Why Joe Royle has Demi-God status to many of us..

[oafcprozac]

I know many of you on here are too young to remember Royle's first tenure so as a fan of 23 years I'll try to explain why so many of us are delighted with this appointment. For many of us Joe Royle is Oldham Athletic, my first game was in November 1986, Joe had been manager for four and a bit seasons and to be honest for most of that tenure we had struggled in a dilapidated stadium with a team of kids and has beens. Yet in the summer of 1986 we laid the artificial surface and immediately took to it. By the time I attended my first game on 22nd November 1986 we had added Tommy Wright and Denis Irwin to a team that included Andy Goram, Andy Barlow, Andy Linighan, Roger Palmer, Ron Futcher, Tony Henry and Gary Williams. The team that year exceeded all expectations and narrowly lost in the play offs to Leeds.

 

During the summer of 1987, we lost Gary Hoolickin to injury in the IOM tournament and he never played again, but Joe managed to sign a striker called Andrew Timothy Ritchie, typically Latics bartered and the tribunal set a fee at a laughable £55k, we also signed Glenn Keeley (the less said the better), in the early Autumn we sold our talented young keeper Goram to Hibs for £325k, we had started the season poorly and suffered from a horrendous injury list. around Christmas time Royle realised he needed a foil for Stitch and initially tried to sign former Watford veteran George Reilly from WBA, the deal fell through at the eleventh hour and instead Joe turned his attention to Frank Bunn of Hull City, Frank made his debut in a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth joining other recent recruits Earl Barrett and John Kelly in the team - to help balance the books Tony Henry was sold to Stoke the following week, the day after scoring an equaliser against his new team in a 2-2 draw at the Victoria Ground. Suddenly the team that had struggled to score goals all season were bagging for fun. The team that looked certs to be fighting relegation all season recovered to finish in 10th place, one place below Manchester City.

 

The spring of 1988 saw Andy Linighan go to Norwich in another £300k + deal, but saw the impressive youngster Mike Flynn increasingly involved and goalkeeper Andy Rhodes arrive to replace the wayward Andy Gorton and Everton centre-half Ian Marshall arrived too. By the summer of 1988 Joe had moved to strengthen his attacking options further by signing Tony Philliskirk from Sheffield United. To be honest the 1988-89 season was a letdown, the highlights being an amazing 4-1 win at Maine Road, a great draw to earn a replay versus Everton at Goodison in the Littlewoods Cup, but a finish of 16th was a disappointment, the main culprit being too many draws. Still injuries had been a real problem but despite our problems, the football at Boundary Park continued to be free-flowing but the defending left a lot to be desired - 5-0 up vs. Portsmouth in March had seen us concede three in the last 5 minutes to win 5-3! (a feat we managed to repeat 3 years later in The premier League vs Forest) Joe again showed his ability in the transfer market by signing Neil Adams on Loan from Everton, Andy Holden from Wigan and Jon Hallworth from Ipswich, initially on loan. Only two wins away from home all season had not been good enough, we had been 2-0 up on many occasions but let the leads slip away, particularly at home.

 

Pre-season 1989 was dominated by the will he won't he saga of Tommy Wright signing a new contract, he eventually signed for Leicester again in a £300k + deal, the money was reinvested wisely. Joe returned to Everton to re-sign Neil Adams - this time permanently for £100k and the day before we went to Blackburn for the season's opener we signed Rick Holden for £165k from Watford. A low-key start to the season saw us lose 1-0 at Blackburn. We registered our first win in September vs. Plymouth and there was no stopping us, progress was made in the Littlewoods Cup and the goals were free-flowing at home in particular. By now Roger Palmer was playing a bit-part but by the end of the season still had scored 20 goals, bettered only by Stitch's 28 in all comps. What can I say about the 89/90 season that hasn't been said? Well it was like living in a dream, much of the away form was still pretty poor - in fact Joe Royle himself was quoted as saying that "we have a few paper tigers away from home" but you always knew that a Joe Royle team was never beaten until the ref blew his whistle. Only those that were there will realise the pride of watching your team walk out in an FA Cup Semi-Final only those that were there will know the sight of seeing grown men cry at seeing their 'boys' led out at Wembley, I was 13 at the time and they are amazing memories and ones that I am so privileged to have. Ultimately we failed at the death, but the whole nation had seen that little Oldham could live with the best and if I’m being bitter the fact we were playing three games a week for the last 6 weeks of the season undid us thanks to the Football League who turned down our request for an extension to the season, (wsell we got 2 days actually) and a bent (incompetent) referee in Joe Worrall cost us an FA Cup Final place. Still it was in no small part down to our wonderful manager to get us through 65 League and Cup Games.

