De_La_Vega

Good player, and a good investment because genuine skill goes for money if you can get the best out of it. Looked in good nick today, and they couldn't touch him for the first goal. Great work playing wide late on in skinning their full-back!

Likes attacking and I thought he did very well against Brentford recently, so my instinct is to say that I'd leave him be. Besides which, I'm not sure that he gets as much cover in matches as Lee does; Jones gives a decent run in defence (Exeter aside) whereas young lads like Evina and White, or converted centre-forwards like Alessandra could do more I reckon... That said though, if Black is stalling then we could give him a spell out of the team. He's a young lad with promise and it wouldn't be game over for him if he were subbed out.

Tate Street definitely is; although that said it hasn't properly thawed since November I don't think...

The first comment was bang on - he's not got the goalscoring instinct yet. What I would say though is that he's got some great physical attributes and importantly is improving all the time. His performance yesterday was so much better, and so much more polished, than earlier in the season - if he continues like that then he'll do very well. Plus he looks like he loves it; top work.

To anyone bagging Norton; the reason it slows things down is because it works. Internet Security 11 is about 17 million times better than anything else out there; trust me, I genuinely do work in IT security.

Can't get excited about trashy clubs like Southampton though - another bunch of crooks who field a team including that level of quality (Barnard on the bench?) and yet they were in administration not too long ago... Upon coming out of administration a club should have to pay every penny back to all creditors before they are allowed to make any signings - and that includes loans and free transfers. I know it would have hit us in the past, but at least we went into administration because we were on our last legs.

Are people seriously blaming Richie Jones on here, or is this some big wind-up? The problems with our performance started as soon as the tempo dropped, which it did about 20 minutes into the second half. We were lucky not to concede earlier with the quality of ball that their left winger was putting in, and the reason he was able to was that he had so much time. Winchester and White were already being outnumbered 3 on 2, and by the end of the game all they did was stick Nardiello out wide and pile the pressure on a promising but callow 17 year old full-back. Jones didn't set the world alight, and should have done better really, but to try and blame him is just daft. Typical gibberish from Latics fans, kind of makes me want to not come on OWTB anymore...

Taylor for Wycombe was unreal - the guy was superhuman. I remember Allott picking out the top corner with his best hit of the season, and the guy grew about 6 inches and made it to tip the ball round the corner - I was gutted. Best performance by an opponent at BP, and Latics fans showed a bit of class when they gave the guy a standing ovation on the way off, which he appreciated if I remember rightly.

All good points, but the grinders for my gears are simple; 1) Arsenal to win everything (except for at 3) due to having outrageously talented players like RVP and Cesc. 2) United to be liquidated - literally though. The entire club, including staff and buildings, to be put in a giant blender. 3) Liverpool to win the league once while Torres is there. 4) Gary Neville to be beaten up before 2. 5) Serious bad tackling (like that Stoke vs Fulham debacle) to be punished by instant execution; the method being an ironic "slide-tackled to death" idea. Not sure how many such it would take to kill the average man but it'd hurt. 6) Any manager blaming a referee to be shot by the interviewer.

Van der Vaart is immense - I remember a BBC Sport report on him last year referring to how many times he was making the difference for Real in games. Just not a big enough name for them though; surprised at that given Mourinho's penchant for putting the team first. Top player - I've lusted after his signature ever since he appeared on Champo as an 18 year old with amazing stats, but Ajax wouldn't sell him for any price. Seems like a bit of a dude too - I like how he binned off the pressure and went to Germany to chill out and enjoy life.

The rot on attendance set in after the last season under Sheridan I think. To see such a strong squad (comparitively) perform so woefully and spinelessly, to see them slip out of the play-offs despite the fact that no other team could post two wins on the bounce; that season certainly put some nails in the coffin for my enjoyment...

True, he's a very naughty boy... Somebody had to.

Really disappointed with this self-serving and self-absolving comment by Barry; I really cannot say how much it aggravates me to read it. As others have pointed out on here, the guys who attend every week already pay for pies, programmes, strike it lucky and all the rest; why should they pay for the player share too? If they can then fantastic, but to try and guilt-trip people is beyond the pale - who the hell do you think you are? For my money this boils down to something simple; as long as the land is held by the current owners then I am not going to feel guilty for not contributing to player share - are we suggesting that we the fans put everything into the club to have the ground sold from under us?

Pointless. In some ways I'd argue that Tounkare is lazy - not in that he doesn't run around a lot but he rarely takes himself away from goal for the betterment of the team. Poor running of the channels and poor awareness at times; it is a lazy side of his game that he should improve on because there is much to like about him.

Quite right - like I said earlier you cannot undercut the core support and ST holders would be quite right to be disaffected by any offers superior to the one that they have paid a great deal for. I'd be interested to know how our attendances would be affected by playing more games on week nights or potentially sundays. While the latter wouldn't be my choice, I do enjoy night games and especially the novelty of Friday games. Plus I'd be able to go to Latics and play on a saturday. Indeed, I'm eagerly awaiting a tuesday game this year that I can get to! On a slightly divergent topic, one of the biggest things that could affect our season will be the FA Cup. A good performance therein would be a massive financial boost and could be a momentum builder for increasing attendances if we can get people in for a glamour tie and play well.

