Worcester Owl

Cheltenham put 4 past Oxford last night - at Oxford. 8 of the 11 who started against us played, plus another 3 of the 4 subs, I think. Now that is potentially worrying and puts our attacking threat in perspective.

Sense of (mediocre) perspective needed re attendances methinks. Yes, better organisation/pre-season than last year.....but a low bar to clear. No Ripley, no (sigh) promising striker (as yet, though Duffus may shine) and too many of the average players who got us to 17th last season, just avoiding the drop, still here. Sheridan had the high of another Houdini act last season, but now finds himself with a small budget and a long hard season ahead of him. People in Oldham aren't daft, and sadly it will need a lot more stardust than we've seen so far to get them back through the turnstiles. Awful, but it's where we are.

15 hours ago, astottie said:

https://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/2017/august/04082017-ben-wilson-interview/

has anybody ever seen Carlo's statue?

Brilliant!

Wasn't Lonergan the guy played by Robert Shaw in The Sting? Paul Newman kept deliberately mis-pronouncing his name. Great film!

You're all missing the crucial question though, as relevant now as it was in the 1960s. 

Who is Number 1?

No - wimped out and just shrugged my shoulders!!

On 20/07/2017 at 5:05 PM, Chorlton_Latic said:

 

Everton 2008 was officially 5,551

 

Wolves, 3,200 or around that

3,951 (at least!) to Everton 3-1. Me and my daughter were there, Main Stand, surrounded by home fans! Most testing 90 minutes since we went 3-0 down at Upton Park in the League Cup SF 2nd leg in 1990 and a 6ft 4in 18 st cockney asked me how many minutes had been played!! (could have been 20-25 from memory). 

11 hours ago, Hometownclub said:

Me too, much preferred it, the owl looks really annoyed on the new one.

Not surprising given our overall form since he appeared on the badge!

Seriously though, if the playing surface is that bad can't Brassbank Sellafield?

2 hours ago, Frankly Mr Shankly said:

Start the programme earlier than normal. June 12th to the 19th and play Nerja and Torre Del Mar FC. We'd be fit as fiddles and with the many Latics exiles on the Costa De Sol it'll help the club repair those broken bridges after years of playing local shitkickers.

Excellent, lovely place Nerja.

7 hours ago, Stagger Lee said:

Any chance of an Australian tour like  Citeh,  Scouse red and Scouse blue, Spurs  have done in the last few years?

 

 

Every chance if you're willing to bankroll it !

9 hours ago, Latics_Fanatic said:

 

More shocking that we scored less goals last season under Sheridan.

Yeh I thought the same, quite a surprise. But I think the achievement this time is even greater than last season considering where we were when he came back in January. I admit I thought we were gone this time.

Five years! Shocking.

Ha fair enough, was concentrating on goals against rather than goal difference!

Of course we'll both be proved wrong as we sign off with a win.....when did that last happen?!

......is uncannily similar this season v last.

2015/16 P 22 W 9 D 6 L 7 F 18 A 20 Pts 33

2016/17 P 21 W 9 D 6 L 6 F 19 A 17 Pts 33

So, looks like a 3-0 defeat on Sunday then! 

Great achievement by Sheridan to keep us up, thought we were dead and buried at New Year.

Dreadful match today, I'm sure when we were in Div 3 in the early 70s the quality was higher but maybe that's a rose-tinted memory.

Season ticket holders deserve medals. I've seen us 5 times this season, drawing 4 losing 1 and scoring 2 goals. I can't imagine what it must have been like turning up to every home game. It's currently a 5 hour round trip from Worcs with all the M5/M6 roadworks and I'm a broken man. Next season I'll have to bring Mrs Owl and make a day of it......she can go shopping in Manchester while I watch the match and then we can go for a meal after before the long trek home. I'll be financially ruined but I have to get something out of the day.

The pitch was as disgraceful as our first half performance. If anything is symbolic of the lack of investment/forward planning at the club, it's that playing surface - a complete embarrassment.

Roll on next season though!!

PS I quite like the perimeter boards though !  

15 hours ago, Ackey said:

An open letter; from OWTB.co.uk to Paul and Jeni.

 

 

Embarrassing, unless ironic.

But as others have said, time to move on. Three points this afternoon will cheer us all up.

No I don't think that, and certainly don't hope so! I was just trying to answer Singe's question. I remember during a phone-in last season the club rep (Mark Moisley?) saying the ground was leased until (?) 2032 and presenting this as great news. It is, but 15 years soon passes as we all know!

2 hours ago, singe said:

Trying to be objective about this, and not saying I  support the view at all, but if the worst was to happen what are the various outcomes.

Could I  clarify these points?

OAFC Football

OA 2004 AFC would not really go bust because it is a tiny co with small income other thanks season tickets and FL income but precious little assets but little debt to be called in, 

It could retain the licence to operate in the FL or if kicked out apply to the Norh West counties or weherever.

They could be homeless.

 

BOUNDARY PARK

This is where the debt is, and the dodgy debts are secured against

3/4 of Boundary Park  as a stadium is owned by Brass Bank. As with Coventry the Stadium is not worth much on it's own, but the land could be sold for housing. Brass Banks ace up it's sleeve.

Permission as a Sporting venue runs out in ? years
As seen with ORLFC, the OMBC is not going to be in much of a position to help.