 

The summer of 1990 was a strange time to be a Latics fan. Yes we followed the familiar pattern of selling off our best players in Irwin and Milligan for around £1.7M but it did not mean the end. The club invested in new talent and spent a fortune on Keeley, Currie, (Moulden and Redfearn had signed towards the end of 89/90) and early in the season Jobbo. As Latics fans we no longer yearned for success we bloody well expected it! And boy did we get our wish, we weren't always as fluent as we had been in previous seasons but we had developed a steely resolve - especially away from home and we won promotion with three games to spare. I wasn't lucky enough to be at Portman Road or the Sheffield Wednesday game but from finishing 16th two years before, Royle had overseen us win the league in a division that included Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Watford. All former Division 1 big boys.

 

I think Royle knew we'd have to add height and strength to his team so he went out and signed Graeme Sharp and Brian Kilcline, typically Royle pulled off a coup by re-signing Mike Milligan from Everton, unfortunately this saw the demise of Neil Redfearn - probably Joe's biggest mistake as Latics manager. That was the real bugbear with Royle, if people stood up to him or questioned him he was out. It was very much his way or the highway. Despite the odd tonking the goals continued to flow and to be honest we comfortably survived but the summer of 1992 was possibly were BFJ began to get it wrong...

 

In an attempt to shore up a defence that had lost Earl Barrett in February, he signed Steve Redmond and Neil Pointon - the former going on to give us five years sterling service, the latter was a big Dissa in my opinion. But in exchange for these two defensive lynchpin was our expert crosser Rick Holden. To begin with the goals flowed as usual but we were still shipping them at an alarming rate. The entertainment value could not be matched anywhere but we weren't really winning games. The onus was on Neil Adams to supply record signing Ian Olney and Graeme Sharp. By November Latics position in the table was beginning to falter and after a first-half hammering at Old Trafford - regular custodian Jon Hallworth was ruled out for the season. John Keeley was finally going to get his chance after two years at the club - Joe quickly realised that the performances at BP for Brighton had been his only good games ever and he was in fact :censored:e. Royle ever the supporter of good young players gave rookie Paul Gerrard his chance. Two defeats in London - one a tonking at Wimbledon were followed by a dramatic late win vs. Spurs. The Christmas programme was destroyed by a big freeze and although we won at Ipswich in early January with one of the goals scored by Mark Brennan (The left sider finally brought in to compensate for Ricky's sale) the freefall was beginning. We didn't score again that month and Royle had lost his nerve with his young keeper, moving to bring Andy Dibble in on loan before the Chelsea game. Typically Tony Coton got injured in training and Dibble was recalled 24 hours later! So young Gerrard was reinstated. He performed superbly and assisted by Roger Milford’s arse we despatched Chelsea 3-1 at a foggy BP. Over the last two years, Royle had seen the appearances of Andy Ritchie become increasing infrequent, even more anonymous had been Paul Moulden, well uncle Joe gave him a reprieve in January-March 1993 before finally deciding he actually was :censored:e after-all. The fantastically named Orpheo Keizersweerd made a brief cameo in a 1-0 defeat at Anfield, but by then the tide had turned. The never say spirit had waned a little during those dark winter months but a miraculous comeback at Everton, were we had been quite frankly rubbish for 87 minutes saw the team regain its fighting instinct. Champions elect Manchester United were despatched 10 days later at Boundary Park on a night I will never forget and by the last week of the season, despite our upturn in form I knew we needed a miracle to stay up. We had 3 games left and were 8 points from safety, I thought we were doomed. Still I travelled to Villa Park and stood in the home end. Nick Henry nicked an early goal and despite being battered for 70 minutes we held on by defending resolutely - not least through the efforts of the recently recalled Steve Redmond. Ruthlessly Royle had dropped our main catalyst in our survival push (Neil Adams) in favour of another defender. A nervy night at BP the following Wednesday saw us edge a five goal thriller vs. Liverpool, but Palace's draw at Maine road had virtually sealed our fate. So onto Southampton, we were cruising at 4-1, do we shut up shop? Do we hell as like Royle's boys want 5 almost finishing their manager off in the process we hang on to win 4-3, safety is assured. amazing scenes at Boundary Park that again add to my memories of the great man in charge.

