Harry Dowds Green Shirt

Titanic Moment Cheers, Harry

Well that would be funny if I hadn't gone to Crewe in fancy dress at the end of last season. Maybe you saw me, Welsh lady, dark hair, small and when I threw my hand bag it developed a wicked curve to the right and ended up in the next pubs beer garden. Cheers, Harry

To clarify for you Preston that doesn't mean that I would sell NE for any other reason than the fact a transfer fee of £1m for a league 1 full back has got to be good value and in the best interests of the club. If the transfer fee didn't reflect good value and a chance too good to miss, then i wouldn't sell him, nor do i think that the manager or TTA would sell, because I rate him and more importantly, I believe the manager rates him. Cheers, Harry

No, you actually stated that he was "gash." That is the point that other posters have been making. You make reference to 1 match. Well in all honstey you can make out a case for calling everyone of our players over the last decade gash if that is your criteria. Anyway, back to the point. You have been given the chance to back up your claim and have provided an inadequate response. With regards to your question who would we rather sell, that is as you suggest a no brainer. Lee Hughes for £400k or NE for £1m. A striker who is capable of 25-30 goals a season or a full back whose transfer fee will pay our losses for 18 months. In terms of the Everton game, I said that the whole team played well. I can think of several instances where I could claim that, like Leeds away as an easy example and several instances over the years where you could say the whole team were, in your words, gash. It just seems to me and a number of other posters that you have singled Eardley out for stick and we can't see your justification for it, especially if, and as has been said its only specualtion, Bristol City are prepared to pay big bucks for him and several managers including Toshack (alright i know he's Welsh) have consistently picked him. Cheers, Harry

Touche Cheers, Harry

Light weight Cheers, Harry

Where does it say that we are prepared to sell him? There is no statement to that effect from the club is there? Has he been transfer listed? No he hasn't has he? Have any bids been made for him? If there are they haven't been made public have they? Basically you cannot back that statement up, simply because there is no evidence for it. The fact is that NE is under contract to OAFC and the Managing Director, Simon Corney has recently come out (no not in that sense) and stated the club do not want to lose any of their better players during the January window. The fact remains however, that Eardley. like Hughes, could go for 1 of a number of reasons. We now all know that LH has a clause in his contract, what we don't know is does NE have a similar clause. If, and at the moment it is only pure specualtion, Bristol City put in a bid of £500k/£750K/£1mK, then TTA will consider it just like they would if such a bid came in for any of our other league 1 players. With regard to your comment about Eardley in the Everton game, you say that you can't remember him standing out. So does that mean that they were all gash that day or that they were all excellant, as for me, I couldn't pick out 1 player who was better or worse than any other. Finally, you have been challenged several times to back up your claim that NE is gash and have consistently failed to do so. I suggest that you either put up or shut up on the subject. Whilst I respect your right to have the opinion that NE, or any other player for that matter is "gash" I personally disagree with you and without back up for your statement am finding it hard to give respect to the opinion, though as i said not the right to have that opinion. Cheers, Harry

No official attandances are those people only entering through the turnstiles. i.e. in attendance. So if a ST holder does not turn up, they do not count on the figures. During our 1st year in the premier league (well actually it was the season before the premier started, but you get the gist) we had 11,000 ST holders. However an average nearly 500 did not turn up each game. It sets tongues wagging because on all ticket games people were asking why we were not at capacity when we had "sold out." Uni*ed sell out OT every home game, yet look at the variation in attendances it can be several hundred; and they run a scheme where they will re-sell the seat (for a fee of course) if a ST holder cannot attend. Its different for cup games of course where it is all pay (not that that applies at OT unless it is for the Carling cup. Cheers, Harry

It's not going to happen. Huddersfield have only 2,000 tickets left due to the high number of ST holders. The problem is so many of them do not always turn up. Also the away end holds around 4,000 and we will take no more than 2500 I reckon crowd will be around 16,000 at best judging by their crowds so far this season. Their best crowd this season was 16,200 against Leicester and on Sunday against Scunny the crowd was 15,200 Cheers, Harry

