Harry Dowds Green Shirt

Oh yee of little faith. Credit to Dickov on this one. If he can sell the club to someone of M'Voto's status when the likes of Huddersfield are in the chase, then fair play. The sale of Stephens will be well worthwhile if he can now also bring in the striker that he wants. I'd take M'Voto and the striker over keeping Stephens every day of the week and I say that as one of Stephens's fans. The only way we had success previously was with a manager who could wheel and deal, sacrificing 1 hear and there for the benefit of the many. This signing will leave a number of our fans absolutely speechless.

And more at night

I've lost the point of this thread. Can I still get a JD Latics T shirt, or do I have to come from Lancashire Greater manc chester or Merseyside to qualify

A fair point, but if Brill had conceeded some of the goals that Amos did, or indeed made some of the other mistakes that Amos did, then he would have been slaughtered.

Whilst not defending Brill, what I would say is that people were happy when Ben Amos was brought in, but for me, he was no better than Dean Brill. Some of the goals Amos conceeded and I'm thinking Southampton and Sheffied Wednesday were schoolboy stuff. Amos gets away without being barracked, probably because "he's played for youuuunited in the Champions League you know" whilst Brill is greeted with major slagging off both at the game and on the message boards. At the end of the day the decision as to whether Brill stays or goes will come down to 1 thing and that is can PD bring in a better keeper within his budget. There again Brill may well decide to move of his own accord, particularly after some of the :censored: he has recieved and in all honesty who could blame him

Have never been a big fan of the existing badge. I much preferred the old badge as on the 1969-70 season Tangerine shirt and 1973-74 blue shirt. Felt at the time that the change lost us our identity, but the subsequent success of the Royle era created a new identity for the club and in time the badge became accepted. Strange how a new generation now have the thoughts I had in my early 20's. Hope this new evolution leads to similar successes. You have to start somewhere. I prefer the new badge to the current one, but overall still prefer the 70's badge of the Owl sitting on a ball.

There is now

That is Morais' 2nd red card this season which, if I'm not mistaken will incur an additioanl game so he would miss the 1st 2 games next season. As for your other points. This season was always a tough debut for PD. He inheited a squad that was obviously inadequate. He brought in a number of close season "signings" and loans and produced a decent 1st half to the season with a thin squad that he needed to improve and bulk up with a bit more quality before the enforced break. The January business looked fairly good on paper but has proved to be otherwise. The biggest disappointment has been the more senior players brought in who have played at higher levels and who you would have expected more from. Feeney, Jarrett and Todd being the prime examples. White has faded badly after a flying start, not helped by his injury. Trotman has not looked half the player that we sold and M'Voto was a big miss after he was injured agianst Rochdale. Oh and Amos for all his Man U pedigree was as culpable as Brill has been. Overall January's business must be looked back at and lessons learnt Our squad this season has been way too big in numbers at around 27 players and has lacked quality. A big cull is needed in the summer and I would prefer to see us work with a squad of no more than around 20 players next season + 1st year professionals Tarkowski, Winchester Carr & Hughes. Hopefully PD will be able to concentrate on quality rather than quantity now that a number of contracts are up. Bring in a couple of steady eddies to add guile and knowhow at this level to guide the kids and then we can judge the manager on what will be his squad. Who will be released and who will be "sold" for fees will determine PD's budget and realistic targets for next season. I would expect that Brill, Todd, Hazell, Jones, Reid, Alessandra, Brooke (unfortunately) Ollerenshaw and McDonald could all be released and M'Voto, Tounkara, White, Trotman and Lowe's loans will end. That would leave, Furman, Smalley, Lee, Feeney, Taylor, Stephens, Black, Millar, Morais, Bembo-Lita and Evina either contracted or offered new deals. Add M'Voto and Tounkara and you have 13 players. However I would expect that to make ends meet, if the right offers come in then at least 2 of Stephens, Lee, Taylor and Smalley will be sold and Feeney will be "released" if he can find another employer, so you can see between 10 and 12 new signings during the summer. The biggest loss of the summer though could well be our Physio. MC has had a big impact particularly in injury prevention. Whilst there is little you can do about imapct injuries, the big reduction in muscle injuries has been a big plus since Mc has been here and I fear he will be hard to replace. Overall though, PD will probably look back at the season with a fair bit of disappointment but will surely look forward to the close season, when he will at last get a chance and a full summer to properly stamp his own personality on the squad.

One thing that will be important in all this is likely to be the fact that Tony P started is career at Sheefield United. He spent 5 or 6 years there IIRC from about 1983ish before signing for us. He played probably 90-100 games for them scoring his fair share of goals. Tony will probably have good memories from his time there and a fair few contacts and will have been satisfied that it is a good career move for his lad.