 

If I’m honest, that's where the roller-coaster would have ended. I would have brought a new man in with fresh ideas; we had become increasingly direct since our promotion - probably due to the addition of out and out target men like Olney and Sharp. Stitch's influence had diminished through injury and so had the Dodger's through age. Probably Royle's second biggest mistake was selling Ian Marshall who had become increasingly frustrated at his lack of opportunities in attack. Joe forever wrestled with the idea of whether he was best in attack or defence. What we were missing was immediately rammed back down our throats when Marshall scored the opening goal in a 3-0 opening day defeat to his new club Ipswich. It quickly was apparent that the game was up, the team was seriously lacking in all areas - even though Rick Holden re-signed from City he was not the player he had been four years earlier, Sharp returned from injury but Olney's season (and career) was all but curtailed at West Ham in November, low point was a footballing lesson from newly promoted Newcastle in front of the Sky cameras at BP. Sean McCarthy was signed to try and replace the crocked Olney but was quickly injured himself and despite a wonder goal at Old Trafford on Easter Monday was way off the Premier League pace. Injuries bit hard but a lack of goals from midfield cost us all season, neither Milligan or Henry registered, only Paul Bernard chipped in. The hero of the previous season was sold to Norwich - Neil Adams and we became increasingly reliant on the goals of the injury prone Darren Beckford. Somehow we managed to reach the FA Cup semi-finals and the league form had picked up to the extent of survival somehow being a real possibility. Unfortunately our failure to clear a hopeful ball forward saw Mark Hughes score THAT goal and our dreams died that afternoon in North London. Would bringing Andy Ritchie on have made a difference in killing the game - we'll never know! So relegation it was, all fight disappeared from the team from that day and despite a spine tingling show of defiance at Norwich on the final day we were relegated. Our dream was over.

 

So we were back where we started, could we go straight back up? Well I for one thought yes, we had kept the squad together except for Mike Milligan who went to Norwich but we had replaced him with Billy Kenny and Lee Richardson. The opening day was played out in brilliant sunshine, the flowing football was back, the goals flowed but the defensive frailties had returned and we were somewhat flattered to beat Charlton 5-2. By the end of August, we were top 3 wins from 4. Then it all began to go wrong, the team and manager struggled to adjust to life in Division 1, the team was far too inconsistent and was clearly under-achieving. Highlight was the comeback at Bolton with Joe giving the Bolton main stand as good as they gave when Super Sean bagged a late equaliser. We drew Arsenal in the Coca-Cola Cup, it was ironic - the team who against it had all began back in 1989, I hoped a win would again be the catalyst for better days, but despite a decent performance our lack of cutting edge saw us draw 0-0. It was sad actually that four out of Big Joe's last six games ended up 0-0, his last game being a 2-0 defeat in the Highbury replay. So Joe left us where it had all began - mid-table in the old Second Division. What a ride and one that I am privileged to have witnessed the last eight years of.

 

Strap yourselves in folks, it'll be one hell of a ride until May. Welcome home Joe, give it your best that's all we ask and we know you will.

 

Our overpaid 'experienced' prima-donnas won't know what's hit them!

 

How ironic would it be if we gained revenge gainst Leeds in the Play Offs? Oh the irony!

