inspectormorose

Thought a point was the least we deserved. We dominated possession, we had more shots, when we upped tempo they struggled. Passing could have been better, especially first half, wasn't picking the wrong pass for me by and large it was that the pass was slack, it was on but the ball was left short or too close to their player but it was the right ball, played badly. We were our own worst enemy for their goals but we're in the 4th division and a lot of lesser, for want of a better word, teams in this league won't have the wherewithal to take advantage but we need to sort that out. Despite the fact we've only taken 1 point from 6 against them if Newport and Colchester are a measure of the strength of this league given their early positions then we more than matched the pair of them and I'd expect us to be at the business end of the table rather than not. Surridge a Division 4 Shearer, like that whoever said it and yes they did time waste but remember folks one mans time wasting is another mans game management.

Oh I'm still around Stevie, still around but I tend to lurk and read nowadays rather than post as does Stipe but he's a different user name on here, but we keep tabs. ?

I started going when my dad left my mum for another woman and he had to find somewhere to take me when he had access on a Saturday. This was back in the 1960's in the days before being a one parent family was normal so we were pioneers really.... Think he'd rather have had access on a Sunday as he was a rugby league fan really but a woman wronged and all that, small payback. Knew it was against Crewe but after a chat with my older sister regarding dates of said incident happening I've pinned it to February 1st 1969, a 3-0 win, I was 4. So 50 years to celebrate next year. Since then I've ruined 2 of my nephews lives, started taking the eldest who's now 37 when he was 4, he cried when the teams came out so he learnt that early and sometimes still does it to this day when he sees the teamsheet. The other had pretensions of being a United fan but I made him sit and watch Real Madrid knock them out of the Champions League in 2000 and he's never looked back.....

Quite possibly, was a small car.

He used to have a car with a French number plate on his drive, not stalking him read his gas meter every 3 months ?

I was on that trip, on reflection chucking a 13 year old (as I was) off the coach near Stanley Park to make their own way to the game saying we'll meet you back here afterwards didn't meet the highest standards of running a school trip and pupil safety..... Saw feck all of the game either as by the time I got in all the places on the wall pitchside for young un's were taken and I was about 4 foot 5... Saw more on the tv highlights the day after.

Fantastic posts Maximus, I've been a Tic since the late 60's, got relegated to Division 4 in my first season so we've travelled full circle and I'm obviously still a jinx.... Your post and mention of keeping the faith and being proud of your allegiance (which you should be, you'd be surprised what other teams fans know about yours. Was in Aberdeen a few weeks back talking to random bloke in pub and the conversation turned to football. Was expecting a who? response when I said I supported Latics but he had quite a good grasp on our predicament and remembered our Premier League years naming a few players) got me digging out a rewrite of Baz Lerhmans "Everyone is Free to Use Sunscreen" by one of the contributors to the old JK Latics site, Stipe, always makes me smile so I thought I'd share. Oldham Athletic fans are free to keep the faith, Keep the faith from the first match of the season. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, faith keeping would be it. The long term benefits of keeping the faith have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own footballing experience. I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the pace and enthusiasm of your youth team. Never mind their naivety. They will not understand the power and beauty of youth until they graduate to the first team. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at team photos and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before your team, and how naff their hairstyles were. Phil Salt was not as fat as you imagined. Don't worry about relegation. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to win matches by wearing your lucky pants. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your mind, unpredictable results that blindside you at 4:50 on some idle Saturday afternoon. Do one thing every season that scares you. Sing. Don't sing racist or who the f**kin'ell are you songs, don't put up with people who do. Shout. Don't waste your money on bookies, sometimes you're winning but mostly you're not. The season is long and its a marathon not a sprint. Remember great performances. Forget the insults of Crewe and Cheltenham. If you succeed in doing this tell me how. Keep your old programmes, don't throw away your old ticket stubs. Bounce. Don't feel guilty if you don't know what formation suits your squad. The most interesting people I know didn't know how to player a sweeper at 22. Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't. Get a discounted season ticket in March!! Go to as many games as you can. You'll miss them at the end of the season. Maybe you'll slip back into the relegation battle, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have a chance of making the play offs, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll get relegated two seasons on the trot, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken as you retain the FA Cup. Whatever you do don't congratulate your team too much, or berate them either. Your results depend on strikers taking their half chances. So do everybody else's. Enjoy you're football. Be proud of your allegiance. Don't be afraid of it or what others think of it. They ARE by far the greatest team the world has ever seen. Dance when your team score, even if your watching ceefax in your front room. Read the matchday programmes directions before setting off to away matches, even if like Barlows coaches you don't understand them. Do not read articles about the rugby messing up the pitch, it will only depress you. Go to the match with your Dad. You never know when he'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings, even if they want to watch manure. They are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but you should keep in touch with those who used to go to the match with you. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. Watch city once, but leave before it makes you hard. Watch bury once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths: Ticket prices WILL rise. Players WILL leave. You too, WILL get old. And when you do you'll fantasise that when you were young ticket prices were reasonable, players stayed at one club for life and kids grew up supporting their local team. Support you local team. Don't expect anybody to bankroll your team. Maybe they'll have a lot of money from television rights Maybe they'll have a wealthy benefactor. But you never know when either one might run out. Don't buy every new shirt or by the time you're 40 you'll have 85. Be careful who you talk to about football, but be patient with those who talk to you. Footballing anecdotes are a form of nostalgia. Telling them is a way of fishing the past from the waste disposal, wiping it down, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than its worth. But trust me on Keeping the faith.

