rudemedic

Does it count if the travelling Latics army was split into two sections. As i went when we beat Chelsea in the Premiership where although there were probably about 750 Latics standing up there were only 7 of us sitting down, (me, my Dad, two couples and the bloke who used to present on GMTV). We were in a section designed to host about 1500 and shared catering facilities and the like with the Chelsea fans, (one Chelsea fan about my age at the time 9/10 remarked during half time that we were despite us beating them 1-0). Apart from that the smallest travelling army i've been part of was possibly a game to Hartlepool when traffic problems meant some fans were late (i don't tend to go to small gate games). Having said that in terms of % of the gate i reckon any trip involving Man Utd where they only gave us 900 seats (do they still do that btw) as got to be up there. In terms of largest gates, Wigan, (during the Dowie years), Bury and last year to Crewe we had loads and probably over half the gate.

For me it would be Darlo, Stockport, Dale and since i need a 4th MK Dons (given Bury and Stanley have no chance).

I would help them but since i wouldn't rate my chances in a fight (especially in my glasses) i'd try and make as much noise as possible to attract people's attention. This actually happened right in front of me at Barnsley when i was about 11/12 and my dad kept beeping his horn and rang the police on his mobile (despite them only being 100yds away) as a bloke in an Oldham shirt got the preferbial s**t kicked out of by about 4/5 Barnsley guys (after they had pulled him from a car). Having said that there have been cases when members of the supposed firm 'run' leaving those that don't run in a spot of bother and these are people who are going to football with one objective being to get into a fight. I do entirely agree with you though that its not just a case of not getting into trouble (and punishing those that do) but also better policing and stewarding at games.

Can't see him dropping McDonald after he scored twice. Taylor is suspended so i reckon Smalley to play on one wing with Davies and Lewis up front (Davies coming out wide- opposite side to Smalley). You never know Shez might have a wonderful plan to foil the Jacks.

This is getting to be a problem if some potential life-long fans of Oldham (I'd class the children of any regular poster on here as such) are unwilling to go to Boundary Park or any Oldham game due to the actions of our 'fans' then this is a problem. It wouldn't surprise me if the Oldham 'fans' who were involved in this trouble were those who are big game only and couldn't give a monkeys if they are banned from Boundary Park as they don't go every week. As for two fans fighting over pies at Everton i can well imagine as some of our fans actions when waiting for food/beer are appalling especially if the service is as bad as Everton. Manners cost nothing people and some of the comments i heard in the queue were bordering on the illegal. TBH though the club isn't doing itself any favours by having a bunch of jobsworths as stewards who seem more intent on obeying health and safety than preventing trouble and this standard has definately gone down since we got a 'firm' in to do the majority of the stewarding. FFS why does the lookers paddock and the lookers upper have to have seperate catering facilities it has worked fine for god knows how long and then the moment this new 'firm' come in and change things it goes to hell. I'm not surprised though as I'm a qualified steward and its all about letting the police deal with any trouble and making sure the health and safety gestapo are obeyed. But then again if you are the size of some of the stewards i don't blame you as a strong wind looks like it would blow most of them over.

I'll take the three points thank you very much. A cup run is very nice but i'd rather see us get out of this god forsaken league 1. Plus who wants to see us at Stamford Bridge over priced yuppy hell-hole its become, I've seen Oldham there (and we won). Although chanting 'where were you when you were sh*t' would have its benefits

Good shout IC, it does seem the front post flick on corner has gone out of style since its vogue in the early 90s and late 80s. I remember Arsenal and England used this corner a lot, and Roger's back post to front post move was probably used quite a bit by any Oldham supporting youngster (I know I did in my first game). I think we had a lot of short corners last night because they weren't picking it up properly as well as Taylor's confidence being low I like a short corner when done right as it changes the angle for the cross but one thing i'd have like Eardley do have done last night was to have a shot (or at least a driven cross). Set pieces have been poor this season and we can only hope JJ (Mk II- new and improved) can help with his obvious skill at striking a football. Last season we had a few set pieces that had obviously been worked on at the training ground but these seemed to dry up during the latter half of the season. Now i know that some training ground moves always look silly if not performed properly (especially if compared with a straight shot) but i like them as it keeps the defence honest. Lets hope the sale of Trotman doesn't make things go from bad to worse.