So 6 pages in and I'm still trying to work out if all or any of the regular posters who have "contacts" in the club for their various rumours "FACT" have actually come up yet with what this Evolution actually is. Just wondering like

Whilst we were never more than 6 points ADRIFT of Sheffield Utd, our goal difference was inferior to the tune of at least 9 goals over those last 3 games so on the Tuesday night when Sheffield Utd won 0-2 at Everton, we couldn't catch them. Technically whilst they were in the equation when we beat Villa on the Sunday (2nd May) they were out of reach on that Tuesday night. Most people realised when they won at Forest on the Saturday (1st May) they were, due to their superior goal difference, virtually safe. So Palace were always the team we were chasing. On the 1st May (Saturday) they beat Ipswich 3-1 to go to 48 points. We had 40, before we played Villa on the Sunday hence the 8 points deficit. (At that point we were 7 points short of overhauling Sheffield Utd due to goal difference.) We clawed 3 points back by beating Villa and Palace picked a point up at City on the Tuesday to go 6 points clear but with a slightly better goal difference than us but meaning victories by any margin for us agaianst both Liverpool and Southampton coupled by any Palace defeat at Highbury would see us safe. I know where you are coming from but everyone in the club knew that Palace were the team realistically in our sights during those last 6 days and that we had to literally focus on 1 game at a time and make sure we picked up 3 points. Cheers, Harry P.S. don't try and destroy legend. We have precious little to cheers us up in recent times

One of the best nights in Boundary Park history as goals from Adams, Ritchie, Barrett, Holden, Palmer and Ritchie saw West Ham trounced 6-0. Would be nice to see again tomorrow. West ham goals start at 5.30

It's all very well exchanging the pleasantries and I'll get this out of the way now, good luck for the rest of the season, unless we meet in the ployoffs of course. Earlier in the season, we ripped your 4-4-2 formation to shreds and you were, shall we say, lucky to escape with just a 1-0 defeat. 4-0 would not have flattered us on the day. In fairness, your manager has found a system that seems to have suited you since the turn of the year and with a 4-5-1 set up it is more difficult for the opposition to break you down by playing through your midfield. To our credit, we came and employed our usual 4-4-2 system on Saturday and went a little more direct due to your heavily populated midfield. That is why we would argue that it is your style that drew us into more hoofball than we normally play. It certainly isn't what we have been used to seeing this season. As far as we are concerned, our set up worked better and we had the clearer chances and; 4 attempts on target to your 1 would suggest that to be a correct analysis. As for the Lee and Taylor bit, I'm sure you've read on this thread that our fans don't condone Taylor's pantomine acting, but he is clearly a marked man in this league as he was again on Saturday. Whilst Evina was getting booked for his challenge, in the same incident, Peltier (I think it was) came right through Taylor after the whistle had gone taking him clean out of the game. I'm sure Clark would have been saying "job done." He got no protection from the ref. That challenge warranted at least a yellow card, but no, not even a talking to from the ref. It's no surprise then that he looks to make the most of it. At the same time, I lost all respect I had for Alan Lee. I've watched him over the years at various clubs and always felt he was the typical English centre forward and when we had one of your guys on here last week claiming that he was going to tear our centre halves a new one I looked at you recent record and thought that we may be in for a difficult afternoon. However, what a soft sod he was on Saturday. Down on the floor quicker than a prostitutes drawers at an orgy. The headband fools no one. Centre halves and forwards clatter each other. It happens every week up and down the country high balls in the air, eyes on the ball, accidents happen! some weeks it's to the opposition on the recieving end, some weeks it's you. Get on with it. I was quite glad to see Lee go off in the end as I felt he was your only real threat. Pilkington got no change down our left as on loan White was swapped to the left wing to track back and support our full back leaving Morais to work the other flank that wasn't as vulnerable. PD's tactics this season have been excellent hence why only Brighton have lost less games than us. Our problem has been that we have not turned enough draws into wins, especially from winning positions. Note that since Southampton turned us over we are unbeaten in 7, winning 3 and drawing 4. Besides the game on Staurday, the other 3 games we drew we were winning but failed to to convert to 3 points. If we had, even in a third of those ganmes, we would be right up there challenging Brighton for top spot. As it is after last season, we are currently more than happy with the progress made under PD to date and will take what ever comes our way at the seasons end. In the meantime don't write us off, and I would suggest, be affraid, be very affraid if you end up playing us in the play offs, because if we make as much progress in the last 17 games as we have in the 1st 29, especially now that Dickov has a settled squad of his own choice after much wheeling and dealing, then we will be a very difficult obstacle to overcome. See you in May

