Jumping Jimmy Thunder

I'll grant you that as well. The booing and abusive shouting unfortunately will never be outlawed. Standing on the ball in the corner could be.

Idealistic I'll grant you. Stupid? Only if you don't enjoy debating one's views on a topic.

I don't care who wins what - we will in all probability win nowt in my life time. I can live with that. I just don't feel the need to gloat over some other club having faced a tragedy at some point in their history and giving them a nickname that refers to this tragedy.

I don't think it is a slippery slope. If the nickname you are giving to a team, group of people etc, refers to a tragic event in which people lost their lives, then it isn't appropriate. eg - Munich, Hillsborough, Heysel, Valley Parade. If it is something that in all honesty is not true, eg sheep fettling, or rummaging through waste for a tasty treat, or Londoners selling their bottoms and you wish to use such references these are infinitely less offensive.

is it not a game anymore?

I know this isn't a poll, but I agree with you Scapegoat. I haven't paid £XX to see somebody stand on the ball in the corner and I don't agree with the win at all costs mentality. I wish to be entertained.

To refer to United fans as 'Munichs' is deplorable. To then object to being called a name because it's 'personal' is pathetic. For the moderators to object to swearing and name calling, yet allow United to be referred to in this manner is hypocrisy of the highest order.

Why wasn't this a problem when the stand was first built or when the old RRE had just a bit of chicken wire separating far more supporters? Was everybody better behaved in the 80's and 90's? (I know there were a couple of games when it was a much bigger issue, but in crowds of 5,000?)

I think it was a secret; well it was to me anyway. I knew nothing about this. Are there any other secrets you know about that I don't. Christ on a bike, you move down south and are suddenly privy to all sorts of vital information.

Confused as to how that's original and what QPR do/did at the same time.

Damn you and your rudimentary grasp of the English language.

Is it unusual for Corney to pull a half decent bird? He seems to have moderate good looks to me. (I'm not a gay though).

aye and if dung was rice pudding there would be no starvation sunshine.

You're absolutely right. We should hand over the 3 points to you now. Then Leeds can be top. There you go sweetheart, have them. It's just not right us scoring two goals and you scoring none. How obtuse of us.

Please stay all season Spainboy. You are a comedic genious. This thread and your posts in general have had me in stitches.

The financial terms might be more than wages. Stoke may want a payment for the privilege of taking him on loan. It's not clear from that article. Also there was talk of Philips having to play in every game he was available for. Not sure I'd be too keen on us taking any player on if those were the terms. No matter how bobbins he plays, he's in next week. Don't think that would be good for team spirit, nor for atmosphere if he's thrown in everytime he's fit, no matter how well the team is playing.

Having enjoyed a Leo Sayer in Stockport yesterday and struggling with a hangover today, I decided to walk over to Latics today to pick up my season ticket and sign Ernie’s book of condolences, in the deluded thought that it may help to blow away the cobwebs. I bought my main stand ticket online and was not entirely sure if my seat would be a good one. I asked Judith in the ticket office if I could change it if I wasn’t best pleased with it after a couple of games. To my absolute astonishment Judith then went on to the computer wrote down the numbers of what she thought would be better seats and then took me up to the stand and allowed me to wander through and check out the seats. I have now got an absolute belter of a seat. As something of a misanthropic curmudgeon I’m only too happy to point out when things are not to my liking, so I thought it only right to congratulate the club and Judith in particular on this fantastic show of superb customer service. Not a misanthropic curmudgeon today, but a winsome boulevardier. Thank you. I then went into the shop and signed Ernie’s book. Please get down there and sign it if at all possible. I’m heading back down there now with a shirt to hang on the tribute.

Please don't let this thread just slip down the pages; that would be wholey inappropriate. This should be stuck/pegged (whatever the term is) and kept at the top for some time, before being removed or archived. Can it also be added to the condolences, or created as an ebook of condolences? I never met Ernie, however I always got the impression he was one of us. My admiration and the reason I will always remember him fondly were for many of the reasons already posted, but also for one particular instant when he did exactly what I wanted to do. Ernie was sub in a game where we were losing by a goal or two. I don't recall who we were playing but the opposition had started to take the ball into the corner and as this is something I detest even when we do it, I started to feel a tad frustrated. Enter Ernie. Within seconds of his introduction the ball was again being shielded in the corner, this time right underneath me in the corner of the Main Stand and the RRE. Ernie raced 20 yards or so and clattered through about 5 players (3 of theirs and 2 of ours) and sent the lot flying. It was an absolute joy to behold and told me that he was just as frustrated as I was, but he was in a position to do something about it. Ernie stood up, looked at the ref, shrugged and held his arms out, the picture of innocence, while myself and those around me cheered him. Somehow he only got booked. Latics lost but I went home with something I will always remember. A player who was bothered - a joy to behold and worth his weight in gold. There are many players who played a lot more games for Latics who will never be remembered like Ernie will. I would also like to go on a rant about where the top local pros and the PFA and the FA were to help Ernie, but this is not the time nor the place. Thanks for the memories Ernie - the biggest heart ever to fit in a Latics shirt.

Is this a lie as well? I just don't know who to believe any more.