Edited March 16, 2009 by oafcprozac

[boboafc]

no wonder the sever crashed ,must have been because of your post ..lol

[Markoasis]

...went to one or two boxing day games when young, but November 1986 was the year / month I became a Latics fan

[Lukers1]

I know many of you on here are too young to remember Royle's first tenure so as a fan of 23 years I'll try to explain why so many of us are delighted with this appointment. For many of us Joe Royle is Oldham Athletic, my first game was in November 1986, Joe had been manager for four and a bit seasons and to be honest for most of that tenure we had struggled in a dilapidated stadium with a team of kids and has beens. Yet in the Summer of 1986 we laid the artificial surface and immediately took to it. By the time I attended my first game on 22nd November 1986 we had added Tommy Wright and Denis Irwin to a team that included Andy Goram, Andy Barlow, Andy Linighan, Roger Palmer, Ron Futcher, Tony Henry and Gary Williams. The team that year exceeded all expectations and narrowly lost in the play offs to Leeds.

 

During the summer of 1987, we lost Gary Hoolickin to injury in the IOM tournament and he never played again, but Joe managed to sign a striker called Andrew Timothy Ritchie, typically Latics bartered and the tribunal set a fee at a laughable £55k, we also signed Glenn Keeley (the less said the better), in the early Autumn we sold our talented young keeper Goram to Hibs for £325k, we had started the season poorly andsuffered from a horrendous injury list. around Christmas time Royle realised he needed a foil for Stitch and initially tried to sign former Watford veteran George Reilly from WBA, the deal fell through at the eleventh hour and instead Joe turned his attention to Frank Bunn of Hull City, Frank made his debut at Hull City joining other recent recruits Earl Barrett and John Kelly in the team - to help balance the books Tony Henry was sold to Stoke the following week, the day after scoring an equaliser against his new team in a 2-2 draw at the Victoria Ground. Suddenly the team that had struggled to score goals all season were bagging for fun. The team that looked certs to be fighting relegation all season recovered to finish in 10th place, one place below Manchester City.

 

The spring of 1988 saw Andy Linighan go to Noriwch in another £300k + deal, but saw the impressive youngster Mike Flynn increasingly involved and goalkeeper Andy Rhodes arrived to replace the wayward Andy Gorton and everton centre-half Ian Marshall arrived too. By the summer of 1988 Joe had moved to strengthen his attacking options further by signing Tony Philliskirk from Sheffield United. To be honest the 1988-89 season was a let down, the highlights being an amazing 4-1 win at Maine Road, a great draw to earn a replay versus Everton at Goodison in the Littlewoods Cup, but a finish of 16th was a disappointment, the main culprit being too mant draws. Still injuries had been a real problem again, the football at Bounadary Park was still free-flowing but the defending had left a lot to be desired - 5-0 up vs Portsmouth in March had seen us conceded three in the last 5 minutes to win 5-3! Joe again showed his ability in the transfer market by signing Neil Adams on Loan from Everton, Andy Holden from Wigan and Jon Hallworth from Ipswich, initially on loan. Only two wins away from home all season had not been good enough.

 

Pre-season 1989 was dominated by the will he won't he saga of Tommy Wright signing a new contract, he eventually signed for Leicester gain in a £300k + deal, the money was reinvested wisely. Joe returned to Everton to re-sign Neil Adams - this time permanently for £100k and the day before we went to Blackburn for the season's opener we signed Rick Holden for £165k from Watford. a low-key start to the season saw us lose 1-0 at Blackburn. we registered our first win in September vs Plymouth and there was no stopping us, progress was made in the Littlewoods Cup and the goals were free-flowing at home in particular. By now Roger Palmer was playing a bit-part but by the end of the season still had scored 20 goals, bettered only by Stitch's 28 in all comps. What can I say about the 89/90 season that hasn't been said? Well it was like living in a dream, much of the away form was still pretty poor - in fact Joe Royle himself was quoated as saying that "we have a few paper tigers away from home" but you always knew that a JOe Royle team was never beaten until the ref blew his whistle. Only those that were there will realise the pride of watching your team walk out in an FA Cup Semi-Final only those that were there will know the sight of seeing grown men cry at seeing their 'boys' led out at Wembley, I was 13 at the time and they are amazing memories and ones that I am so privileged to have. Ultimately we failed at the death, but the whole nation had seen that little Oldham could live with the best and if i'm being bitter the fact we were playing three gamnes a week for the last 6 weeks of the season undid is thanks to the Football League and a bent referee in Joe Worrall cost us an FA Cup Final place. Still it was in no small part down to our wonderful manager to get us through 65 League and Cup Games.