Interesting takes on yesterday from the posts I've read. However, I see it slightly differently view and believe that we actually changed tactics to suit the personel available and Huddersfields own recent change of formation. Witn Stephens not available, and on the basis we were going with a 4-4-2, PD had the choice of playing either Taylor or Jones along side Furman. He could have chosen to match up in midfield and gone 4-5-1, but that would probably have stiffled the game even further. So you go with either Jones with a view of more containment and looking to take a draw or Taylor, where the emphasis is on getting the ball forward quicker to OT and RR who have good ball retention with Taylor pushing on to pick up the lay offs looking to nick a goal and all 3 points. Huddersfields recent change of formation has seen them unbeaten this year and the moving of White to the left to track back and help Evina against the threat of Pilkington was I believe the preferred option as Morais does not track to the same extent. To me the tactics are yet another sign of PD's growing maturity in the role and not to be underestimated. It also seems that not only is there a plan B each game, but a plan C, D, E etc. Sometimes it comes off others times it doesn't. It's no co-incidence that only Brighton have lost less games than we have

That as well Carl

It does but still has an M postcode and I don't think we need that discussion at the moment

There's a lot of emotion around the board at the moment and it's good to see, especially after last season, that the majority of people appear to be behind the club and SC. What we need is: - 1) People to get down to BP in numbers tomorrow and support Paul Dickov and his players, hopefully see an entertaining game of football provide 3 points in our promotion battle and come back again and again this season. That is the starting point. 2) Stand back and take a deep breath after the news of the last 48 hours. Mistakes have been made, particularly it seems by the Council. Some have had their doubts for some time that the Council had it in them to deliver and will argue that they have been proved right. Being proved right doesn't get us anywhere. What we want is a club, a ground and a future. The club AND the Council need a little time. Time to calm down, assess, discuss and see if anything can be salvaged from this mess. I firmly believe that the Council, and I'm talking all parties here, do NOW want a new stadium and the subsequent regeneration that comes with it, it's more a question of do they have the expertise to deliver. 3) No knee jerk reactions including from fans. Talk of a move outrside the Borough is all well and good and with good reason. However, at the end of the day, we are called Oldham for a reason and should and must try and ensure that we have a team that plays in the Borough if at all possible. If it is not possible then fair enough, but I believe that now is not the time to be discussing this course of action. I'd rather play in Failsworth, Moorside, Shaw even Greenfield if at all possible. Middleton is being proposed, but that also has an M postcode. As I say now is not the time or place. If you seriously think that BP is still the best option then your entitled to that opinion as well, but don't just say that, come forward with an idea that will make it viable, maybe soemone has missed something. 4) A United (sorry can't think of a more appropriate word unfortunately) front. This is a time for the trust to come to the forefront and start a campaign. It's no longer about personalities, it's about our clubs future. People need to volunteer to make themselves available to the trust and put forward ideas that can see a concerted effort started 5) Lapsed fans, and I'm thinking of the likes of Derek Wilson (not getting at you DW just think you are a good eg) stalwart fans from years gone by, to put their gripes with the club to one side for now and help sort this mess out. Basically what I'm saying is see where we are in a few days time, lets see if the parties involved can come up with a solution, but in the meantime start singing from the same hymmn sheet for the sake of Oldham Athletic Football club. It's OUR club, YOUR club, the TOWN'S club Keep the Faith, Love the Club Hate the Council!! whatever it has to be, needs to be.

The highlighted parts are exactly the point. With the greatest respect the vast majority of posters are not privy to or have the experience to put a scheme together that can move the club forward. The people dealing with the scheme are professionals and do have the experience. Architect, surveyors, the PR lady who has "done" (can you say that these days) several stadiums, etc etc. The experience is there we just need a council to see a scheme through. 20 years + and waiting since M&S on Claytons

Point accepted. I'll think carefully about this over the next day or so and in view of this weeks events may reconsider my stance. If I do re-post, it won't be pretty I'm afraid.

Your joking I assume. After the cr*p I took for putting this thread together in the 1st place, I have vowed only to comment on football issues. I set this thread up because this town has a huge history of b*llsing major developments up be it the Rugby, Westood Park now B&Q) Claytons, BP and now unfortunately I fear Failsworth. In fact see Prozacs post above for a more definitive list of c*ck ups. Anyway, as I said until this whole sorry saga is resolved, it's footabll only posts.

Kornlienko?

No need to worry I don't think. Anyway isn't this a general thread rather than a tics specific

Blackpools website reporting they expect to announce 1 more in before 11 pm tonight having already signed Beattie & Puncheon Lashers website

Your better off F5'ing on here as if anything happens then those signed up to SMS will be the 1stget a text from the club and will post up on here. I wouldn't bank on anything else tonight, but don't take my word just keep pressing those buttons and generate more money for the club

lol. It's 1 of those situations where both, one or none could happen. With our luck over the last 15 years it will probably be the latter, but our luck has to change at some point and PD has really turned it round this season and this window has really seen him change things round for the better. When you look at our squad for the last game of last season and then look at it now, we are clearly much much stronger.