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LaticsPete

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Everything posted by LaticsPete

  1. At least you never waver. Relevant or not, your opinions have a consistency.
  2. Careful or you may be accused of repeatedly sniping. Heaven porfend.
  3. What an excellent signing Lancs have made for the whole of next season- Nathan Lyon . Best spinner at OT since Murali ?
  4. That dates it. Someone from the police coming out and investigating.
  5. Redfearn goes back to football at Valley Parade Former Leeds United and Rotherham United boss and Barnsley legend back in coaching at Bradford City (msn.com)
  6. Danny Rowe has to leave Macc over continuing health problems. Career seems over at any decent level . Sorry for the lad. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/former-bradford-city-and-chesterfield-man-leaves-non-league-club-due-to-underlying-health-condition-4400334?fbclid=IwAR2GVmWQs0zDPlS39YREPsenXNeEw7-NQiG2zEPeC-2Z7SEorJpWotNpIjM_aem_AX2rBmNFrPlIKz89NmhCEi_Ltj0ywhE2D6aFfopzTjbhBGPMxUnYJLYm6Aks7kDClDc
  7. @BP1960 Why don't you go and ask him in person on Thursday evening instead of venting on here?
  8. Well, a reply, thanks. But you haven’t answered my question as to whom you would have replaced, with whom and when. As for what else you say, I think others on OWTB have very reasonably said that as MM is reviewing everything then knee jerk signings would be wrong. Anyway, there is a question as to which players should be signed, let alone could.
  9. You’ll be told you don’t understand the game…
  10. So explain what your original comment meant in terms of actual actions. It’s already been pointed out to you that he wasn’t allowed to use all his subs - so which ones should he have used and when? Asking for a friend.
  11. Yes, that's right although it's under threat as part of a station development. Its sports ground and club are a couple of miles away in a suburb.
  12. York RI still plays at open age and youth levels, Not Mechanics but originally for railway workers and now a sports club open to all.
  13. Dynamo ( or Dinamo) were associated with the police . Not always police as we know them…so sometimes security or internal affairs. Basically the organisation behind Dynamo sports clubs , it wasn’t just football, wielded a lot of power. Players could be civil servants in such an organisation rather than cops.
  14. “Come On City”, is a chant that can only be used to back a limited number of teams, a small proportion of those from the over 70 cities there are in the United Kingdom. This month, however, I’m looking at Oldham programmes involving teams from cities that have chosen not to embrace that status in their name. So not Manchester or Stoke or York, each of which has the “City” suffix, but some that might not immediately register as being entitled to if they wished. In some cities the foremost club is not the “City” one – Oxford and Cambridge as examples – and some have never had a team in the top echelons of professional football - Wakefield ,Lichfield, and Truro for instance. Some cities are, of course, ancient, with Anglican cathedrals to boot, whilst others are as recent as this decade without such a physical statement of ecclesiastical might. I’ll have a look at programmes involving both forms and ponder whether “City” could be attached to the club’s name. Let’s start with a place that has had a varied governmental past. Peterborough is one of those ancient cities, the present cathedral dating back to 1118, yet was designated as having “New Town” status in 1967. One of the reasons for that was that it was seen as a progressive town, and the sense of local pride was surely enhanced by Peterborough United. In its very first season in the Football League the club was already second in Div 4 when it hosted Oldham on 22nd October 1960, and finished as eventual Champions . A fine aerial view of the London Road round, prominent floodlight towers and (nearly) three covered sides , is a classic example of lower league grounds of the time and makes a striking front cover in a blue tint. Red is used at the bottom to give the match details, Peterborough being one of those clubs that favoured a3.15 kick off. Inside the 12page, 4d, programme, the paper became rough and there isn’t a great deal of reading matter. “Club Chatter” extends over parts of two pages and covers everything from a ”look forward to an entertaining game”, mentioning that Latics had five former Manchester City players, brief comments on the Posh’s exit from the League Cup at Preston, the Reserves upcoming Midland Floodlit League match, and a Youth Team success against Corby Town. After the Preston match, the team had enjoyed “two restful days in Blackpool”. A booming local economy is represented by a plethora of advertisements, up to ten on a page, and they surround the teams laid out on the centre pages. Apparently “9 out of 10 people in the city & district read the Peterborough Citizen” and you could “score every time” with a used car from Regency Motors. The “entertaining game” was a good forecast, the 11934 seeing a 2-2 draw . The match had an ironic twist to it and might never have happened. Just a few months earlier Oldham finished second bottom of Div 4 and had to apply for re-election for the second successive season. They were successful but the team immediately above them, Gateshead, weren’t, and were replaced in the Football League by a thrusting non-league club – Peterborough United. By the way, there is a Peterborough City club, in the local District Football League. In 2002 , City status was conferred on Preston, but the match at home to Oldham in Div 2 was twenty years earlier, on 4thApril 1981. I’ve not come across anything