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Just win tomorrow. Everton will be a nice day out but I can't see us winning at Goodison as only Chelsea have won there this season! The 3 points against Pompey is more important at this stage of the season in my opinion (especially as Bury are 1-0 up against County as I type)

How great is it to have a caretaker manager come in and love the club as much as Tony does?! Especially after losing Dickov (of which the players loved) he's the perfect solution to a tricky position. It's funny isn't it how much recognition we are getting at the mo with the cup run. You know we must be doing something right when councillers want tickets and we're on ITV more times than Corrie! The best result for Latics from here on would be for us to gain planning permission for the stand, stay up and start construction in summer. Oh and win the FA Cup.

I pulled my calf and could hardly walk the next day...

Great video, any chance of putting the full video up sometime? As much as I won't get bored of the ITV highlights, there's something about watching the game from behind the goal with the fans that makes it better!

Late last night in Middleton, I bumped into a couple of blokes fully kitted out in early 90's Latics shirts & hats and I presumed they'd been to the match given their choice of attire... turns out they've not been in years but are 'avid Oldham fans' and watched it in the pub. My mate also saw a fair few Latics' in Spoons aswell and said they were getting very excited about it all. Just shows that we do have a vast supporter base still lingering on from the Prem days but getting them to cough up £25 and actually put money into the club is a different matter. This cup run will do us financially good short term but for Oldham to get people back each week we need a new stand with better facilities along with a repeat of the atmosphere seen yesterday. For me though, the best thing about yesterdays game was seeing the kids enjoying the atmosphere and witnessing a last minute equilizer which could easily get them hooked on the super blues - I think the £10 season ticket deal has definatly made its money back from future sales! It would be interesting to see how many we'd take to Wembley (of which i fully expect us to get too and I would be dissapointed with anything less... )

I've just posted this in the other thread but it seems more fitting here... 16 Games: 5 against top 10 teams (Lets say aim for 1point a game on average) 4 against Mid-table 11th to 15th (1.5 points would get us 6 points) 7 crucial matches against the relegation fodder (2 points per game = 14 points) We're on 27 points now so if we aim and hit these targets we'd get a season total of 52 points which should see us safe. Sounds simple right

16 Games: 5 against top 10 teams (Lets say aim for 1point a game on average) 4 against Mid-table 11th to 15th (1.5 points would get us 6 points) 7 crucial matches against the relegation fodder (2 points per game = 14 points) We're on 27 points now so if we aim and hit these targets we'd get a season total of 52 points which should see us safe. Sounds simple right

I'd try and get Paul Jewell in, he's been in plenty of relegation battles, lives in Bradford and has only been out of the game for a few months since leaving Ipswich.

It's going to be close and it's not looking good at the moment with our current form but we do have 16 games to turn it around with with a team of half decent players. Based on the fact that we tend not to beat the top half teams this season (18 games, 1 win & 3 draws leading to a measly 6 points from a possible 54) you can look at the fixtures to see where the most realistic points are to come from. The must win games for us are; Hartlepool, Portsmouth, Colchester & Carlisle at home and Bury, Shrewsbury, Preston & Stevenage away. In a crazy world where we beat all 8 of these would give us 24 points (put us on 51 points and should be safe). However, we won't beat all of these and that's why we need to start to perform against the top sides to give us a chance of staying up.

Would be a shame as the RRE against Liverpool was rocking. GMP bore off.

I clocked that I was stood next to a group of Liverpool fans early doors - I just made the point of jumping on them when we bagged the 3 goals. It probably made the day even sweeter to see their reactions throughout the match!

Without a doubt - keep Baxter. Whilst this is all a nice distraction from the league, the fact of the matter is that we are in a relegation battle and we need goal scoring stars like Jose to try and help keep us afloat for another season. I remember beating City at our place a few years back and it will go down as one of my favourite moments as a Latics fan BUT we then went on a losing streak of about 8 games which inevitably cost Brian Talbot his job and we scraped relegation. Beat Liverpool - great for short term and future memories but thinking back of how good it was at Barnet next season will make it more of a harsh reality.

Whilst Furman set up both of Smith's goals, I agree with Sly in that Furman's performance against Crewe was shocking and I thought he should have been taken off as the first sub. Wes is a solid team player who I personally think is best suited to the defensive midfield role along side an attacking central midfielder. Who would feed best off Wes? I think we've got two great attacking midfielders of Mchangama and Montano who have been played out of position on the wing whilst Furman gets a free ride without any pressure on his place. I'm not knocking Furman's overall quality as we've all seen what product he can produce on his day but since his call up to South Africa, I believe he has played in second gear with not wanting to get injured and miss the African Cup of Nations. Along with negative defensive tatics, our midfield has become stale and predictable. Today is a crucial game in the season and we therefore need to be attacking and win it, for me the line up would be: Bouzanis Brown, Mvoto, Byrne, Grounds Croft, Wes, Montano Mchangama Smith, Baxter I'd give Smith another chance as the little and large combination should work well against Scunthorpe, plus whilst his miss was a shocker, I thought he played well. That being said, if we're locked in a stale 0-0 after 60mins, Taylor should be utilised to see if he can do the business again.

