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Inevitable

Not available? Appearance clause due to be paid to Kiddy perhaps?

2 renewed here too

Greg Leigh would be my second summer signing after Doyle, he’s been superb in both games against us this season best LB I’ve seen all year.

Club director Norman Holden funded several signings in the mid-late 80s including Tommy Wright, Linighan amongst others when sold on he’d recoup his outlay and split the profit with the club 50/50 it’s in JRs autobiography

Autumn ‘87 George Reilly David Batty ‘88 deal had been agreed then Bremner was sacked Wilkinson blocked the deal 1990 Andy Goram was returning Tony Cottee, Nigel Jemson and Dalian Atkinson Summer of ‘92 instead we signed Olney

Agree thought Moimbe was superb despite Bishop ‘doing’ him a couple of times yet escapes the booking ‘hole in his wig twat!’ buzzing after that, atmosphere was superb! Thought it was petering out into a draw most managers would have been happy with that - not Richie, his subs won the game. Scunny shat themselves at the sight of Doyle and Holloway again was excellent off the bench. How pissed mustctheur fans be? All that effort to get the game on and the fact they were VERY interested in Doyle is a great big kick in the nuts! I care not a jot, now back to this excellent 12 year old Single Malt... oh Eoin Doyle...

Tweet from Oldham Weather:- Grass temps have been down to -5°C for three nights running and in the shade at grass level it's not got above freezing during the day.

Shez signed Byrne, Bryan and Doyle but by then his silly over emotive comments after only the third game of the season meant many wouldn’t step up to the plate for him even after a mini 2 1/2 game revival. Gutted it ended that way but with 3 months until the window opened he had to go. I think Fleetwood are fucked, there’s no window to help him either they’ve lost bambi on ice to Wigwam and Madden’s his big hope. i feel we’ve got more up front Davies is due a few, Slapped arse is doing well from the bench, Nazon looks like he has goals in him and hopefully Doyle still knows the route to goal. I’d expect us to finish above them...

Agree Andy, he was laughable at Shrewsbury. Omrani's looked ok from the bench as an 'enforcer' but Maoche is not a footballer - he's shit scared of the ball and can't wait to get rid of it....

I think so yes

We've been training on the Whitebank for weeks on and off during this run of shite weather.

Are the trust planning on seeking an audience with AL so that we may have a chance to put LSA’s Qs abd others directly to the horses mouth?

Holloway's a massive asset off the bench. From the start he's been woeful time after time. 6 goals in 60 odd appearances is pisspoor, however Wellens gets the best out of him from the bench. Would I have him here next season? Not so sure, but I'd say that about Davies too. Would any of the top 6 want either of them? If as has been suggested he's a bit of a slapped arse, I don't care as long as he's doing a job - perhaps he's got a higher opinion of himself. He has the attributes to be a very good player but there's a reason he's on the bench week in week out. I'd be offloading in the Summer...