 

The summer of 1990 was a strange time to be a Latics fan. Yes we followed the familiar pattern of selling off our best players in Irwin and Milligan for around £1.8M but it did not mean the end. The club invested in new talent and spent a fortune on Keeley, Currie, (Moulden and Redfearn had signed towards the end of 89/90) and early in the season Jobbo. As Latics fans we no longer yearned for sucess we bloody well expected it! And boy did we get our wish, we weren't always as fluent as we had been in previous seasons but we had developed a steely resolve - especially away from home and we won promotion with three games to spare. I wasn't lucky enough to be at Portman Road or the Sheffield Wednesday game but from finishing 16th two years before, Royle had overseen us win the league in a division that included Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Watford. All former Division 1 big boys.

 

I think Royle knew we'd have to add height and strength to his team so he went out and signed Graeme Sharp and Brian Kilcline, typically Royle pulled off a coup by re-signing Mike Milligan from Everton, unfortunately this saw the demise of Neil Redfearn - probably Joe's biggest mistake as Latics manager. That was the reall bugbear with Royle, if people stood up to him or questioned him he was out. It was very much his way or the highway. Typically the goals continued to flow and to be honest we comfortably survived but the summer of 1992 was possibly were BFJ began to get it wrong...

 

In an attempt to shore up a defence that had lost Earl Barrett in February, he signed Steve Redmond and Neil Pointon - the former going on to give us five years sterling service, the latter was a big Dissa in my opinion. But in exchange for these two defensive lynchpin was our expert crosser Rick Holden. To begin with the goals flowed as usual but we were still shipping them at an alarming rate. The entertainment value could not be matched anywhere but we weren't really winning games. the onus was on Neil adams to supply record signing Ian Olney and Graeme Sharp. By November Latics position in the table was beginning to falter and after a first-half hammering at Old Trafford - regular custodian Jon Hallworth was ruled out for the season. John Keeley was finally going to get his chance after two years at the club - Joe quickly realised that the performances at BP for Brighton had been his only good games ever and he was in fact :censored:e. Royle ever the supporter of good young players gave rookie Paul Gerrard his chance. Two defeats in LOndon - one a tonking at Wimbledon were followed by a dramatic late win vs Spurs. The Christmas programme was destroyed by a big freeze and although we won at Ipswich in early January with one of the goals scored by Mark Brennan (The left sider finally brought in to compensate for Ricky's sale) the freefall was beginning. We didn't score again that month and Royle had lost his nerve with his young keeper, moving to bring Andy Dibble in on loan before the Chelsea game. Typically Tony Coton got injured in training and Dibble was recalled 24 hours later! So young Gerrard was reinstated. He performed superbly and assisted by Roger MIlford's arse we despatched Chelsea 3-1 at a foggy BP. Over the last two years, Royle had seen the appearances of Andy Ritchie become increasing infrequent, even more anonymous had been Paul Moulden, well uncle Joe gave himma reprieve in January-March 1993 before finally deciding he actually was :censored:e after-all. The fantastically named Orpheo Keizersweerd made a brief cameo in a 1-0 defeat at Anfield, but by then the tide had turned. The nver say spirit had waned a little during those dark winter months but a miraculous comeback at evrton, were we had been quite frankly rubbish for 87 minutes saw the team regain it's fighting instinct. Champions elect Manchester United were despatched 10 days later at Boundary Park on a night I will never forget and by the last week of the season, despite our upturn in form I knew we needed a miracle to stay up. We had 3 games left and were 8 points from safety, I thought we were doomed. Still I travelled to Villa Park and stood in the home end. Nick Henry nicked an early goal and despite being battered for 70 minutes we held on by defending resolutely - not least through the efforts of the recently recalled Steve Redmond. Ruthlessly Royle had dropped our main cactalyst in our survival push (Neil Adams) in favour of another defender. A nervy night at BP the following Wednesday saw us edge a five goal thriller vs Liverpool, but Palace's draw at Maine road had virtually sealed our fate. So onto Southampton, we were cruising at 4-1, do we shut up shop? Do we hell as like Royle's boys want 5 almost finishing their manager off in the process we hang on to win 4-3, safety is assured. amazing scenes at Boundary Park that again add to my memories of the great man in charge.

