Harry Dowds Green Shirt

Expecting a very decent following on Saturday. The club are running 1 coach and possibly a 2nd. The Bluebell are running a 57 seater and a 17 seater. The Lowerhouse are running 2 (I presume minibuses) The Greyhound are running a trip. There be probably be the usual OASIS contingent as well so the away end should look pretty full when the team run out.

Surprised how many have left Wes out based on previous topics. Mine would be Oxley Brown Byrne Tarkowski Grounds Smith Mellor Dayton Baxter Montano Rooney I think the actual starting lineup will be Oxley Brown Tarkowski Mellor Grounds Dayton Smith Baxter Montano MacDonald Rooney LJ will want to win the opening game and I would expect he will see Stevenage away as an opportunity for 3 points not to be missed especially as we have won there for the last 2 years so will set up as attacking as possible. I don't expect Byrne to start especially as they are likely to have Tounkara in their line up.

Interesting view and not far off the mark. But I don't put the blame on Grounds. Why? Well because I put it down to the way we are playing. I've read posts tonight about our CB pairing and people tend to look at the initial impact when a goal is conceded and depending who their "favourites" are depends how they see it. Yes Mellor could have done better to prevent the 1st goal. He should have taken a step back instead of forwards as the cross was delivered to give him that extra yard which would have seen him head clear, but hey he is a young lad learning the harsh realities of a high profile position. Yes Tarky should have done better to prevent Patterson getting to the cross 1st to put town in front but hey it's less than 2 years a since he made his debut and he was up against a player who has premiership experience. Fair play to the 2 young CB's they are learning the hard way and they need to learn quickly, but they are bringing LJ's philosophy to the fore. Get the ball on the deck from the keeper and play our football. That is what TP has brought through the system and LJ is using it. As for Grounds, he was left exposed for both goals. Monty took the plaudits, quite rightly, today for his all action hight tempo game. BUT..... That flair and excitement we all want to see and that gets us on the edge of our seats comes at a price. And that price is that we can be left open and exposed. The 1st town goal came when Monty was caught out of position and Korey Smith was drawn out of the middle to the left to cover allowing Towns CM's to push on this caused uncertainty at the back and ended up with the ball in the net. The 2nd Town goal again saw Grounds exposed and the cross was put in. Where was Monty supporting his full back. The answer is nowhere near the scene. Both goals and both crosses were preventable. BUT do we really want to sacrifice the flair that is on display. Seven goals at BP in 2 games gives us hope. I'd rather see this type of entertainment than last seasons dross. Yes we will concede with the 2 young CB's, yes our best left back may occasionally be left exposed because of Monty's forages but you know what. I actually don't care because for the 1st time in god knows how long I actually think we will score more than whoever we are playing and that excites me. Bring on the 2013-2014 season.

He is 6' 2"

Short! He's 6' 2"

3 pages in little over 3 hours. Meh. I despair sometimes. 1 thing I can guarantee is that if we are anywhere near the top of the league or playoffs come March, there won't be a single post on here about the colour of our away kit.

http://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/article/20130719-carparking-929850.aspx

Top keeper in his day and without doubt a hero of my during my youth. He really made a difference when we signed him. It was a pity his career here finnished the way it did primarlily due to breaking his finger at Port Vale on New years day allowing Chris Ogden to come in and make the jersey his own during our remarkable run of 10 consecutive league wins on our way to winning this division in 1974. Happy Birthday Harry

Prozac out!

The last of the lookers going down on Friday

Sometimes you have to look beyond the words that are written and not take them too literally. On the back page of tonights edition SC tells us how it is regarding the salary cap relating to the playing budget as a % of turnover and how clubs like Swindon were penalised last season with transfer embargos for breaking those restrictions. This in the same edition and by the same reporter who quotes SV as saying that the playing budget will be a "challenging one." Excuse me for being slow here, but how does that work? How would the (any) new consortium bring in additional revenue to up the amount to be allocated to the playing budget? I think I'm right in thinking that any money put in as (Directors) loans cannot be taken into account under the league rules. So the only way to increase the budget to comply with the league rules is to either (A) increase income from attendances or ( generate more from commercial activities. It would have been good if the resident reporter from the Chron could have asked SV the relevant question rather than sensationalising. SC has a plan to increase revenue and he has already announced it. His plan is building the new stand and the additional income from the various additional facilities being built into it. What are SV's plans? Over to you Mr Chambers.

