help_shiny

went to Skolars v Oldham yesterday. Before the game a group of Oldham fans walked into the, until then peaceful, bar and one of them was absolutely shouting his head off about winning the league. I thought he was just being unecessarily antagonistic to the Londoners and was shouting about Oldham RL. But no......one of his mates said to us "sorry about him but he's a City fan and the rest of us are United". As I was flicking the v's into his fat stupid face it dawned on me that I wanted Skolars to win.

it was a real smash and grab raid. Schalke were on top but Bilbao went 1-0 up. Schalke were well on top when Bilbao made it 2-2. They then had further chances before rapier like Bilbao attacks put paid to a non existant Schalke defence. Ho hum. I think Spanish Ebay will be getting a visit from me ;-)

I won out in the Europa League Final lottery today and have myself a ticket for Bucharest. If your lot get there and you want to go you can have it - at Bilbao prices that is - €99. Still cheaper than you'd get elsewhere - have a think about it! Although,Schalke will crush them in Spain - obviously. banner at Schalke tonight: "€90 for tickets = €1 per minute. Football is not telephone sex".

Phone's gone mental and posted same thing two hours later.I havent even been drinking.

But it's ok to fleece the away fans? S04 are a members club too but they realise football is a game for all,not just the rich or those who can afford the membership fee.they hiked the price after many already committed to buying one but I bet very few others now go.There comes a point when you have to just say no(or nein as the case may be!)

But it's ok to fleece the away fans? S04 are a members club too but they realise football is a game for all,not just the rich or those who can afford the membership fee.they hiked the price after many already committed to buying one but I bet very few others now go.There comes a point when you have to just say no(or nein as the case may be!)

nice to see cuddly old Bilbao charging the fan friendly €90 + fees for cheap tickets for the ELQF. May they burn in football hell!

Athletic beating United does have rather a nice ring to it. Hope Schalke shaft 'em in the next round though.

terrible news, I know a couple of his cousins but dont think I ever met him. Condolences to all his family and friends.

turns out I'm a moron. Who knew!? Oh

it might just be me and my tinfoil hat but I'm still of the opinion that they bought the ref when we played them at their place in 1987 as we were both pushing for automatic promotion. So with that in mind........FLUSH 'EM DOWN THE PAN! As for other clubs I hope that most escape extinction but they've got to start paying their debts and if they dont then sod 'em, wind them up and let them start again in non league. And that goes for us too (in the highly unlikely event such a succesful franchise as the Oldham Athletics were ever to get into a bad financial situation)

I very occasionally watch RL on TV and also attend the CC Final and/or the Grand Final most years as a purely social "let's get wellied with the lads" type of outing but I'm pretty far from being a fan. My dad used to take me to Sheddings occasionally but it never took. However....switched on the St Helens v Catalans game and that last tackle had me on the edge of my seat roaring my head off. Fantastically exciting. While I'm here talking about my new found love of all things egg shaped....what's the deal with Oldham and promotion this year? I understand that there are four teams getting promoted but out of everyone else in the division they are the only ones whose ground would fail to get the nod. Is this being rectified or are they doomed to be playing the likes of London Skolars and Hemel Stags for ever more?

there are strong suspicions within the family that my nephew has been dabbling in that stuff as well. It's been a difficult time for all of us

argghhh,I've just realised that's what you were all going to do anyway and all the "welcome home son" tripe was just to lull him into a false sense of security.

this bloke said he was a City fan,went to watch them,bought a top and then widely distributed photos of himself wearing it? Tie him to one of the floodlight pylons and stone him to death. Or set fire to him. Whichever seems the best thing to do at the time.

I might be able to make that. Hadnt realised it was only 20 odd minutes from Kings X so had pondered driving but now a train and some tinnage seems a better option.

I vote - although I suspect I havent got one - for Oldham Radicals. A nice tip of the hat to Oldham's history, doesnt contain the word Ultra but has enough of a frisson of being a bit alternative. My second choice is taking out a fine old Oldham phrase and dusting off for re-use - "the Bottom Block"

It doesnt matter if you see a bigger picture or not - your fun can hopefully kick start the atmosphere at Latics, get more people through the gate, increase the atmosphere again etc etc. As leeslover said above Rome wont be built in a day so if your sense of fun wavers from time to time dont give up. Your work & misery will be for everyone elses benefit ;-)