 

If i'm honest, that's were the roller-coaster would have ended. I would have brought a new man in with fresh ideas, we had become increasingly direct since our promotion - probbaly due to the addition of out and out target men like Olney and Sharp. Stitch's influence had diminished through injury and so had the Dodger's through age. Probably Royle's second biggest mistake was selling Ian Marshall who had become increasingly frustrated at his lack of opportunities in attack. Joe forever wrestled with the idea of whether he was best in attack or defence. What we were missing was immediately rammed back down our throats when Marshall scored the opening goal in a 3-0 opening day defeat to his new club Ipswich. It quickly was apparent that the game was up, the team was eriously lacking in all areas - even though Rick Holden re-signed from City he was not the player he had been four years earlier, Sharp returned from injury but Olney's season (and career) was all but curtailed at West Ham in November, low point was a footballing lesson from newly promoted Newcastle in front of the Sky cameras at BP. Sean McCarthy was signed to try and replace the crocked Olney but was quickly injured himself and despite a wonder goal at Old Trafford on Easter Monday was way off the Premier League pace. Injuries bit hard but a lack of goals from midfield cost us all season, neither Milligan or Henry registered, only Paul Bernard chipped in. The hero of the previous season was sold to Norwich - Neil Adams and we became increasingly reliant on the goals of the injury prone Darren Beckford. Somehow we managed to reach the FA CUp semi-finals and the league form had picked up to the extent of survival somehow being a real possibility. Unfortunately our failure to clear a hopeful ball forward saw Mark Hughes score THAT goal and our dreams died that afternoon in North London. Would bringing AndY Ritchie on have made a difference in killing the game - we'll never know! So relegation it was, all fight disappeared from the team from that day and despite a spine tingling show of defiance at Norwich on the final day we were relegated. Our dream was over.

 

So we were back where we started, could we go straight back up? Well I for one thought yes, we had kept the squad together except for Mike Milligan who went to norwich but we had replaced him with Billy Kenny and Lee Richardson. The opening day was played out in brilliant sunshine, the flowing football was back, the goals flowed but the defensive frailties had returned and we were somewhat flattered to beat Charlton 5-2. By the end of August, we were top 3 wind from 4. Then it all began to go wrong, the team and manager struggled to adjust to life in Division 1, the team was far too inconsistent and was clearly under-achieving. Highlight was the comeback at Bolton with Joe giving the Bolton main stand as good as they gave when Super Sean bagged a late equaliser. We drew Arsenal in the Coca-Cola Cup, it was ironic - the team who against it had all began back in 1989, I hoped a win would agian be the catalyst for better days, but despite a decent performance our lack of cutting edge saw us draw 0-0. It was sad actually that four out of Big Joe's last six games ended up 0-0, his last game being a 2-0 defeat in the Highbury replay. So Joe left us where it had all began - mid-table in the old Second Division. What a ride and one that I am privileged to have witnessed the last eight years of.

 

Strap yourselves in folks, it'll be one hell of a ride until May. Welcome home Joe, give it your best that's all we ask and we know you will.

 

Our overpaid 'experienced' prima-donnas won't know what's hit them! How ironic would it be if we gained revenge gainst Leeds in the Play Offs? Oh the irony!

 

Your post lacks detail and depth.....

 

[Rocky_Latic]

cracking post prozac. dont know where you get "those under 25" from though. I'm only 23.