Meh, so i contradicted myself so what. Davies is a quality player for this league (the only 2 forwards from Oldham i'd have in front of him in the years we've been in it are Hughes and Beckett- and Davies is a lot younger than both of those) however, his finishing isn't great and his decision making is poor but that's stuff which can be taught he's got what can't be taught and as such we should try and motivate him as much as possible. Davies is not a 25 goals a season guy but he's the sort of player that the opposition have to mark properly otherwise he will take them apart. You can tell how good Davies is/ could be by how much trouble he gave Everton's centre halfs. There's a reason he's played for Wales despite still being under 21 (and Wales have some good forwards).

This is a great idea and something I've been saying to some of my mates. Hughesy is clearly a fan favourite but perhaps this is having a neagtive effect on Davies seeing as he gets some stick and i've never heard his name chanted in any form (I've not been at some games which did involve most of the ones before Hughesy was elligible). Maybe the great minds of OWTB can come up with a Davies chant for Saturday to show our support for a player clearly going through a crisis of confidence.

Meh. I 'love' it when people who don't go to games moan about the performances of the players. I'll admit Davies was poor against Yeovil but he didn't get great service either (a lot of balls hoofed deep to him to jump against a big lump of a centre half who's best attribute was clearly his heading). Davies is a quality player IMHO for this division and he can cause defences a lot of trouble given he's quite big and very quick. His finishing isn't brilliant and his decision making is appalling at times but he's a centre forward and can be selfish at times. I'd like to see us play with 2 wingers (Smalley and Taylor) on Saturday as there isn't anyone in midfield who can pick a pass to the front men but they aren't bad at simple balls out wide. With 2 wingers who can beat a man (although they don't always try) we might get some crosses in and create chances that way. Also both Taylor and Smalley are both good in the air and along with Davies who isn't bad either we might win some ball and the other forward (probably Wolfy) can look to see if he can get on the end of the knockdowns. I personally think it might be worth a try (and we certainly looked a lot better at Yeovil when we did play with 2 wingers).

Last year at Scunny i remembered the debacle from the year before and was first in either queue. They then waited 5 minutes before they let anyone go and what does the steward do he lets the other queue go first despite knowing that i was there way before them. Another wait of 5 minutes and he finally decided to let me go. FFS. I had a 10 minutes wait to get out of that car park despite being the first in the queue, so imagine how bad it is if you are at the back of a queue.

I don't like Wembley. Coming back from the cup final i think i got back at 2am having gone round Luton twice (possibly three times) due to a diversion as a result of an accident on the M1 and the coach driver missing the turning (I was only 6 and i think i'd seen Latics loose twice before then). Then there's that semi where i went on a bus which had a few reds on it (most of them were part-timers but you could say that for a lot of the reds in Manchester) knowing full well the abuse i'd get the next day in school. Then (admittedly not following the Latics) I was at Wembley for the last ever 5 nations game when England lost in the last minute to a Welsh try as a result of a dodgy penalty and had to put up with my dad's smug face (he's Welsh) on the journey home. Aside from Wembley, the next worse journey back was at Blackpool in the play-offs as me and my mate trudged through Blackpool to the train station where i had to stop him going into a pub with a lot of tangerine colours outside but no colours inside and then they held the train for the firm to get on with their police escort. The best thing about that day was when the Ivorian diving gold medal holder wiped the smug look off the scums faces in my local pub not long after we got in.

I entirely agree with the majority of the sentiments on this post Eardley is still under 21 (and will be for another season). On Saturday he was the one player we missed because when that Brighton bloke got sent off they played a very narrow three in midfield leaving the full backs spare regularly and Rubes is very good defensively but he is not as good as Eardley going forward. We will only have enough cover at full-back and centre-half if/when we sign another defender as it wouldn't surprise me to see Gregan not being fully fit for the rest of his career and Thommo is a bit dodgy for this division. It seems to me that if 'only playing for Wales' is a problem (he can't help where he was born) but how many other teams at our level have internationals in their team (and he will probably be in the full Welsh squad for his entire career and could end up with 100 caps- David Beckham didn't play for England until he was 21). It will always be the case that there will be fan favourites but booing /giving stick to the others is pointless. I can think of at least one example from saturday where Wolfy had a bad bit of play but NO one got on his back but if Davies had done the same he would have got a lot of stick, no wonder his confidence is shot and he can't score. In fact Eardley had Steven Pienaar in his pocket against Everton and he has been raved about on Match of the Day, but then again Pienaar ONLY plays for South Africa

There's a young left winger (who i think can play left back as well) at Lincoln who has played for Wales u21 despite only being 17 and is touted as being the next Ryan Giggs by some Welsh people in the know only he's about 6ft4. I think he's name is Owain Warlow but i'm not sure.

