parigby

Maybe because he came to us from Hibs. I remember the story of the manager going up to see him, and Bobby wasn't keen to sign, so we nicked his boots and made him come to Oldham to get them back. Whilst down here, he saw the light and signed.

A better clue might be if Uwe Rosler is in the directors box at Coventry tonight, sitting amongst our high and mighty.

Just been on the OS and seen the team sheet - now there's confidence for you - we're only playing with Coleman - no one else, just a goalie !

to end of season.

Holden appointed to end of season

Allan Lawson for me too.

Must have ben a very rushed last minute signing, as we didn't even get him into a shirt, or even a scarf round his neck before the photo shoot.

If only we had the Frank Large of yesteryear today

And, l think, we are in the record books as the first club to use a sub - McCall : but then l am a bit ancient and could have got this all wrong, and l've had a two or three glasses of wine in celebration of the win - hic

It is a fairly long article, but well worth getting your hands upon a printed copy, rather than looking at extracts. It's one of the very few articles that seems not to paint the club in a bad light. l came away thinking the club had gone into to the whole thing having thought long and hard about the matter, and if there was an error, it was in underestimating how the sponsors would react.

For anyone still interested, there is a very informative, balanced and well written article in The Sunday Times sports section today. Fills in quite a few blanks.

As the lack of goals problem is still there - who do we try and sign next ?

What's the world coming too, we've even been on " The Daily Politics " show on BBC 2 this lunchtime.

I know that this is a slightly skewed response, apologies, but this is where l get kind of confused ( acceptable as l've been a Latics for 64 years ). We've had a promising first half to the season, and look as though we are in with a very good shout of a play-off spot. But still the crowds disappoint at around the 3,000 + mark. We are spending a not inconsiderable amount of money on building a new stand. My question is, for whom ? People keep banging on about "facilities" and how the pre and post match experience will be better. But again l ask for whom ? Supporters come to watch a successful side, playing good football and scoring goals. They don't come to sit in comfort and watch losses and dross (not that is what we are now producing ). I know it is a bit simplistic, but try this : (1) Ground as is - but we are in the Premiership and relatively OK (2) Super new stand and super facilities - but we are where we are now Which of the above gets you bigger crowds, and more revenue ?

That seems to be a very fair summary of past events.

First of all l appreciate that it's not my money - but if ever there was an opportunity for us to make progress, this is the season. We have a defence that does not ship goals like they are going out of fashion. We have a midfield, that for all the comments, appears to be able to create chances. What we don't have is a strike force that converts those chances on a match by match basis. Think of it like this : if we had converted one chance in each of last two away games, we would be sitting in third place ! After Saturday, l am slightly concerned that the powers that be will take the stance " we knew that Philly would come good - therefore we can afford not to splash the cash and wait a few more games to see where we are ". A few more games later, when we have demonstrated pre Saturdays lack of ability to convert chances, we may, just may, then go out and splash a bit more money. Trouble is we cannot buy back those points we may have dropped, and that may come back to bite us in the bum. I really do think that all the signs ( apart from one ) are that we are in with a real chance of doing something a bit special this season, if only we can find the back of the net on a regular and consistent basis. I know it is a real gamble, and l repeat it's not my money, but l dread getting to the end of the season, looking back, and saying " if only in Sept / Oct ...... ".

It seems a 3G pitch costs £500,000.00 to instal !

Mine was 1951 aged three and a bit. Haven't a clue who it was against, or what month, but they played in red and white and l think we won.

I seem to remember Frank being injured early in the first half of a game, playing on, scoring a goal (that might be fanciful imagination - the goal bit that is ), not coming out for the second half, because they'd found out he'd broken his leg ! Wasn't he signed as a result of a poll - didn't the club recognise that it needed someone of his style, and as a consequence ran a poll in either the club program or the Chron listing about three or four names and asking the public who they wanted the club to sign ?

Spot on goal scorer wise - it's been the same for the last two or three seasons - but at least we are going to get a 20 goal a season new stand to watch from in the same division (probably) next year.

On the basis of this thread, it strikes me as the one way to guarantee promotion this year, is to play the rest of our games at BP (or whatever it's now called) behind closed doors.

Last time l went to Colchester with the Latics was in the late 60's : left Oldham at 11.00pm Friday night, arrived in Colchester about 7.00am Saturday morning : hung around the town until kick off. Got back to Oldham about 1.00am ish Sunday morning. Hell of a journey. Seem to remember it was a 2-2 draw - but could be wrong.

Unless we start to score more goals than last season, play more attractive football than last season - then we will have an empty stand to pay for !

Replicate the form of the last nine games over a season, and you get to 86 points ! If he does go down the hard to beat route, you can kind of see why - horrible to watch but effective results wise.

I've always kind of thought that the key to who comes through the gate tended to depend on how you played on the pitch and the results you got, ie: (1) Best new stand in the division, but with the results and home form of last season = does not do a lot to bring in the people : you don't go to BP solely because of a nice new comfy stand. (2) Bring in quality players, score lots of goals, play really attractive football, and challenge at the top end of the table = tends to bring the lapsed ( and other ) supporters back, who will happily sit in the worse stand in the football league for the above, which increases your revenue stream. Conclusion, get the core product right before spending loads of money on fancy packaging. Just my view.