I hope the OP doesn't mind me bringing this into the mid-late 80s. My first year was 86-87 and our most successful year in 13 years. The next two seasons were a struggle at times before excellent second halves of the season saw us pull into mid-table by scoring plenty of goals - not too dissimilar to this season being that we couldn't defend for toffee with a keeper that was pretty inconsistent for part of that time in a young Rhodes. The pitch wasn't an issue as we were on the Plastic Paradise. The team evolved rather than revolved through the door. Of course we sold to survive, in those first three years alone we sold McDonough, Futcher, Goram, Henry, Linighan, Flynn, Wright etc.. but we also replaced them with similar if not better Ritchie, Wright, Rhodes/Hallworth, Barrett, Warhurst, Bunn and brought through youngster Nick Henry. There was a sense of trying to build a future, the team could be guessed walking over Chadderton Way with my dad (Somehow the programme was always wrong though!) Dad was always very frustrated with our attendances in the mid-late 80s, we fluctuated between sub 5,000 to about 8 or 9 if Blackburn or Sunderland or similar where in town. But often when Plymouth or Swindon arrived the town seemed to desert us en masse..Dad would shake his head and say 'Does this town want a club? We're the most entertaining team for miles yet they still don't back us, but they come crawling out of the woodwork when we have a big game'. He was right, perhaps a bit harsh, but he was equally frustrated as he struggled in and out of work during the glory years and he would often have to queue up at the crack of dawn due to not having a ST back then - 'Bloody band waggon, jumpers he'd moan!' As a fan during those heady days, it all felt like a dream, there's never been a sense of entitlement from me, although the years after relegation from the top flight and the first three or four in this league I felt as a club we deserved better. And we underachieved massively, it was like the club accepted it was forever to be shit. We were badly let down by Stott and co, who arguably have more to answer for than Corney and his chums. If we'd brought in investment as the Premier League dawned, who knows? Having said that the council equally let down Stott and co, with the Sports Park 2000 failure. Who knows where we'd have been in a state of the art stadium, not the Blue Peter version suggested at Failsworth. Do I expect more now? Yes, prior to arriving in this league we were in the top two divisions for 23 Years very much punching above our weight, however by the late 70s we were battling it out in the top half and save for 83/84 and 84/85 we were troubling the top half year on year. That's not punching above your weight, that's a well established second tier team. We blew the golden goose by not investing after the Great Escape in '93. We limped along and cut our cloth too fine. The advent of Bosman and the increased power of the PL has killed smaller clubs like us, forced to be grateful for the minute crumbs flicked from the top table means we have to rely on loanees. We can't produce too many home grown players as it isn't cost effective given that the bigger clubs can snap them up and pay minimum compensation. The TV deal and solidarity payments to League One clubs are minuscule and in prior times would relate to a starvation wage. Without real investment the club is going nowhere. However, investment does not guarantee success but investment in infrastructure is a beginning. My biggest issue is the way the club has been run in the last 10 years, so many clubs perceived as smaller than us have built teams on shoe strings and had success, Colchester, Southend, Burton, Luton etc.. have all had their days in the sun. We've simply been told to be grateful for survival in the third tier, with no hope of a challenge at the right end since 2007. That for a club of our size and potential is criminal, we have no divine right to be successful but surely we have a divine right to be allowed to compete? The infrastructure of the club has been allowed to rot, ok the stand has been built, but that it has transpired is not FULLY benefiting the club. Previously we had directors like Norman Holden and Peter Chadwick, local men made good - directors who would put money in when they could. The local links have died in the boardroom, although the appointment of Mr Snoddy may be a return to that. When I first started to come to games in the 80s the club had a real identity, we played in blue and white no gimmicks. Home fans were in the Chadderton Road Stand, we played two up front and set out to win EVERY game, bog rolls greeted the team onto the pitch and the whiff of tobacco, bovril and piss purveyed every sense. The Old Chaddy End was a thing of beauty, the wit, the moaning, the clinging or sitting on the fence. Many a late winner was sucked in. Arriving home to Sholver on the 404 and Grandad had made his meat and potato pie, arriving home to a lovely warm house. If we'd won he'd greet us with "What a team!" if we'd lost 'Wouldn't pay 'em in washers'. Sadly we will never return to those times, what I hope we get under Mr Lemsagem is investment in the infrastructure and we are allowed to build the club again so that at some point in the next two or three years we can have a bloody good go at promotion again. We can all remember some of the good times, wouldn't it be great of some if those young lads that go everywhere could enjoy a bit of success - a promotion season?!

A photocopy would be good Pete yes, I could send it up to Scotland for his son Danny. I had loads of programmes from this era but sold most of them in the summer, lack of space.

