JoeP

Sheridan was a good appointment - should never have been sacked. Royle was bought it to steady the ship, but decided he didn't want it permanently. You reckon those who feel they have lost affinity with the team would be using it as a reason not to come anymore if he'd stayed on?? I don't. Then imagine what the interest would be like if got the team playing well, with a bit of pride and passion. They might say never go back in football - but there's no law to say it won't work.

Yep, agree with most of that. I still wouldn’t see our current on-pitch (or off-pitch, for that matter) situation as a reason to give up though. For every squad built by Warnock, Talbot or Penny, there’s one built by Royle, Dowie or Sheridan (to some extent). Can't find it now, but there was an excellent post that was originally on the oafc.co.uk messageboard about giving the club back to the fans, which hit the nail on the head. I don’t agree that the blame for the product on the pitch lies with TTA, though. They made a solid appointment with Penny, but unfortunately he seems to have managed to destroy the soul of the club with his tactics and signings. I genuinely think the only way forward to keep a lot of the old-school fans interested is to get rid of Penny and appoint a Ritchie or an Eyres, if only to put some passion and identity back into the club. Lets face it - the football can't get any worse!

I agree we started to sink at exactly the wrong time. The post was intended to try to work out why even the hardcore fans are losing interest in the football side of things. We haven't really ever had funds before, and it never put the true faithful off.

Most creative player since Rick Holden and a Latics fan to boot, but his talents are wasted here - he needs his head read if he doesn't go.

I think there's a pretty hefty element of the current fan base that probably started supporting Latics on the back of the late 80s/early 90s and are probably of an age where higher priorities in life are coming to light (or they're 6 foot under!). Attendances might be dropping because these fans have never been replaced. So maybe the decrease in fanbase it natural? If this is the case, there might be nothing we can do to get them back. The club will have to think of some way to entice future generations to come along, which is a different matter. I understand there are other points as to why people don't want to go anymore, but they seem to be matters of behind the scenes politics, rather than to do with the team. We've been unwatchable before and we'll be unwatchable again. Basically people are using these factors as a tool to hit the football side of the club with when it's down. At the end of the day, it's the football team we support, not TTA, some miserable tw@t who moans all game or some stadium in Failsworth. All the people making "hanging my scarf up" statements seem to be what I would consider the hardcore and have probably never uttered such thing before, but is there no way to look past the politics and, well, Keep the Faith?

So you're saying this, even considering there might be a change of form on the pitch? I can't believe those that say things like this would not be tempted back should the team ever mount a promotion charge again. It seems like nose cutting to spite face - after all the years of support you've put in, you deserve to leave the possibility of a return open.

Is that you, Mr Penny?? Regardless of the players he has to select from, the attitude he approached the games such as Wallsall and Norwich were dismal. I dread to think where we'll be when he finally gets this "settled team".

I think it's primarily the football. We have a manager who has bought a load of talentless, disinterested Fourth division footballers and plays cr@p tactics with them. Factors such as the ground, TTA, facilities at Boundary Park etc, we can only guess at what is happening due to the lack of communication from the club. It's hard to imagine people who worry about them would see them as a reason to stop going to matches if we were top of the league. We had the same concerns last season, but 6,500 Latics fans were still interested enough to turn up to see Joe Royle's return. Attendances then started dropping again and the reason for that was, I would imagine, because of the football.

I think Miskelly got a raw deal from our fans - I only really remember his messing up once in that play-off match, and in most of the games he played that season. Unfortunately, his one mistake turned out to be crucial...... Got to be Alan Blayney for me, although "Lucky" John Keeley comes a close second.

Pav and Taylor aside, which one of the ex-Darlington or Huddersfield reserves that are currently playing for Latics and are injured, would you regard as "Key"?? The "injury" excuse is the the thing that p!sses me off most about Penny at the moment. He seems to think that the injury list somehow justifies the awful tactics he comes up with. The post-match interview at Norwich pretty much sums this up with his "I'm not suprised we got beat" attitude - does he not realise we're supposed to compete in every game, regardless of injuries??

If he's out of contract in the summer, I could come round to the idea of selling him. Would still prefer him to come back, work hard, and score enough goals so we offer him a new contract. Given Penny's track record with his signings for us so far (apart from Pav) I'd rather edge my bets and have O'Grady before than any other striker Penny has in mind.

That's a fairly impressive total, then! O'grady seems to have the knack in front of goal at the moment and I say we are lacking that, so get him back. I think his goals could be the difference to keep us in this division next season and no paltry sum from Rochdale is as valuable as that.

Without looking it up, hasn't Abbott only been consistent in the division below? Surely if Pav can make the step up as he has done this season, then O'Grady should be given the chance to when he returns. I personally hope he comes back - he's not really been given much of a chance here and it would be nice to see a Latics player playing for us rather than a loan signing.

Feel guilty for bringing a halt to proceedings - Got anymore??

Entrance to the Lancaster Club?

The campaign was basically a stand against manufactured music and the limited coverage alternative music gets, due to programs such as X Factor. "Killing in the Name" is an absolute anthem and RATM are one of the best bands of the '90s. They were fantastic when I saw them at Reading Festival in 2000, although the mosh pit resembled an absolute blood-bath! Couldn't give one about the charts either, but it's funny that this whole thing has annoyed those that do!

Didn't go yesterday, but from the sounds of it, we were a bit unlucky. That shot by Heffernan which hit both posts would have gone in for a team at the top - neither would have their penalty gone against us. The turning point seemed to be Penny's change in approach to the game when he took Colebeck off. Either way, both this and the Exeter game seem a giant step in the right direction from the dross that was served up at Norwich and Wallsall - or am I being too positive??

Exactly. Seeing as none of the coaching staff came over to acknowledge the fans at the end of the game, they couldn't have thought the support at Norwich was that great.

Everyone know's there's a financial inbalance, but McCarthy's decision has got to be another nail in the coffin for smaller clubs. The FA are dying for an excuse to penalise lower clubs and McCarthy's just given them an enormous bat to hit them clubs with.

Surely that's illegal, isn't it (assuming all ten aren't injured!)? A couple of years ago when Stoke fielded a weakened team against us, meaning we stayed up and Northampton went down, didn't Northampton appeal to the FA? Reckon Chelsea should give it a go - they might listen to a big team!

I think we have to hope this is the reason, as the fairweather fan only seems to want to turn up if it's £2 or free. Celebration Sunday saw 13k+ turn up and the last time we did the £2 offer 9k+ and 10k+ turned up for the Brighton and Northampton games respectively. However, I don't think there was a massive upturn in attendance for the following, normal priced home matches after these games, and that was when we were doing a lot better than we are now. I even think it might take a few seasons of higher quality football before we actually see attendances consistantly rise. The facilities are also probably a factor. As has been mentioned elsewhere, new stadiums for other clubs has seem a boost in their attendances - maybe this could the answer.

Especially considering some were always going to opt for the Christmas shopping option.

Got to say CT - if he's still here by choice, he needs his head read. Our most exciting player since Rick Holden. Unfortunately that Fat Lad playing on ITV4 at the moment probably isn't a million miles away. Other than that, Murray, Armstrong, Ernie and Fiz Hall, were my favourite.

In a heartbeat. Apart from his legendary status amoungst the fans, I think he's got unfinished business here and would boost attendances immediately....for a bit.

Very good original post. Not sure about the Duxbury for manager bit, though. If we were going to make an appointment to get some "Oldham blood to get stuck in", I don't think we can really look beyond Joe Royle or Ritchie, which limits us a bit.