Wait... I've not been on here since after the City game...I thought we all decided that we are the greatest team ever and Dickov can't do no wrong? Talk about extreme emotions from this message board, why not concentrate our efforts and get behind them instead of getting all worked up into a fit. We've had a :censored: few games, give it time and judge the season then. It's not like we can afford any alternative to the current set-up is it?

Bury haven't even got vouchers in their season ticket for tickets at our ground, not sure about Rochdale. What's the deal with the friend for £5 match ticket, it says that they'll announce the games in due course but i'm thinking they'll never get round to it?!

Last season I was all for trying to win this cup, mainly due to us not having the best starting 11 and with the bye it allowed us to play one less game in the competition. We did very well in it and if lady luck was on our side we could have gotten to Wembley. However, this season I believe we have an outside chance of getting into the play offs with our first eleven. So as Gaz said above 'play the kids'. I would concentrate on the league and the FA Cup and if the reserves do well in the earlier rounds then we can go for it later on. I think there is a clause that we have to play so many first teamers (5 I think?) so I would aim to protect our best players - Furman, Croft, Wesolowski and Cisak.

Having looked at the plans on here tonight, I’ll give my general thoughts and concerns with this new stand: Gym – This will benefit the club but with the rival DW Sports across the road with pool, sauna etc I wonder how many customers we could attract Capacity of 13,000 – I personally think that is the right amount of seats but I wouldn’t hold my breath about the corners being filled in the future! Car Park – Great that we are finally going to get a tarmac car park but it’ll hold sub 300 cars if the spaces shown are the only spaces Supporters Bar – Great addition especially if it’s similar to Fleetwood’s which FWP designed Office Space – There’s a lot of it which is fine but is it the clubs or is it to be rented out? Can the ground floor offices incorporate the facilities of the main stand such as the ticket office? Function Room – Good sized room, it should incorporate a bar to cash in from weddings / christenings / birthday parties Other stuff of note: TV Camera’s - I prefer us to show off our new shiny stand by sticking the cameras in the Main Stand so I’m happy with no gantry in the new stand Floodlights – I thought they would have lights on the roof as the Main Stand does now, however they’d be pretty easy to install if they haven’t allowed for it But, after all that, it looks like a really smart modern stand which with the location of Boundary Park It will be successful off the field.

Right i'm going to be 'that guy'... It's only a friendly - it means naff all. I saw us against Fleetwood and we were fantastic, apparently we were great again tonight but it counts for nothing. Why am i being the killjoy? Because we'll get our hopes up waaaay too much before the season even starts. If we beat Sheffield Wednesday i'll be chuffed to bits, this game (whilst its always nice beating City) doesn't do anything for me expect worry me about our fans expectations. For me the best bit tonight was getting no injuries and getting a financial boost so that we can bring in some good loanee's.

A very good signing by Mr Dickov, my mate who follows Scunny around the country said he's one of the best defenders he's seen and he gives 100% to the cause at all times. He said Scunny offered him a year contract but he wanted two, plus he also wanted a chance to get into coaching. The side is definitely coming together now, a mix of youth and experience should be able to challenge for the play offs if we get lucky with injuries / suspensions.

I hope City fans fill our ground and we make a pay day from it all, but I don't like ripping off fellow football fans in the process. Just because City are successful why should their fans have to pay more to watch their team play? I don't think as many will turn up to this game as most think - I hope I'm wrong because we need the money but at the end of the day its just a meaningless match that will be treated as a fitness test before the bigger games start a few weeks later.

I probably won't be going to this game now, one reason being the £15 pricetag and the other it being an all ticket affair. The hassle of getting up to Latics to get a ticket for a pre season match just seems a waste of time and effort. I'll still be at the Sheff Weds game as that should be a cracker but £15 to watch City XI just seems a tad expensive for me. Also, why offer a free pre season game to season ticket holders? It's usually only a tenner and most wouldn't expect it, but now people are going to turn up expecting a free match then be pissed off when they can't use it for this game because its the famous wealthy Manchester City... Standard Latics though isn't it, if i were in charge my goal would be to show off the £10 children season tickets in the away end with the aim to lure as many fans away from the Etihad and get them into Boundary Park!

Woah woah woah let's not be complaining about the rules.... I think I've got Gomez as top goalscorer so that's my only chance for points I think! I'll tell the grandkids one day that I was second once in this tournament and not always a disappointment to the family.

What are the lotto numbers for tonight Rosa?

Very happy to see Wes sign, him and Furman on their day are the best midfield partnership in this division.

It's been steady, we shouldn't have drifted into the near relegation battles that we have but i wouldn't expect the club to be pushing for play offs as our club is slowly dying. Last years cup runs were a good distraction but that cost us a better league position with the massive glut of Tuesday-Saturday games towards the end of the season with our key players missing. I like Dickov and I think given time he could put together a side that could finish top half regulary - is that good enough for us fans? I personally think so. Next season the fans will expect much more from him and i suspect there will be times where the fans will turn on him, as has been the case for all the managers since Royle. He's got to work around the backbone of the important players (Cisak, Mvoto, Furman & Weslowski) and rely on fringe players putting in consistant high performances (Brown, Morais, Tounkara etc) if they stay. I hope he can sign some solid players for next season but with the budget being cut to a league 2 standard, along with falling crowds, he'll have a tough job in pleasing us all.