Just looked up the article on the TV deal. The mechanism for distibution of tv monies is 80% to Championship clubs, 12% to League 1 clubs and 8% to League 2 clubs. .......................Championship:...........League 1:............Difference:.... Current Deal....£1,350,000.................£200,000................£1,150,000.... New Deal.........£2,850,000.................£470,000................£2,380,000.... The difference in income next season from TV income by being in the Championship is more than we currently take through the turnstiles. and is in excess of £45,000 per week additional income. This must have a bearing on the contract being offered to Hughes and I would imagine that the contract would have terms in along the lines of £x per week if we are league 1 and £y per week if we are promited to the Championship. Cheers, Harry

Your probably not far off their singe. TTA will look at it from 2 points of view. Firstly as football/Latics fans and secondly from a business and long term financial plan. They have said many times that they have a "certain pot" of money that they are prepared to invest into the club. By that I presume they mean that they will put £x in until the ground becomes re-developed (or we move to a new stadium) and produces additional income to make us self sufficient. i.e. without tta having to dig into their pockets each year. My worry with that is when does that pot run out. The sale of Trotman, the possible sales of Hughes/Taylor/Eardley etc may extend that period and allow us to get to the point of re-development and self sufficiency and this may be in their minds at the moment especially with the financial downturn. The other thing that no one has mentioned in this debate is TV revenue. IIRC does a new TV contract kick in next season with a big jump for Championship clubs? (Has anyone got a link to the figures please?) If a new contract does kick in with much higher revenues in the Championship, this may have had a bearing on the terms on the contract offered to Lee. Cheers, Harry

It would have been interesting if this had been Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal. I really wonder, would the FA really throw 1 of those 4 out of the FA Cup? There again, Droylsden's Secretary is very experienced and unless he had received a reply from the FA to his fax, should have advised the manager not to let the player take part. Cheers, Harry

Didn't Byfield sign for Doncaster on a free? If so, why would we pay a fee for a player who did not score from New Years day to Boxing Day? Yes he might have been top scorer at Bristol City in a higher division, but why did City let him go then. Doncaster and their fans say he hasn't fitted in there, so how can a such a player require a fee? In my view, if Hughes does go to Doncaster and Byfield comes our way, then it should be on the basis of Rovers paying the amount stated in the "alleged" buyout clause and Byfield coming to us on a free. After all, we are not desparate to sell Hughes at this point and Byfield is obviously not good enough for Rovers who will surely be glad to get him off their wage bill. Cheers, Harry

Defo up for this Beardy if its on. Just confirm price and I will check with Stu + let you know numbers Cheers, Harry

TBH Prozac, in my experience, not much has changed in terms of home match preparations since the Jimmy Friz era. Under Jimmy, Big Joe, Sharp, Warnock, Ritchie, The duffer from Newcastle, Dowie (with a couple of notable exceptions where he tried to instill an away mentality) Talbot and Moore, the players have been told to report in at between 1.00 & 1.30 depending on the manager. It's fairly common practice particularly at this level. Clubs will not spend the best part of £5-10K a season that they do not need to spend and believe that professional players act professionally on match days with their agreed diets. It's one of those things really, if your doing well, playing well, no one will question your methods, but if their is dissent in the ranks, then these type of questions get asked. Cheers, Harry

Paddy, It's in the DNA of every tic. It doesn't happen often but we all know when it has. Cheers, Harry