I know that orchestrated ultra style support is anaethema to many English fans buthere is no way old style English vocal support is ever going to make a comeback whilst terracing is considered a bad thing by those in power. With that in mind the only way that anything approaching the 'good old days' (minus the face punching) can be recreated is if fans organise which leads us back to the ultras. I was at Palace a while back and was sat up behind their ultras, I was part torn between Olde English scorn at such a carry on and realising that they were driving the atmosphere of the whole ground. While a small minority of those in attendance their chants were carried around the whole ground. The atmosphere was far more electric than anything you'd normally expect nowadays and it was all down to them. There was a Palace fan behind me who spent a fair amount of time standing up shouting that they were all w'kers which goes to show that some feel extremely strongly the other way. A lot of people seem to think that because it's the 'ultra movement' that means just singing Italian songs, slashing people's buttocks and throwing flaming scooters about. Wrong - all an English Ultra group has to have in common with it's Italian, German, or wherever counterparts is it's organised nature and making some bloody noise. Go on the Oldham Ultras, you'll get stick, abuse, be laughed at but if you keep at it you can be a tremendous force for good.

you're right - the English spectating 'experience' is utterly gash. It amazes me how it's just been meekly accepted. In Germany at the moment there is a campaign against the prospect of some clubs considering - not doing,considering - the prospect of charging €20 to stand up at a Bundesliga game. €20 for top flight football and they're kicking off about it. And they can stand. And drink. And they sing. The atmosphere is like nothing you find in England. And they have an actual stake in their clubs. Some Premier League fanboys dont mind being utterly financially violated if it means their darlings can have a good tilt at the Champions League but what's in it for everyone else? The Chaddy used to be such a fantastic place but now....dead. There's little atmosphere and those that do try and get it going are usually derided by others. Not slagging off those 'others' by the way - everyones entitled to their own viewpoint but it's these all seater grounds that throw everyone together - there's no 'knobhead area' to allow the young un's to just go and make some noise and have a laugh without upsetting those who want a quieter life and dont like bad language. No wonder nobody goes anymore, it's a rip off, it's like a morgue, the place is falling down, there is absolutely no 'vibe' going on at Latics at all. Make it a tenner in, have terracing, let us drink and I couldnt give a toss what division we were in - people would take a lot more joy out of supporting the club.

I'll be in the woods sharpening a stick at both ends

I've sat in all areas now apart from the Club Wembley area - if they're flogging them I'll be there, it'll be a decent seat and much better facilities than the concrete bowl you plebs will be looking for a pie and pint in. No worries on the booze front, it will be on sale. Those of you who have been to see England and it wasnt on sale is because it was either a WC or EC Qualifier and FIFA and UEFA regulations state they cant sell booze, international friendlies are fine though. One gripe about that is that the Club Wembley sorts are allowed to drink, it's just the normal fans who cant. The only warnings I would give is the first few rows behind either goal are probably best avoided as they're the worst views in the house in my opinion, if you're sitting behind the goal try for higher up the bottom tier and then the view's great. And for those in the top tier....if you're old,got knackered knees,are obese,lazy etc etc then dont get seats right at the back, it's a big walk up the steps to get there. And after saying all that....could we hunt down the original poster and nail him to a fence outside Boundary Park for now guaranteeing we wont get there? ;-)

I'm kind of on the fence, I consider it to be both. We're certainly not Mancunian in any way shape or form though. I also consider the city of Manchester to be both. To my mind Lancashire is our county and Greater Manchester is the conurbation Oldham finds itself in. I think a lot of the younger generation feel less Lancastrian than us old goats. Whoever did the planning for the local govt reorg in 1974 must have been a Yorkshireman. They cut off Liverpool,Manchester, Oldham etc etc from Lancashire in many people's minds. They made sure they had West,South,North Yorkshire though - not Aireside or Greater Sheffield etc. They kind of cast Hull off - although I think they refer to East Yorkshire again - and got shot of Middlesbrough but that's nothing to the mutilation of the red rose county. You even get fellow Lancastrians telling us that we're not from Lancashire - we're from Greater Manchester.They've divided us! If we did try to market ourselves as the 'Lancashire club' those same deluded fools from Blackpool, Burnley, Preston etc etc would deride us. How many in our two largest cities now think of themselves as Lancastrians - hardly anyone under 30 I'd wager.It was all a filthy yorkist plot I tells yer. Anyway that was a long and rambling way to say I vote for LANCASHIRE but I think we've lost the hearts and minds of too many

you were at the far end of the pitch though - unless you had your eyes shut for a good minute anyone in the stand in front of which he was spoken to by the referee or in the Kop would have been able to see that he was seriously upset. Why did they boo him? Because he first confronted the Kop, was then calmed by several players, pointed at the Kop a few more times, wiped his eyes - if you see all that going on, and as I say if you were at that end of the ground you'd need to have had your eyes shut, then - in the full knowledge your club has been through the mill recently regarding racism - booing him loudly is the mark of a moron. No two ways about it.

what really struck me about the whole thing was how anyone with even a modicum of intelligence seeing what was going on would think that there was a chance he had been racially abused, his anger and upset were plain to see. So, armed with that knowledge, what would you do the next time he touched the ball? Boo him as loud as you can? That's what thousands of Liverpool fans did. Utterly utterly braindead and moronic.