Think it might have been 2 years when Makin went to Marseille, but this could have changed or i could be wrong. This is beginning to smell more than the Teves scandal.

I shall be going to Yeovil and then a night out in Bristol afterwards. As for it only being 4 hours away I seriously doubt it more like 5 as there's always problems on the M6.

The club was quite clear when selling season tickets that any cup games at home (which could have quite easily have been 0) would mean season ticket holders paying extra for a ticket at a price to be determined. There is a definate advantage to being away in the cup when it comes to tickets as you have to be offered so many tickets and the cost is the same (if not cheaper) for the away end compared to league prices. This is why we only had 3,000 home fans for Donny but took about 500 there whereas they had 1000 away fans but had less than usual at home. OK the club is gaining money by having a cup run but I'd wager that the gate for Hartlepool at home (the game postponed for the Huddersfield game) will be nearly 1000 people less than it would have been had it been played on a Saturday. You could reduce the prices but make it a deal by saying if you go to both games (as a non season ticket holder) you pay £30 as opposed to £36 (or the equivalent in the NSM paddock), something i think Gemma has mentioned. Life isn't fair just because you feel entitiled to something because you bought something else doesn't make it the case. It could be worse season ticket holders COULD be made to buy tickets for cup games like they do at Manure or we could be playing Hartlepool on the 26th of January as opposed to an easily winnable game to get prize money and a possible lucrative tie in the next round. I totally understand why people moan about the cost of football and cup runs cost extra for the fans but this club is loosing money every year and unless we get into the fifth round and get a money making draw or get to the quarter final or beyond (touching as much wood as possible) the club will still be loosing money. I for one will be there against Hudders and will be getting behind the team as much as possible as days like saturday come around very rarely and it would have cost a lot of money for me to want to change that result. The extra cost isn't that much when you relate it to other things which are entirely voluntarily extra spending (its less than a pack of tabs- and a darn sight more healthy too).

7000 season tickets at £23 each is £161,000, say 1000 of those who brought cheap tickets would have gone anyway and the average season ticket being about 18 games worth so 18*12 (half of 23- a guess at the normal price) then times by the 1000 is £216,000. A loss of of £55,000 (estimated naturally) which is not a sum of money that we can afford (that's probably a weeks wages for the entire 1st team). This could work well as a loss leader (in the vain hope that some of those that come on cheap tickets as a youngster stay as an adult) but Swansea have the advantage of only having to compete with the local rugby teams (you are either swansea or cardiff in that part of the world and it is definately location dependent). The local rugby teams quite often play on a friday night (in the Celtic league) or a sunday (heineken cup) or not at all if its the 6 nations so it works for them. I can't see it working for Oldham though as not only do we have to compete with city and united (who are at least one class above us) but also with Bury, Rochdale, Stockport and the local non-league teams including FC United. The best way for Oldham to become a viable club is for us to get promoted to the Championship and stay there without over spending on wages (lots of other clubs have got promoted from our league and stayed in the championship for a good few years) as we will easily get 500 extra fans on average per game from just the away support nevermind the home support which was regularly around the 6,000 mark towards the end of last season. The worse thing that happened to Oldham in terms of attendances without being affected by performance was the formation of FC United as instead of 2500 people going to watch the already established league teams when they were unhappy about how their 'beloved' club was run they set up their own and how many of those people would have gone to watch Oldham?