I agree with the first point in your 1st paragraph and have said it on a previous post. However, there are pros and cons to Jones being brought in and it is clearly noticable that since Jones's injury Taylor has not been as effective, this, imo, being due to the fact that you leave Jones free at your peril so it is much harder to double up on Taylor. Clearly Kelvin, doesn't pose the threat that Danny boy does. I don't think either Neil or Kelvin are short on confidence at the moment, but Kelvin will find it harder to display consistency by being shifted. It does look though as though he will get a run of at least a few weeks at left back now, which should help him again. I take you concuring about today, but don't think that the Brighton and Orient games can be covered by the same comment. I felt that today we looked far more likley to break down the opposition. The away form may or may not fade, time will tell. What is important now is that if it does, the home form changes and then we will be at least where we are now at the end of the season. If the away form continues as well, then you never know. Cheers, Harry

My post was replying to Prozac's post about 19 short corners every week. So my reply was actaully about today's corners. But I can see your thinking about any play and you could well be right. Taking that point on, I think that the introduction of Maher & Lee has seen us get the ball back on the floor in the last 2 games and the ball has ended up being played around the opposition resulting in more balls in from wide rather than hoofed over the middle. (Maher might be classed as a sideways passer by some, but it opens up more avenues sometimes and results in better ball retention - to quote Shez's favourite saying "taking care of the ball.") Cheers, Harry.

Good call and so would many tics, but I'm sure that you know as well as I do that it just won't happen even if TP were to be offered the post at some point in the future. Cheers, Harry

Is that all. Seriously, I thought today we actually put more into the box than at any time in the last 3 months. And long may that continue. Lets stick it in there and surprise the opposition, never mind us. Cheers, Harry

I take your point Prozac and I agree it really does get frustrating. The last 3 games in particular for me. The biggest stat for me is the no goals from open play in those games, although I felt that today it was just 1 of those games. On another day we would of had a couple at least. I said after the Orient game that I felt we needed a change of formation at home and I still think that. Despite Lee starting today, I felt that he wandered too much in the 1st half and we didn't therefore have the balance that we had at Crewe. Also, despite my misgivings earlier in the season, I think Jones is now clearly a miss and it is noticable that Taylor is having a harder time and that is no coincidence. Kelvin has looked like a rabbit in the headlights the last 2 games and his distribution has suffered as well. That may be down to the fact that he has been switched from left to right and back again or it may just be the effect of a full first season taking its inevitable toll. Something might have to change and maybe still should, but I feel more confident after today. Cheers, Harry.

Off the top of my head a couple spring to mind. Byfield blazing over in the 1st half after good work and neat pass from Eardley (bet you missed that as well as you don't rate him ) and Gregan shooting wide from 12 yards close to the end. Hughes's header in the first half tipped over by the keeper. On such misses are games won and lost (or in todays case drawn) The stats speak for themselves 16 shots on goal. Yes not all on target and not all clear cut. Some were blocked, some were saved and some blazed over. But I'll tell you what, if we create 16 chances every week we won't go far wrong. Cheers, Harry

Jeepers man. 28th December 1974. Latics 1 Man United 0. Whittle penalty. Attendance: 26K That result should be etched in the DNA of any tic. Cheers, Harry

Thanks for the clarification prozac. Sometimes less words means more. Cheers, Harry

I can see why you can read that from the comment Kyle, but there has recently been a thread on here that quotes Corney/Blitz in an interview, IIRC on Latics World, that NO player at the club is on more than £2.5K per week. Therefore that would put paid (no pun intended) to the notion that Hughes would have been on more than the players still under contract from the M**re days when TTA took over. I think that the comments from Barry Owen have been made in all innocence and without thinking back to the early days and the implications of players under previous owners contracts. Lets face it, most of us want to forget those dark days. I would also think that Barry is trying to make a positive statement of the club's intent with regard to LH. The other point is that your highlighted words are not part of BO's quote and are written I presume by Stu Vose. Again likely to be a comment made in innocence. I would add to that that Stu wasn't employed by the club at the time and .... the scenarios are endless if you know what I mean Basically what I am saying is that you can read too much into a simple statement and that can make it as confusing as listening to a women trying to describe the offside rule. Cheers, Harry Cheers, Harry