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What time are you passing through Manchester? I'm staying in a central Manchester hotel on the Monday so will be heading to Oldham late afternoon.

I'll cut and paste your comments for the Red Sox fan and let you know what he thinks about other teams (from reading the book I can guess what he thinks about the Yankees!) I'd love to go to Boston to see a match, just to hear thousands of Bostonians singing 'Dirty Water'. They only play it if they win, though, so it would be just my luck to go all that way then they'd lose. Dirty Water had been played for many years at Red Sox games after victories although the World Series had eluded them. In 2004 they actually got the Standells to reform and they played at Fenway Park in the last home game of the season - the team went on to win the World Series. Dirty Water was written by Ed Cobb, an LA resident despite the 'Boston you're my home' line and was inspired by a trip to Boston where he was mugged after escorting a local college girl home. The line in the song 'frustrated women have to be in by 12 o'clock' refers to the curfew imposed on the female students at the time. Ed Cobb also wrote 'Tainted Love' but The Standells rejected it. It was then recorded by Gloria Jones (Mrs Marc Bolan) and Soft Cell.

I've just recently finished reading a book called 'Love That Dirty Water: The Standells and the Improbable Red Sox Victory Anthem' which is about the 60s song 'Dirty Water' by The Standells and how it has become the song which is played after the Boston Red Sox win. The book is basically a history of The Standells, The Red Sox and the City of Boston (the great molasses flood of 1919 sounds a horrible way to die!) I bought the book as a fan of 60s garage music (of which Dirty Water is a classic). I am also in contact with a Boston Red Sox fan after selling him a signed Housemartins picture through ebay. As a result of this, whilst knowing nothing about baseball, I have developed a soft spot for the Red Sox, even comparing them to Latics in a recent email - the long gap between 'World Series' wins (he sees the stupidity of calling it that, by the way) being similar to Latics gap between top flight appearances (1918-2004 for the Red Sox). As I say, I know nothing about baseball, but please refrain from comparing them to Citeh Go Red Sox I love that Dirty Water Oh Boston you're my home

That was what my two were like at Rochdale pre-season (first away game for both, unless you count IoM at six months old for my eldest). Just about got away with it as we were going to Blackpool Tower Circus the next day. I just said "You know how tomorrow we're going to see the clowns at the circus, well this is my circus and these are my clowns!" Chaddy kept them entertained for a good while as well.

What do you call a man with a seagull on his head? A: Cliff What do you call a man with a spade on his head? A: Doug What do you call a man without a spade on his head? A: Douglas What did Saint Patrick say as he was driving the snakes out of Ireland? A: You alright in the back there lads?

B.A.L.L.S will be swollen for the evening as I'm coming along to that match. I've got my ticket.

England played at Old Trafford that day (v Northern Ireland if I remember correctly). A fair few Latics fans would have gone to that.

The sad fact is the vast majority fall into at least one of the following three groups: 1) Don't believe that singing makes a difference to the result on the pitch 2) Can't be bothered to sing 3) Don't like anyone making any noise I honestly feel that when I try to start chants a good proportion of fans around me think I'm being a nuisance and would rather I kept quiet. I often can hardly speak all day Sunday and Monday after a match and I must admit I'm starting to think 'Why bother?'. Maybe those in groups 1, 2 or 3 above are right after all.

I think the use of the St George Cross at Euro 96, particularly by English football supporters, stems quite simply from the fact that we were in the same group as Scotland and therefore needed a flag that didn't include the Scottish flag. I can only ever remember the Union Jack being used by either the far right or football fans (obviously the two groups did overlap) pre-96.

Jobson's parents lived in the village of Rolleston, their house backing onto the school fields where I used to play on a Sunday, for Rolleston Rangers. Richard Jobson came and presented the awards at our Presentation Evening, travelling back to Burton after a home victory v Leeds to attend(we could have given him a lift!) I was obviously the most impressed of the lads at having Jobbo present the awards, although by the look of the photo my award was for dodgiest haircut - I'd post it on here but unfortunately my scanner is broken

My memories are of it being played about an hour before kick off during the Cup runs, with the Chaddy End already pretty full and bouncing up and down to it. I don't remember us ever running out to it (that's not to say we didn't - my memories of matches are generally pretty sketchy) I also remember the commentator announcing 'And a big thank you to today's match sponsors, Warburtons Bakers' with Mouldy Old Dough playing in the background

Thanks a bunch Leeslover, as a result of a discussion about this thread Mrs Sideburns decided to go into far too much detail about the night in question. Me and my sister are now both scarred for life. Please be careful what you post!

You're right, certainly well below par.

This is the crux of the debate re: Sharp. Those who liked him claim he held the ball up and brought players into the game. Those who didn't like him claimed he didn't take the responsibility a player of his ability and experience should, but merely took the easy option every time of laying the ball off to someone else. I'm very firmly of the second opinion and think he saw Latics as one last payday, taking the money for very little effort. Thanks to Joe Royle's recommendation he got the chance to extend this payday as Manager, a position for which his only qualification appeared to be that he owned an expensive looking coat! The only time I ever sang Graeme Sharp's Blue and White Army was Genoa away. This was by far the coldest I have ever been at a football match and we jumped up and down and sang for the whole of the match, just to keep warm. Apparently, according to the locals, Juve had been there the previous week but 150 Latics made more noise than Juventus had!

Has it started yet - I haven't got Sky and can't find the draw on the internet / radio.

Didn't we have a song in the 70s to the tune of 'Men of Harlech', something along the lines of Jimmy Fryatt's always scoring Chaddy End is always roaring Ian Wood is always running Frizzell is the King I think I've got the words right but as I wasn't around at the time and I can't find it in Carl Spiers' book of Latics songs, I could be wrong. It's one I've heard sung by the older generation on pre-season booze-ups. I'm sure someone a bit more creative than me could update it.

The partially obscured name in the seats must be some sort of clue. It appears to end in OW so in guessing it's probably a Polish team as many Polish place names end in OW - am I on the right lines?

That's a great away following for a friendly. Good atmosphere created by both sets of fans. Hope the fixture continues next year.

Does anyone know what the attendance was last night? And how many did we take?

Are you sure you don't mean BOAST? BLAST already has considerably more than six members

Nothing listed at present. Last Summer a lot of my football badges struggled to sell so I thought I'd knock t'ebay on the head until the build-up to Christmas. I do have a few Latics badges which I am selling. Anyone interested can PM me and I'll email photos. Either that or collar me at a match. I've generally got the badges with me.

I take it there's no BOAST trip to Clyde planned then. Part-timers The BLASTmobile will be making it's way to Scotland on Thursday, and I hope to be on board

Thanks very much outoftheblue. It's a day short of two months since my original post but we've got it! I can finally sleep at night! It's Workington, from around 1998-2000. I can finally put it on t'ebay! Thanks everyone else who took the time to make suggestions.

It appears I may have been a little hasty in denouncing my Burton roots. Having slept on it I now realise how foolish I've been and would like to return in a prodigal son type way to the BLAST fold. So what time does the BLASTmobile set off for Clyde next week?