help_shiny

I couldnt live another minute without knowing - they're top of the West Lancashire League. Big one this weekend away to Fleetwood Hesketh

turns out the clubs I were thinking of were Blackpool Mechanics, Squires Gate & Blackpool Wren Rovers. Two of whom play on same street and the other around the corner. And from what I can gather there was some kind of merger, or maybe there wasnt - anyway, they're not AFC Fylde I know I have an awful lot of superfluous stuff knocking about in my head but the Blackpool non league scene must be right up there in the top rank

ah right, I was under the impression Fylde were a merger of a couple of non league teams in Blackpool - names escape me at the moment but they play(ed) on the same road as each other. Now I see I was wrong in that assumption. Something in the water up there these days - Blackpool had a go at the Prem, Fleetwood rolling in it, Morecambe in the league as well. Hotbed!

I'm occasionally one of Hemel's travelling, ahem, army. What we lack in quantity we make up for in sheer quality of individual ;-) Let the RL team back - it does not churn up the pitch anywhere near as much as many make out. Would love to see them back at BP. Whitebank is dreadful

getting back on topic - a Schalke pal of mine was at Union on Saturday - looks a good crack

was at Schalke on Saturday. Awesome as usual. Might have recovered by Wednesday or Thursday. If it's the full tourist experience you want then Gelsenkirchen is best avoided - if it's just to get wellied and watch football in a city that lives and breathes for their team then get yourself over there!

I never said that he's a billionaire. His actual wealth is a great unknown. The blokes had some property deals that went breasts up, that's the known negative. The known positive is that he's poured lots of money into the sports club he owns. We can revisit this thread once a year every year - have Salford gone into liquidation or are they doing ok? I'd welcome the bloke (not that it's the remotest possibility anymore). If Salford go bust anytime soon then you can say "nah nah I told you so". But I see no evidence it's about to happen

I still can't see what the problem would have been. He would have poured a lot more money in than Corney would ever be willing or able to and we could have dared to dream. He hasn't destroyed Salford yet so no reason to think he would have been bad for us. I think we've all been a tad traumatised by Mr Torex. As there is no hope of us ever being fan owned - the only time 'the fans' ever had any potential clout or money we just gave it all away - then we are solely at the whim of whoever owns us. I for one would rather that was Koukash than Corney* * this is not to be read as a criticism of SC, I'm really past caring

maybe they moved to get away from Oldham ;-)

that's what they all say. In the beginning. A few hours later and they change their tune, oh yes. Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, who's up next Singe? Knocked off United & the Trotters. Things looking up by jove!

pipe down you. When the war's over then the Freikorps will be round to pay you AND the Guardian a visit. Oh, hold on. Got the wrong country. Never mind me, as you were

must confess I knew nothing of the origin of the MEN. I know the Manchester Guardian was obviously a nest of commy liberal pinko british hating baby eating mo'fo's but not the MEN. Thought their spell of ownership was a more recent thing. Now it all makes sense

thought it was fairly ballsy of the MEN to print that in the first place

All 8 goals in the Bolton game came in a 37 minute spell.Attendance 12000. "Sensational Play" according to the Manchester Courier On September 4th a letter in the Manchester Evening News asked: Has not a man as much right to spend a very short period of his spare time at a football match on Saturday afternoons as another man and the bookies have to spend all week on the racecourse? (The Editor said YES) a tad more controversial letter in the MEN on September 5th from 'White Feather" Sir - Why stop at football crowds and tennis players? Why not send the recruiting sergeant around to the theatre, music hall, public houses, libraries, swimming baths, churches, Sunday Schools, and chapels? I would also suggest that when the recruiting officer walks on the football field he be armed with literature stating how many Crimean heroes ended their days in our national workhouses. Neither King, nor country, nor the political parasites who run the country will require the common soldier's services when the swag (if any) is to be divided. Until they can show me how by giving my life away or losing my limbs I am going to benefit the class to which I belong I am staying at home. wonder what he did when conscription started?

am I right in thinking that I've read somewhere that the Villa keeper was hit by a bottle when we played them in the 1913 Semi Final?

for the first time in my life I wish I was in Doncaster! Sounds like they played really well. Hope the travelling army partied hard. Get innnn

Somebody needs to reign back on their Guardian subscription....