Aaah Grimsby away, Ernie Cooksey scored one of my favourite away goals there, ran on to it and leathered it like Carlos Alberto in the 1970 world cup final, still makes me smile thinking about it now. Hooters in Nottingham, got taken in there on a charity nightwalk by 6 women about 4 years ago, they didnt seem to have a problem with it, beer was a bit shit though....

If it stays as it is there's a 3 point and 5 goal difference between Plymouth and Charlton so they can't afford to lose by a couple on Saturday if Plymouth win reasonably well, sure that'll keep them honest.

Sometimes you need to think outside the box.

Just been reading Wellens pre match stuff on Th'Official site.... Wellens will come up against a familiar face in the dugout on Saturday. “Darren (Ferguson) is a fantastic coach and intense on the training ground and has a lot of similarities with his dad. “He has been a successful manager and won promotions. When I was at Doncaster he got relegated but brought them straight back up. “Doncaster stuck with him, they came back up Is this Richie's version of the Jedi Mind Trick in case we get relegated? Abdallah having a post season debrief with himself at the end of May "Richie got us relegated so I should sack him........ But I have a strange feeling he may get us promoted next season and I don't know why." :-D

2nd March 1974 we won 1-0, I was 9. For some reason it's in my head Alan Groves scored and it was a bit of an outrageous goal, down the wing, cut inside and put it in the top corner but I can't be sure if the goal I'm thinking of was actually in that game! Reason I can place it as that game (after googling our results v them) Is it was also the date of the League Cup Final that year and City beat Wolves. When I was a kid my dad used to take me to Latics one week and City the next, he didn't see an issue with it, he was really a rugby league man, to him it was just taking me watching sport, I remember being in the car on the way home and the celebrations from the Final being on the radio. For those of you too young to remember him http://www.back-post.com/2014/11/05/alan-groves-a-legacy-of-memories/

My mum lives in Aberdeen so I have been known to go and watch Cove from time to time, Fort William are the perennial whipping boys of the Highland League think the players tip out of the pub 10 minutes before kick off. Lost 9-1 at home today.

Just come across this whilst surfing........ Beaten off interest from several clubs apparently. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/2043543/celtic-kundai-benyu-loan-oldham-season/

Chesterfield away last season, absolutely mental. The pie shop in the away end at Southend earlier this month giving the remaining pies away for free when they shut, Corney would have a heart attack.

Anyone else got nothing, can get the commentary feed but the video just looks like it's constantly loading...... without actually loading?

Cheers.

I've paid a fiver for what it says is a match pass but it's still showing access to live commentary will be available before kick off, nothing about it being live video.