^ This for me. Its not like the Chron have ever put out a negative story on OAFC in the past is it? Oh hang on a min! It's just like the Jim Williams days again

Fine thats your opinion. My view is that I can see 10 or so people monaing on here and it's not much different on facebook or twitter hence my comment about the vast majority not complaining. Obviously my standards aren't as high as yours

it's the modern way and I lay the blame at the door of Sky Sports News. They really have taken these things to a whole new level. The yellow ticker across the bottom of the screen has become their trademark, but they take it to unbelieveable levels. Take ths afternoon as a prime example. The ticker says..... wait foir it......... this is really happening...... you wont believe your eyes........... the next line is it............................................ "JOSE MOURINHO ARRIVES IN THE UK"

Has it? All I see is a small number of regular moaners on here and other social media. The vast majority of fans who regularly attend don't seem to be complaining about their relationship with the club as far as I can see.

How many of his staff has he taken to Doncaster?

Whinge, moan, bitch. Same old same old owtb crap. Can't wait for the season to start.

Just 1 thing to say to that unless you've got it in writing or on tape you'll never prove it hence my previous post. Back on topic taking your point into account, a verbal offer was made but it takes both parties to sign the contract to make it valid and binding

I think you'll find it's not worth the paper it's (not) written on

The way the contract situation works in pro football is relatively simple. If the player is under 24 at the relevent date then if the club want to retain the player then they have to (1) put an offer in writing to the player or his nominated agent (2) offering at least equal money (3) by a specified number of days before the current contract expires. Failure to do any of the 3 things entitles the player to walk for free. Where a player is 24 or over it doesn't matter if the offer is verbal or in writing for more or less money, the player can still walk. Therefore the club are not obliged to put any contract offer in writing to LC or any other player who is a least 24. Written contract offers will have been made to all the players under 24 that the club wants to retain. There probably wont be any short term deadlines on these players as they have a value to the club (compensation etc if they sign for another club) Verbal offers will probably have been made to the rest on the basis of there is no need to do anything else. The club will have said we will offer you £x per week for a 1 or 2 year contract. If you want to re-sign this is the cut off date. If you don't sign by then we reserve the right to withdraw the verbal offer and we'll make an offer to someone else. The balls in your court for the next however many days. The player and/or his agent can choose whether or not to call the clubs bluff. In years gone by, we have been held to ransom. It appears this year we are being stronger. As much as I like LC there are plenty of players out there who need clubs. Those with any sense will look to get sorted sooner rather than later as football takes the ineveitable reality check. LDJ has said several times now he expects players to be hit with a reality check this summer. There are very few clubs who have an increased budget and our manager is clearly looking to get his business done early. I fully expect to see another couple of signings in the next week or so together with the youngsters signing their new deals

Arguably indeed. For Holden also see Groves. There was very little between the two imho. Groves though never fulfilled what he was clearly capable of for reasons that are well documented. Had he fulfilled and ended up at Old Trafford instead of Gordon Hill, then I believe Groves would have without a shadow of a doubt been been the best left sided player ever to represent the club. For all that Ricky had and endeared him to the fans Groves for me had much much more and as a youngster I loved watching him. You just never knew what he was going to do next. For me he fell into the flawed genius category. The same cateogory that your Best's Marsh's and Casgoines did. Ricky for all his flamboyance and extravagence was in comparison quite a clever lad who remained level headed and was unlucky that his move to City didn't work out. As you say though thats now setting the bar high for the new arrival. If he turns out to achieve half of what those 2 did he will have been a big success in todays game.

Whilst as a kid and as you can probably guess I modelled myself on Harry Dowd, the best keeper ever to wear the green shirt has to be Andy Goram 1st time round. I saw Dave Best only briefly when I was a kid and he was top notch. Frizz brought in Dowd and in my eyes he was different class despite his best years being behind him. He never let us down and it was only a broken finger at Port Vale on New Year's Day 1974 that brought Chris Ogden to the fore. Whilst Ogden was more than decent John Platt was even better and I'm sure would have gone on to better things had it not been for a broken leg suffered in a pre-season Anglo Scottish cup game against Sheffield United. BUT Goram was a masterclass of goalkeeping. By far the best we have ever had. 1 on 1, and with the way we defended under Joe there were plenty of those situations, he was the best and would be worth at least 10 points and probably 15 points a season. People said he was small for a keeper, but he was huge in stature and for me if he had chosen England, would have held the shirt for years.

They're going as Jose Baters BABY'S

one of the teams that I follow is Tenerife. Today they were playing at Real Oviedo winning 2-1 to go 6 points clear at the top f their league (Spanish 3rd divison which is regionalised) Interestingly playing for Real Oviedo was an ex trialist of ours and he scored for the home team. Thought it might be of interest to some and to Diego in particular. The link is form the CD Tenerife Armada Sur website http://www.armadasur...upporters-club/

I'm told the seat numbers will jump from 99 to 101 because of the exit position (can't do a smiley face icon on my mobile )