A mate of mine is a Latics fan living in Scotland. He works with John Cairney Liddell’s son. Scored 11 in 24 for us between 1960-62 played with Johnstone and Frizz before drifting into non league I’ve done my research by digging out my library of Latics books and found a few pictures, profiles etc but was wondering if some of the older chaps like BP1960 or Diego? May have stories, reports pics etc I can pass on to my mate who will forward on to his son. thanks in advance

First season was 86/87 my interpretation of our biggest and traditional rivals going back to then are: Leeds United - we played them 9 times in my first 15 months as a fan including the ill fated play off semi final. And over the first four seasons I followed Latics we played Leeds 16 times! And even drew them in the cup when a league apart in 90/91! Blackburn at the time were very much a similar sized club and fan base, their ground was similar and we usually beat them at home only for Simon Garner to beat us on his own at Ewood. once the good times rolled I counted the Manchester clubs as rivals but for bragging rights only. We came close in the FAC SFs twice and beat United in the league. We regularly beat City at Maine Road too 4 times out of 7 losing once but they beat us at BP 4 out of the last 8. Beating United in ‘93 meant more than the times I’ve seen us beat City combined. The biggest satisafsction for me over the last 25 years is any win over Tranmere, simply because I don’t see them as a rival but their fans being absolute gobshites with delusions of grandeur. Neither do I see Bury, Blackpool or Rochdale as rivals more noisy neighbours desperate to matter. A rivalry is when you pack each other’s away ends - never happens with their pitiful away followings from Bury and Dale. The Bolton rivalry came too early for me being born as I was in ‘77. Although the two away games in ‘94 (1-0 & 2-2) were awesome ? Going back to the start of my post and I haven’t celebrated any goal as mentally as Menig’s winner v Blackburn the 80s rivalry sub consciously exploded shame they’re likely to go straight back up.

Best I’ve done is 49/52 in 14/15 51/56 in 13/14 & 50/56 in 02/03 Lincoln in the FA Cup was 1,000th competitive game currently on around 50 more overall including friendlies well over 1200 as you say there’s been many dark days where I’ve had to drag myself to games on my own but still I do it. Why? Scared of missing something good aren’t I? It’s the hope that kills!

Sorry less than 10 that should have been. No, Whittingham scored his hat-trick in December '89 in a 3-3 draw. Quinn scored 2

5-0 up with less than 19 minutes left! repeated the feat 3 1/2 years later in the Prem against Forest! Couldn’t defend for toffee but a joy to watch when going forward..

Liversidge?

Was a poor start too... Blackburn A L0-1 Watford D1-1 Swindon D2-2 (Was 0-2 down late on) Newcastle L1-2 little did we know when we beat Plymouth 3-2 with a pretty unconvincing performance in front of 4,972 what was coming round the corner. By FAC 3rd round round that we’d lose 4 out of the next 25 league and cup, be in the 1/4s of the LC and the FAC adventure yet to begin. It shows suddenly it clicks. The only addition was Holden R replacing Wright and signing Adams permanently then moving Barrett inside from LB, Barlow staying fit after being injured mostly in his first 4 or 5 years. Warhurst slotting in for Holden and N Henry replacing the departed Kelly permanently. Marshall was increasingly sub until Joe moved him forward around the time of the Arsenal game.

3-2 mate v Hartlepool Sept ‘04

Yes it was at Oakwell mate ‘The Enforcer’ made his debut that day too. those two and Hallworth signing a couple of weeks later along with Ritchie, Bunn and Wright returning from injury over the coming weeks saw us to safety. It was more a case of out scoring the opposition as we couldn’t defend for shit that year! From Jan 21st ‘89 Barnsley L3-4 Watford W3-1 Stoke D0-0 Brighton W2-1 Chelsea 2-2 Bournemouth 2-2 Shrewsbury W3-0 Walsall 2-2 Portsmouth 5-3 Oxford D1-1 Blackburn D1-1 WBA L1-3 Bradford D1-1 Ipswich W4-0 Palace L0-2 Sunderland 2-2 Hull D1-1 Plymouth 2-2 Leeds D0-0 Leicester W2-1 Swindon 2-2 P21 W6 D12 L3 F39 A31