quite like it as a programme. For a start it was A4 in size, not unique but certainly distinct. The “North Ender” has, however, from the front cover to the last of its 16 pages, the look and feel of a fanzine or student union magazine rather than a club production. The cover has a grainy action shot, programme title at the top in red & blue, and match details at the bottom. Inside, for your 30p, was a rather haphazard collection of articles, adverts, fonts, clip art, and statistics – all in a printed format that looked as though run off on a duplicating machine. There are some good items tucked away in this jumble – a “Schools Corner” , two pieces (separate for some reason) on the Laws of the Game, as well as a 10, 20, 30 years ago page. “Nobby’s Notes” from Manager Nobby Stiles is in a place to be expected, the inside front page, above a barely legible list of directors and honours. Nobby had been boss at Deepdale since 1975 but this was his last season, relegation, on goal difference, leading to his departure. He foresaw the team’s demise , “we’ve got an enormous task to stay in the Second Division”, and recognised Oldham were also in a precarious position, so the Latics’ 2-1 win was a big result for them, staying up by three points. The “Proud Preston” tag associated with the club, one of the greatest in the early years of the Football League, wasn’t evidenced by this programme. The Deepdale outfit was obviously struggling on and off the field and the slide continued until 1986, a 23rd position in Div 4 beginning a gradual climb back . As far as I know, there was never a serious desire to become “Preston City”, and I can’t find a trace of any amateur team adopting that title. It had been two years since Sunderland had become a city when Oldham arrived for a League 1 (now the Championship) match on 29th October 1994. There had been some paper talk in the North-East that the football club should add “City” to its name, if only to spite Newcastle, but it never happened. As indicated by the programme title , “Roker Review”, the club was still at Roker Park, the move to the Stadium of Light being three years off. It was a bright, colourful publication , £1.30 for 36 glossy pages, with lots of reading matter and information. The front cover flagged up some of the content inside, that as well as match details and sponsors’ names against a photo from a recent game versus Wolverhampton Wanderers. Mick Buxton had his “Manager’s Moment” on p3, bemoaningthe team’s “topsy-turvy season” and that there’s not a great deal to choose between any team in the division, including Oldham so “we have a big game on our hands”. There’s an informative four pages on the Latics, extensive pen pictureson some players and a series of snippets relating to links between the clubs – Mark Outterside made his only Sunderland appearance against Oldham in 1986/7. He “gave a solid performance but was never seen again in the first team” and was now playing in the Northern League. Black Cat defender Ian Snodin, on loan from Everton, has two pages to himself (he was transferred to Oldham the next year ), the Reserves and Youth team news and fixtures are included, Captain Kevin Ball reckons teams went to Roker Park to frustrate the home side, and Physio Steve Smelt had a wonderfully titled column “Felt By Smelt” in which he brought news of injuries. There wasn’t much to choose between the two teams when they met that season, both matches ending up 0-0. This one was watched by 17252, and campaign ended with Oldham in 15th spot, and Sunderland in 20th. It was a significant day when a new team name appeared at Boundary Park on August 28th, 2004. Milton Keynes Dons had only been created the month before after the controversial uprooting of Wimbledon, from south of the Thames, to a location 50 miles northwest of London. It created confusion for football statisticians and writers for quite a while, some using old Wimbledon facts and figures, others down the path of the new entity having no history at all. I wonder if some of the tension could be dissipated by the club becoming Milton Keynes City , as the status was conferred last year. Maybe a MK supporter can shed light on the possibility. Latics ‘programme for the League 1 match, went down the former path, and as well as four pages of notes and pen pictures, there are also details of MK’s last ten years (even if they had been under Wimbledon’s name). Anyway, the visitors included in their squad two former Oldham players, Paul Rachubka and Allan Smart. Goalie Rachubka had played 16 times for Latics, on loan from Manchester Utd, but turned down a permanent transfer. Smart left Boundary Park after disciplinary issues, despite a fee of £225,000 having been paid for him. No such problems with the player on the programme’s cover - the legendary 40-year-old David Eyres, who was also given a two-page feature inside “Blue Pride”. A much younger member of the Oldham staff was local lad Danny Hall and he answered ten questions about himself; favourite holiday was Malaga, favourite club Manchester United. Danny never made it on to their books, despite racking up 19 in his career. The 60-page programme also included John Eyre’s expectation that he would be the team’s penalty taker, Manager Brian Talbot looking forward to a Sky televised League Cup clash with Tottenham after Latics had defeated Stoke, Chaddy the Owl talked about the Mascot Olympics, and Dean Holden apologised for his reaction to supporters after the defeat at Hull the previous week, and the Boundary Blues celebrated birthdays of its young members. Match Mascot Aidan Smyth predicted a 3-0 victory for Latics, and his was a perfect prediction. Jermaine Johnson, Chris Killen and Mark Arber scored the goals in front of 5066 spectators.