Quite apart from the childishness that follows this post, my reason for not attending is playing football. As I'm not willing to give that up but want to put some money in the club's coffers I'd be willing to invest in short to medium term (around 5 games) because I should be able to make that through cancelled games in winter and tuesday nights. I'm not going to make 10 games, but I'd be willing to take a punt on 5, if I don't make them then I end up out of pocket. As for the emphasis you put on the word fans, I'd just like to say that smarmy attitudes like that make you out to be a total tool. I don't owe Oldham Athletic anything; if anything the countless hours spent discussing them and the thousands spaffed on watching them mean they owe me. If the club is crap, or the ground is, or everything OAFC is then I have the right to say so if I want. Holier than thou mutterings usually mean that you just haven't the wit to form a proper opinion.

Oldham's attendances were falling before Penney weren't they? I think it is far too simplistic to blame him for everything that has gone wrong at BP - go back to Grimsby and you see our real issue. A full house watches us for free and we bag 6, but so few of them bothered to turn up again. In hindsight when the owners had the money to bankroll us we should have tried reducing the costs to be dirty cheap and tried to fill the place, but now we are stuck in a stick or twist dilemma where if we try it and it fails we lose income we cannot cover. That's why I would like the membership; then I could pledge support in a meaningful way and get something back from it if I chose to go. I don't see why the cheaper tickets can't work in a booklet - yes the attending fans might take advantage but if you are only knocking a couple of pounds off then you aren't going to cripple us and it wouldn't take many more taking the offer up to alleviate any potential losses. We also have to factor in that it is good for the team to play in front of bigger crowds and so even if we lost a few quid but boosted the attendance we might see a performance benefit and then have that followed by further increases in the support? Who knows?

My sneak insider reckons that Stephens has dropped in form since we stopped playing Jarrett at centre-half. The inference being that his superior ability to play the ball out meant that DS and DF were picking the ball up further up the pitch and able to make the play. Factor in the issue that DS's biggest weakness (to my mind) is probably that he is a bit one-paced and you can see why getting dragged deeper and further from the business end of the pitch would be an issue for him. If you want to play good football you need full-backs who can play but also a centre-half who is comfortable on the ball.

This is a really difficult issue for the club, as shown by the diversity of responses posted. The bottom line is that you cannot discount season tickets under the banner of saving the club because it would just be so grossly unfair on those who have already bought them. We saw that with the reactions to the Grimsby game and attempts to bolster support in the seasons after that - every initiative was met with a mixture of praise and annoyance, but the annoyed fans were the club's core support. My suggestion would be some form of membership if the league allowed it (I know there were some atrociously bent regulations against this at one time), whereby I could pay a twenty or thirty pound subscription and get a few quid off every week. I'm not mad keen on just giving the club money for nothing but nor can I make saturday games - a solution would be thirty quid to the club, two or three quid a match of the entry fee (which probably would not suffice to make me break even but would be a benefit I can feel) and maybe a discount in the club shop or on something or other. Obviously any discounts would be extended to season ticket holders. That way I can contribute, but I am still able to see something for my money rather than feel like I am giving charity to the club. Or 5 game match booklets at a slight discount, that can be redeemed before games on a first come, first served basis? So I buy £90 of tickets and have to find the time to make 5 games throughout the season? And with the disadvantage against ST's that I don't have a designated seat and if a big game arrives I queue up.

Always been a bit unsure of Smalley - far too many games where he goes missing for my liking and it is interesting that such comments are beginning to proliferate on the boards after a period where some seemed to think he was amazing. I do feel a bit of sympathy for the lad in that he seems to be pushed from one position to the other without much concern as to where he will influence the game; for my money he is a striker but unless he is given a good long run up front then I fear it'll be a position he never comes to terms with. Out wide he lacks the awareness to play the subtle roles that a winger needs to, and I don't think he has the out and out pace to take a man on down the outside; to my mind Smalley can beat a man but only does it when he is stood up one on one and he can use quick feet to gain himself some space. That said, he can do that and is not without pace to exploit a gap when he has one. The key issue seems to be a lack of footballing intelligence and more disconcertingly too little indication that he is learning from his experiences. A bit like Shane Warne commented with regards to Monty Panesar, it isn't so much that he's played lots of games but that he has played the same game lots of times. To be honest I think the best thing that DS could do for his career would be to drop a level on loan. He needs to find a level where he gets regular game time, and work out where his best position is - once he finds this he needs the run of games that will help him learn the position. It'd be a real shame to lose his abiltities, but I cannot see that if he stays with us for the season then there will be any other ending.

Screw them. They're absolute trash like most football clubs; they know what they did with Porter was wrong which is why they were so pleased with their bit of business in the aftermath - while Cardiff are undoubtedly in the wrong I despise Porter and Motherwell far more than I could possibly say without being censored. Hope Motherwell fold and Mark McGhee falls into a black pit of despair and lands on a big sharp stick.

Preposterously pointless quote. People say average meaning poor all the time, and that will be what he meant. And he'd be right.

Well said that man. Only a few weeks ago I was discussing the man Hardy with my brother and we came to the consensus that whatever else might be said about the bloke, I have never doubted that he has had the club's best intentions at heart. I think it is sad that we have such a negative fringe of fans at times...

Go to win it obviously, but use the opportunity to get some of the younger lads some match time. Chris Taylor approaching fitness? Then get him a game, and then do the same with Gregan. Young lads up front? Give Bembo-Lita a crack and see what he's made of.

Just looked up the highlights on the BBC and some cracking goals there to feast on! Although that said, how the hell did none of their players track Lee for the third goal? Diabolical defending and long may it continue! Nice to see the players popping the ball around, good to have a bit of team spirit showing through with the players seemingly keen to celebrate together. I couldn't stand Dickov as a player and I was gutted when we appointed him, but I'm reaching the stage where I may have to reconsider my opinions!