Went today, we seem to have discovered the knack of not conceding whilst losing the knack of scoring. The former has a lot to do with Gerrard who's looked a better partner for Bryan in the last couple of games ( got to fess up, wasn't sorry to see him dropped after Shez went but he's looked solid since his return "Holds hands up and gives him a big pat on the back" ). Strikers are struggling as the creative supply in midfield is struggling, Byrne seems to want to do everything and sometimes seems to try and force things (trying to play a killer 20 yard ball ) instead of being involved in building a move involving 3 or 4 players. When Wellens first took over we were at times playing fantastic one touch football that he was at the centre of pulling the strings, recently it's like he wants to be the whole orchestra. If we keep the lack of not conceding and find the creative balance between midfield and the strikers it can still be a very productive season, long way to go.

Cheers for that

Was talking to a group of Carlisle fans in the rugby club before the game and one asked if I'd help him out. He's a programme collector and is trying to complete a full set of every Carlisle programme from the day he was born. He needs 1 Latics v Carlisle to complete his "Oldham" set and that's the Latics home programme from our game against them in the 1950/51 season at BP. Any collectors out there who may be able to help or anyone with any ideas on where he can go next, your thoughts would be most welcome. As for today, was quite worrying how big a miss Byrne was, missed his creativity in midfield and that in part for me was why Davies and Doyle seemed out of sorts, they hardly connected all game. Least it wasn't a league game so no great damage done.

I would say with 33 games to play, 99 points to play for, the way we are playing and if Wellens gets the job then I wouldn’t say 9 or 10 points to finish top 6 is insurmountable really in the greater scheme of things.

I've been quietly backing us since the start of the season mainly using the bookies money, with the group of players we've got I figured long term it would hopefully come right. Opened several accounts where they give you free bets for opening the account and have backed us at odds of between 50 and 75/1 to finish in the top 6 using the free bets the bookies gave me. Stand to win just short of 6 grand if we finish top 6 for a personal outlay of next to nothing. I've not deposited anything else since then and the bookies are trying to lure me in with more free bets, Paddy Power e mailed me Monday giving me a £10 free bet to be used within 48 hours, put it on us to win Tuesday then put those winnings on us not to lose yesterday. Might see if they do a bet on us to finish top half and lump part of it on that. ;-)

Don't really post nowadays but here's my tuppence worth. There's positives to take out of today, Gardner and Byrne first 25 lively, cohesive, ran things but lost their way a bit rest of the first half, Bryan came into the game and contributed more the longer it went on and it goes without saying he's probably scored the goal of the season. So I'm optimistic about stuff in midfield if they all turn up at the same time plus we've got the Frenchie we signed this week who didn't make the squad today (fitness/injury?). What did strike me today was Shez's stubborness (before anyone kicks off, I would have driven the car to pick him up last season and I still think he's the man). Nep (not a nickname just don't want repetitive strain injury) playing wing back, within the first 20 minutes was obviously and I mean obviously, not working yet it was persevered with for the full 90, there's no way Clarke and Gerrard can play in a back 3 if the wing backs aren't cutting it. Lad looked lost in that position do I go back do I go forward. He got the ball in his normal attacking position once in the first half, turned the full back inside out.................twice.......... then stuck a decent ball in the box, his only meaningful contribution as an attacker in the whole game. His full back got booked after 75 minutes, that's an invitation to run riot, nothing. Not sure what Shez's probs are with 4-4-2 but we've just signed 2, by the look of it, very skillful wingers, get the ball out wide and let them run at people and do what they're fucking good at and give our forwards something to attack in the box. Reading it back this sounds a bit of a gripey post, but it's not, from 2 weeks ago we're on a different planet, should have beaten 2 of the teams expected to be there or there abouts at seasons end and I'm very optimistic but was just walked away frustrated rather than disappointed today.

Apparently he often travelled with the first team squad last season as he'd caught the eye but they're open to a loan to aid his development. https://www.thisisanfield.com/2017/06/liverpool-consider-possible-summer-loan-moves-shamal-george-kamil-grabara/