 

FACILITIES

1/4 of BP, the North Stand is part owned by Brass Bank, but would not be able to operate on it's own very well technically it could operate as a venue but would be significantly less sucessful without OAFC. That would be gone if sold for housing, but kncking the North Stand that is a significant hit.

OEC would not be worth anywhere near as much as a standalone venue, with possible boycotts, but could just be knocked down if the debt is called in. As with North stand it would go if knocked down ,but not much debt is tied in with it either.

 

The LED signs media revenue is owned by SC, that would be gone, but he would have the equipment to sell elsewhere, but the depreciation will be significant, so will take something of a hit on that

 

So OA 2014 AFC would be homeless but relatively debt free. It could therefore possibly retain it's FL licence

But it would have no debt, that is held elsewhere.

Is that in a nutshell? I am not playing the situation favourably or unfavourably, or downplaying the emtion of it, just trying to be objective for this purpose only.

 

I seem to remember guaranteed use of Boundary Park as a football ground runs out in around 2032, is that about right? Not that far off really.

Isn't there also the small matter of c.£6m owed to TTA, or is that covered by your BP debt? Which they said would only be called in if we reach the Premiership? Is that promise in writing?

1 hour ago, Blue_Guru said:

We won't score...I am watching Saturday and have seen us draw 4 out of 4 blanks so far this season. 

I hope you're wrong, coming up from Worcester for this one!

Though come to think of it, my last 3 have been Port Vale home (0-0), Swindon away (0-0), Walsall away (0-2) !!! 

On 15/04/2017 at 6:36 PM, Kusunga_Is_God said:

All this talk about a bloody lawn mower. Lets all move on.
 

Hear hear!

Firstly though, should it be Mowergate, or Lawnmowergate?

Our average home league attendance after today v Bolton is 4,407. With Rochdale to come that means our average for 2016/17 will be higher than for the whole of 2015/16 (4,361).

OK, only a few hundred higher but who could have predicted that back in the dark days of December!!

1 hour ago, davidshaw said:

It's all about perspective I suppose. I suspect the majority of fans don't concern themselves with the minutiae of every decision at director level, which some seem to want to do on here. Most of us are happy that we still have a professional football club, at a reasonable level, to support in a town (Metropolitan Borough) where only about 1.5% of its population even bother to support its team (a shocking statistic in itself). Against that backcloth, some would view it as a minor miracle we are still in existence as a professional club; and the majority of the credit for that has to go to Corney (certainly in my view). He was left with a real raw deal when the 2 "money men" pulled out.

 

As a 97% shareholder, it really is his to do as he pleases, although I always expect a moral duty whereby any football owner should be acting as the custodian of the club for future generations. I remember a certain owner a few years ago - everyone raved about him - he was sat in the away stand at Cheltenham with the fans and everyone was saying what a good egg he was. I`d only ever spoken to him a couple of times but my intuition said he was a snake and I just didn't trust him. Suffice to say he nearly led to the death of our club single handedly.

 

Again, I have only ever spoken to Corney a couple of times - and I just don't get that "bad feeling" - he comes across as a very hard working and genuine fella doing his utmost in dire financial circumstances - with quite a few constantly on a witch hunt against him.

 

I`ve been around a while, and been involved in an awful lot of business matters. In our current situation I would definitely say to his detractors "better the devil you know" (I don't consider him a devil) in our current situation. He has openly stated on many occasions that he will sell to the right buyer (and that's good - 'right buyer'). Why not cut him some slack and let him get on with that unhindered?

 

Even this scoreboard monies issue is not actually that big a deal in the greater scheme of things. Have we not got better things to focus time and energy on rather than discussing the return £10 or £100 donations?  Looking at some of the comments on here our scoreboard issue is on a par with the North Korean crisis.

 

And finally, I`m sorry, but the more I read the more I see the Trust heading into oblivion. Your leadership needs to refocus, it honestly does. Most fans actually support the club and from what I am seeing you are in danger of splitting the fan base. Don't kow tow to the vociferous minority, Trust - you are here to represent the silent majority too.

There is a lot in Dave's post with which, as a sadly distant (geographically) fan, I find myself in agreement.

I completely understand the anger re the scoreboard fundraising. The club should offer unconditional refunds. At the same time, that poor episode doesn't feel all that different to forking out £20-25 on matchdays and hoping for better times, which in recent years have been all too rare.

The other side of the coin is that the club could easily have become another Stockport, or Tranmere - and may yet suffer that fate, for all any of us know. At the moment there is a glimmer of hope - Sheridan, Clarke, Gerrard, Holloway are all contracted for the next two seasons and it looks as though Shez will pull off a repeat miracle.

The simple truth is that we don't know what Corney & co. have in mind for our club, which hurts. We can only hope that he means it when he says that he wants the right buyer and not a shiny suit. That we have survived this long on the gates that we get, next door to the "Premier" League prima donnas, is a miracle in itself.

When I look at top level professional football, and remember how it used to be, I want to vomit. When I see a small club like ours, surviving against the odds, whatever the question marks over its running, I want to celebrate with a beer and carry on hoping. 

Yep, that table is completely wrong. If you check the as it stands table on BBC Sport, on 5 April we were 18th with 45 points. Port Vale were 20th with 45 points and only one game in hand on us.

30 minutes ago, kowenicki said:

9 days ago... Port Vale had 2 points more than us and 3 games in hand.  We were  22nd.  Incredible.

I think we've been out of the bottom 4 since 7 Feb, when we were 21st after the Port Vale game?