argh! I nearly forgot 'Little United'. Yes, a pox on them

I mentioned them. I bloody did Don't understand how English football fans somehow get into heated Celtic/Rangers arguments. Let's leave them both up there stewing in their own sectarian juices. My own opinion is that pound for pound Rangers fans far outdo (& I speak as someone who is all for the Union and the flag and all that) Celtic on pure obnoxiousness but there's no doubting the latter have their own share of eejits. Let's all just agree that Manchester City are the embodiment of evil on Earth and leave it at that

after our games in the 80's City were always my number 1 hate, United obviously not far behind. Perhaps Utd shaded it for a while in the early 90's before I remembered just how much I hated City. Now to be honest I just dont care. I am in the nice position of being able to take pleasure in their defeats whilst shrugging at their victories. Nothing I can do to stop City's march to world domination so I shall just laugh at any stumble they make on their way (that and vigorously flick the v's at the TV whenever their mong fans are in shot - which I also do for United to be fair). Other past pet hates that have faded in time are Blackburn, Leeds & Everton. Liverpool are puffed up bellends, of course. MK Dons are just pitiful. Their fans, I mean customers, beneath even contempt. But, yeah - getting old. Don't BLOODY CARE anymore. Think I maybe watched 10-12 Prem games last season, will be less this year. None of it seems relevant to me anymore. Although,saying all that, I shall be the first to dance on their graves when i) the Glazer experiment plays out to it's grand conclusion leaving an empty husk behind and ii)Iran invades the UAE or the any Indian slave labourers in Abu Dhabi rise up and bring an end to their regime and their 'soft power' City plaything. Or, hey, I'd even take those ISIS pigs rocking up there. ALLAHU AKBAR!

to be fair though crowds in the top two divisions have shot up since those days. Our first season back in the top flight we were the 18th best supported club in the country. For last season the 18th were Leeds with 25k! In the unlikely event Latics were in the top division with a decent stadium then I'm sure we could pull in 20k. But we're not and we wont be. In the 80's before we turned brilliant we'd always be one of the worst supported clubs in Division 2, it probably didnt help that the Chaddy End was regularly a no holds barred fight club! If we went up & stayed up I'm sure our lowly ranking wouldnt change but that would still put you on 10k or so. I remember as a kid at Our Lady's there were hardly any Latics fans in my year and there we were in full view of the floodlights of Boundary Park. Everyone was a United fan. Then after I'd left and we got good I know for a fact there were loads of little Latics. Now we're gasher than we ever were when I was a kid and the Premier League is all and all the little scrotes are back to being United fans again and now City. Went on holiday to Royton the other week and saw loads of City tops - growing up they were nothing in Royton, now they are. Which fills me with sorrow but hey, ho - life goes on. Could be worse, could be an Oldham rugby fan. To depress myself a little further just checked some of the clubs who we outdrew in 1991/1992: Middlesbrough, Derby, Ipswich, Southampton, Wolves, QPR, Blackburn, Stoke, West Brom, Birmingham. Swansea's average was 3300, Hull 4100. Right, off to get my pipe and slippers out and dream of better days

something of a shame our club's zenith came at a time when able young men should have been joining up in support of plucky little Belgium so as to be machine gunned by Fritzy Not this week but they had a public practice match between the firsts & reserves on Wednesday August 26th 1914. Apparently it was their second such offering (courtesy of the Evening Despatch, which just landed on my doormat 100 years late. Effers). The MEN - similarly late - of the previous Saturday has Oldham Athletic:Whites 4 Blue & Whites 1 Perhaps fannying about to other towns for friendlies was frowned upon in the circumstances

something at the very back of my mind is telling me I've seen that photo before and it was at White Hart Lane. Or Goodison Park. Or or somewhere else As for the 1914-15 season - I have my suspicions that some of them may have thrown the league. There was a fair bit of dodgyness back in those days - including a game the perpetrators got found out on that season, the players fixing Man United v Liverpool. Or maybe we just went to pieces at the end of the season. Still, I have my suspicions - I've been asking the lads through the medium of a ouija board but they're all very tight lipped about it all.

it's not hideous* so it'll do me * - probably unless worn by a middle aged man with moobs and a gut. Available to model if anyone wants confirmation on that

Apart from getting the day off school as my dad swept imperiously to power in a local election in 1981 I must say I've never felt more enthused about local election results as I have today. Thought I felt my todger twitch earlier. Halcyon days! Loving the meeja/liblabcon cabal scratching their heads on the telly - weeks and weeks of being told I'm RACIST and STUPID and mental and various other things and now it's all "we understand you have concerns which we will help to address". Ed Balls was on the telly before saying how Labour are going to be tough on immigration - I had to rewind just to make sure I wasnt on hallucinogens. Miliband apparently understands my discontent, he's rooted in my experiences,my needs. By the way - anyone see him eating that bacon butty the other day? Jeez, he's a special one alright. Then there was a Tory woman on the telly saying "we've really borne down on immigration" - the day after the ONS stats show that errr, no you havent and you cannot and you will never and it is all utterly out of your control. Anyone see BBCQT last night - boooooo at the racists, booooo, boooooo. 25% of the vote but 0.5% of the audience. Funny that. Anyway, after booing down the racist (although to be fair it was Neil Hamilton) who thinks perhaps it's not a fantastic idea to have an open door everyone then gets very earnest about the massive housing shortage in the country. Couldn't make it up. Right, that's my two penneth until Monday when I come back to stroke one off Comrades! The People's Army Cometh!