  15. Mr Corinthian Llew Walker Pitch Publishing 2023 Hardback 336pp £18.99 Corinthian Casuals is a name that exists, for many people, at the edge of football knowledge. Probably thought of as one of those teams that flourished in the early years of the game, chalked up an FA Cup win or two, but then vanished not only from the mainstream but, in some cases, completely. In fact, a team called thus has only existed since 1939 when a merger of Corinthians and Casuals took place, never won the Cup, and this book focusses on the former, its impact on Victorian football, and its “founding father” Nicholas Lane (“Pa”) Walker. The achievements of Corinthians shouldn’t be underestimated , although much of their early reputation was built on the writings of club associates. Nonetheless, they were one of the driving forces behind the evolution of football, an amateur club that stimulated the professional game, and regarded as espousing noble virtues of good sporting behaviour. It was Walker who founded the club in 1882, not his first venture, originating and captaining Finchley FC a few years earlier, and it his story that dominates the book , as his influence not only on Corinthians but football and other sports grew. There’s no doubt that “Pa” was what might nowadays be called a climber, whether social or professional. He came from a family that had run pubs (his father a violent alcoholic), but his education remains a mystery – his autobiography claimed he went to a school that has no record of him. In his twenties that is evidence he played a little football for Upton Park and Casuals before the Finchley venture, apparently starting a football section of the cricket club, becoming an Umpire (football not cricket), and involving himself in administration . He became a member of the FA committee, and also began writing as a journalist and magazine publisher. He was fast becoming “established” in the football establishment, and active in the debate about professionalism. Even though he was arranging for matches for his Corinthian team against Northern professionals he strenuously opposed their growing influence, chairing, in 1884, a committee that made several anti-professional recommendations. Yet , a year later he backed a motion that “it is expedient” to legalise professionalism. There can be little doubt that his networking and hard work made him massively influential. Even during his time as a bastion of amateurism, he would build contacts with the Northern clubs, and the impression that one gets from this book is that his energy, personal ambition, and, it must be said, his love of sport, made him a real force. In yet another twist, and a reminder of his amateur preferences, he railed against a proposal that made it compulsory for local FAs to accept professional teams and other ideas, culminating in his resignation from the FA in 1897. The intervening years had seen him continue to progress Corinthian FC, two England teams for matches against Wales in 1894 and 1895 comprising players from the club alone, beating FA Cup winners Blackburn Rovers and Bury , and being the first English club to tour outside Europe, to South Africa in 1897. By the turn of the century, having left the FA , Jackson developed his interests in other sports (he had helped found the Lawn Tennis Association), setting up three golf clubs, as well as donating a trophy for curling. At a distance of over 100 years, Jackson comes across as a mixture of Stanley Rous, Bernie Ecclestone, and Sepp Blatter. A man of great impact, a self-publicist and aggrandiser, and someone who steered his beloved sport for better and worse.
  16. Or posted by someone who is starved of affection in real life, so becomes desperate for attention. Is it a cry for help?
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