Everton were always going to reduce prices for the cup game to make sure enough of their fans turned up (they'll be charging theirs no doubt) and this is good since FA cup attendances have been generally shocking this year and can see them being shocking in the next round too. Leeds are charging what seems like a lot in comparison but its not that much comapred to other clubs in our league and the facilities they give you (it has a roof for a start), we charge away fans £20 (incidentally same price as Everton are charging) so don't blame Leeds blame money grabbing clubs, players, owners etc. (hang on Leeds has/had its fair share opf those so lets blame leeds). I understand a lot of fans choosing to go to Everton because its a preimer league team and they can only go to one game. Yet, I reckon New year's day games are always badly attended purely because the drunkenness that is new year's eve (can see a lot of fans waiting to see what their plans are for new year's eve before buying a ticket). Plus as is fairly obvious we've a lot of hangers-on going to Everton, what are ManUre and city doing that day (i think both are away) whereas can see one of them playing at home on new year's day.

This could have been a lot worse its about time the FA realised that key games in our division are more important than run-of-the-mill games in the money league (why we got an non-premier league ref for the play-offs last year i don't know). Personally anyone who sends Fergie off can't be all that bad (Wisey's a bit like a junior fergie). There aren't a lot better refs in the country although we do have good luck with Mr. Friend, he's actually not that good. I'm going to reserve judgement on him til i see him ref.

Oldham ticket office is most definately not the greastest thing about the club, look at the shambles it was last year for the play-off tickets. Getting a ticket outside of 9-5 is no longer a problem for me since my Dad is retired in all but paperwork and it gives him something to do (i usually go with him anyway) but I'm glad i had an unexpected day off for the Blackpool away ticket day last year. In this modern era not to accept payment by credit card for everything is a farce (although I'm fairly certain they do, bar season tickets), but there are ways to get round this as one of my dad's drinking buddies screwed the scum out of money using a legal bit of credit card avoidance (its becoming illegal though as they've not received payment but the scum probably see it as not worth it to get the money back by going through the courts). A new ticket office is desperately needed one with more than two windows (they don't need to staff it any bigger except for big games or peak times- like around match time) and facilities to deal with anyone who wants to pay over the phone by credit card as they can't get there during the day. BTW isn't the ticket office open early on Saturday and i don't think we'll sell out Leeds and Everton by then.

For the pie-eaters: Neil McDonald (probably still our second most expensive signing), a player who looked quite good at Everton and came to us and was bobbins. Ian Olney is a bit harsh as he only played for 3/4 of a season didn't he before he knackered his knee and he scored some goals including a memorable winner (for me) against Spurs. Josh Low was bigged up by Dowie but he never really proved his worth (who apart from that made a few good signings for us). For the surprising legends Tony Carss was a good player always played out of position and we got him on the cheap didn't we? Ernie Cooksey was signed because we were desperate and turned out to be OK. Wayne Andrews was a good player but he didn't exactly leave in the best circumstances.

There was some trouble in one of the city centre pubs and one bloke got beat up by quite a few of them plus there was some trouble near the station after the game. Plus, I never said things had to be true i only said we had a growing reputation (note i didn't say a big reputation) and to get a reputation things have to be reported in the media and be believeable

Being allowed into a ground's social club doesn't mean we don't have a rep. However, like you I've not seen much trouble at Oldham games for the past few years apart from Wolves and Blackpool (away in the play-offs), plus some good policing for Huddersfield stopped some, but who have we played in that time? Millwall, Swansea and Burnley have reputations but no-one else apart from Huddersfield will have caused any trouble (and that's because of their proximity). I don't believe a lot of the stuff that papers print about hooligans anyway but its not me that has to believe it its the families and other fans that believe it and MAYBE use it as an excuse not to go (which was my original point). I wouldn't be surprised if there was trouble at both Leeds and Everton however as these are big games and will attract people who wouldn't normally follow Oldham. Plus on the point about social clubs didn't we let in a load of cardiff fans into the Clayton arms when they beat us 7-1 and there was trouble as i heard a rumour that this happened, and you can't exactly say Cardiff don't have a reputation for trouble.

Charming, however, on the BBC programmes about hooligans at the 2006 world cup it was mentioned that Oldham had a firm there (and we were one of the few teams mentioned). Plus in another series of programmes they did one solely about the riots in Oldham and again the club was mentioned as having a firm. I know our 'firm' is mainly young kids who like to mouth off a bit and there have been very few instances of crowd trouble at Oldham games but it does happen and the people who watch those programmes might think 'Oh best not go to Oldham as they've been mentioned' but i doubt it. If you You Tube Oldham+hooligans the first three references are connected to the club and the fourth is the world cup programme i mentioned above.