My point about Fulham was more to do with the amount of nuetrals they could attract by virtue of the number of people who move to London from outside and fancy going to a game. We don't have that in Oldham, or if we do I'm unaware of it. I also remember a petition to save Fulham attracting 50,000 signatories and all sorts of Fancy Dans signing it. My memory of the time is that there was only one season where we made any profit and that was in the 'Pinch Me' season. We were a little unlucky in that our success was a couple of years early in terms of the huge money handed out to the top clubs. In the subsequent years ground redevelopment and player wheeler dealing accounted for any surplus money. Of course this in no way excuses JWLs lack of investment and their refusal to sell the shares - I seem to remember a couple of thwarted bids by Stott to buy the shares, on one occasion he stated that he wanted to buy them and hand them over to Junior Latics so the future of the club was in the hands of its future supporters. How sincere he was we will never know. Looking back to those times I was so completely carried away by the 'success' at an age when life was so sweet I was oblivious to most of the politics that surrounded it all. I was 19/20 in the 'Pinch Me' season and my Saturdays consisted of getting up hungover, going to the Abbey Inn, meeting a crowd of mates to go to the game, watch Latics win handsomely and in style, back home for a spruce up, back up town end up in Butterflies and try and convince some young lass that a stall on Tommyfield was the ideal location to have it off with me. Time has made these memories even sweeter, Butterflies has gone and I rarely get to have it off, Tommyfield is a shadow of its former self and Latics rarely win handsomely in style, so when there are attempts to besmirch these memories I automatically switch to defence. I'm sure given a second chance things would be done massively different.

Is there any evidence that JWL took the profits? I'm not suggesting they didn't, I'm just interested if there are any figures. I don't believe Stott was a yes man pandering to what JWL wanted. I don't think JWL wanted anything, they just allowed the club to stagnate and take what little profits from the bars they could, where as if they'd invested a small amount in upgrading the bars they would have seen these profits increase. I agree they just didn't give a monkeys one way or the other. I agree with the proposed new stadium 100% (something Stott and co recognised was required) but the club could be scuppered again by the local populace. Could we really be a Fulham or Bolton? Possibly I suppose and there has to be ambition to achieve this, but Fulham are located in fancy London where the catchment potential could not be more different than we have and Bolton for whatever reason (probably history) seem able to attract bigger crowds. I suppose the real aspiration should be Wigan, but Christ on a bike I could never have that as my goal.

This is making me sound like Stott's lickspittle which was never my intention. I do feel that directors get a lot of unjustified stick, when things go wrong at a club they are brought to task and when things go well it is in spite of them rather than due to them. I don't understand what fans expect of them. The problems with Latics demise were multitudinous, JWL owning the club, refusing to sell and refusing to engage, was undoubtedly a huge factor. I also believe that the apathetic Oldham public also played a huge contributing factor. In the third year in the top flight crowds were dropping off to around the 9k mark - a figure we probably need to attract now to be sustainable and one that just isn't going to happen. If we can't attract that many people to watch top flight football what chance have we of attracting them to watch third tier football? And just as it isn't the currecnt incumbants fault, neither was it Stott and co's fault. No matter who owns the club, who manages the club and who plays for the club we are always going to be small fry struggling to make ends meet. We will have a few promotions here and there and a similar number of relegations, a few cup runs here and there, those are the joys of supporting your local team, rather than a corporate monolith.

Not sure when I mentined JW Lees. They had no representative on the board after Harry Wilde left/resigned/was booted off. Stott was chairman after Wilde and he was followed by Brierley, neither of whom worked for the brewery.

You actually think that a board of directors who presided over the club appointing Joe Royle, reaching a Wembley cup final for the only time in the clubs history, reaching two FA cup semi finals, achieving top flight status for the first time in almost 70 years, competing with the biggest clubs in the land for 3 years, staying loyal to the club for a number of years then moving aside when they felt somebody was in a better position to move the club forward are closer to the devil than Chris Moore whose 2 year reign at the club left us almost with nothing? That beggars belief. Stott and co were far from perfect, but worse than Moore? Definitely not.

Two things never cease to amaze me about the 'Colin Era'. 1. That Colin had no money to try and save us from relegation. I definitely recall him bringing in a number of players for money, Duxbury and a winger called Matty Rush who retired through injury the following season? I'm sure there were a couple of others. I've always felt (irrationally and with nothing but circumstatial evidence) that he wanted us to get relegated because he felt he could get us promoted from 3 back to 2, but not from 2 back to 1 (justifiably) if he did this he would be seen as a hero and he wanted to beat Basset's promotion record. 2. That the board of the time continually get lambasted for not having any ambition - this is the same board that presided over the most successful period in the clubs history - what should they have done? Gambled with the fabric of the club resulting in administration or worse? I'm sure they were all successful business men in their own right, but I doubt any of them were an Abromovic. The biggest mistake they made was selling the club to Moore. I also recall Colin showing his true colours by arranging a self publicising Q&A interview with Deardon on Radio Manchester shortly after his departure from Latics. My abiding memory of him will always be of somebody who courted fame and notoriety and was determined to get these by whatever means and if this meant trampling on little Oldham so his reputation remained intact so be it.