I have today changed my OWTB photo on my profile to show my good friend Martin Athorn who has just passed away at such a young age, ( if my logo is still showing The PistonBroke club, just click on it and you'll see Martin's picture). I went on many and many away trips with Martin for many years and each trip we had we had so much fun and met many new friends along the way, train, coach, car, bus, hitch hike we've done the lot, win or lose we had a booze, im sure many of you knew Martin, he was the kindest, funiest and most friendly guy i've ever met, we had many a good night with the supporters club in the 80s-90s, we had such a laugh on Roger Palmer's testamonial do's especially the trip to Bernard Mannings. If you ever met Martin i'm sure he'll have told you that he taught Earl Barratt everything that he knew about footy, Martin was at his school and Martin was the team captain and their best player - so he told me anyway...
Martin's favourite player as far as i can remember was Vic Halom, king of all Geordies. It would be good if anyone who knew him came up to the Pleasant Inn and had a drink or 2 with us, most of you know Wayne Hurst, who i know very well, If you cant make it, please just give an extra cheer at the next Latics match on behalf of Merp.
RIP Merp, you'll never be forgotten, but you'll always be missed... yours Craig Simpson