatever to do with this club and there are many reasons for that but the big two are time and money. I'd like to know how many of the people on this site would have turned up to go to Hartlepool for a mid week game last week or who have been to Hartlepool every time we've played them (that they can remember). Because that's the sort of journey i do week in week out to watch Oldham at home. Need i remind you that Oldham make no money from away games so it terms of the club provided the people who go give support its not that important how many go. Anyway rant over. I do appreciate how hard some people work on this site and how many sacrifices are made to follow Oldham

Actually having seen where Morcombe are in the league I do now but i can't see the franchise not being promoted and its quite easy to get to.