 

Then again, I guess I was lucky. Very lucky infact. My dad started taking me in 1989. When I was 4. I only vaguely remember it, but it was everything about the club at the time which got me hooked and the only reason i'm paying £20 into the RRE every other saturday. If my dad had left it till I was 9 and i'd missed that era, I really do doubt that i'd be an Oldham fan right now. Especially when I had no connection with the town until I turned 16.

 

I remember meeting Joe in the early 90's as a kid at a doo Latics put on for it's junior members. I just remember being in absolute awe of him. If I met him this week, I still think i'd be in awe of him. He along with players of that time (Ritchie, Palmer, Holden, Redfearn) are the people I grew up idolising as a youngster.

 

I still remember going in school the day after we beat United 1-0 in 1992/93 singing Oldham songs including "Big Fat Joe's Barmy Army"

 

I really couldnt care what he does this season. There was nothing left about this season I was looking forward too before I heard the news. The season was as good as over for me and i'd done with it in all honesty. He's not even done anything - he's not even been unveiled yet but i'm absolutely delighted. So much for the big man saying in his book he'd be retired by the age of 52.

 

If he gets us in the playoffs. Brilliant. If not. Nevermind. There's no pressure on him whatsoever. I'm just going to enjoy these last 9 games watching a bloke manage a club he absolutely loves.

 

If this had been the summer and Royle had been announced as having a 1 year contract. I think i'd of gone and done something I havent done in years. Got a season ticket. Purely on the basis of it being Royle alone.

 

OLDHAM ATHLETIC IS JOE ROYLE - JOE ROYLE IS OLDHAM ATHLETIC.

 

WELCOME HOME JOE!

Edited March 15, 2009 by Rocky_Latic

[eddyblue]

From depressed to elated. Brilliant post Prozac brought back the fantastic memories.

[brierleys555]

I know many of you on here are too young to remember Royle's first tenure so as a fan of 23 years I'll try to explain why so many of us are delighted with this appointment. For many of us Joe Royle is Oldham Athletic, my first game was in November 1986, Joe had been manager for four and a bit seasons and to be honest for most of that tenure we had struggled in a dilapidated stadium with a team of kids and has beens. Yet in the summer of 1986 we laid the artificial surface and immediately took to it. By the time I attended my first game on 22nd November 1986 we had added Tommy Wright and Denis Irwin to a team that included Andy Goram, Andy Barlow, Andy Linighan, Roger Palmer, Ron Futcher, Tony Henry and Gary Williams. The team that year exceeded all expectations and narrowly lost in the play offs to Leeds.

 

During the summer of 1987, we lost Gary Hoolickin to injury in the IOM tournament and he never played again, but Joe managed to sign a striker called Andrew Timothy Ritchie, typically Latics bartered and the tribunal set a fee at a laughable £55k, we also signed Glenn Keeley (the less said the better), in the early Autumn we sold our talented young keeper Goram to Hibs for £325k, we had started the season poorly and suffered from a horrendous injury list. around Christmas time Royle realised he needed a foil for Stitch and initially tried to sign former Watford veteran George Reilly from WBA, the deal fell through at the eleventh hour and instead Joe turned his attention to Frank Bunn of Hull City, Frank made his debut at Hull City joining other recent recruits Earl Barrett and John Kelly in the team - to help balance the books Tony Henry was sold to Stoke the following week, the day after scoring an equaliser against his new team in a 2-2 draw at the Victoria Ground. Suddenly the team that had struggled to score goals all season were bagging for fun. The team that looked certs to be fighting relegation all season recovered to finish in 10th place, one place below Manchester City.

 

The spring of 1988 saw Andy Linighan go to Norwich in another £300k + deal, but saw the impressive youngster Mike Flynn increasingly involved and goalkeeper Andy Rhodes arrived to replace the wayward Andy Gorton and everton centre-half Ian Marshall arrived too. By the summer of 1988 Joe had moved to strengthen his attacking options further by signing Tony Philliskirk from Sheffield United. To be honest the 1988-89 season was a letdown, the highlights being an amazing 4-1 win at Maine Road, a great draw to earn a replay versus Everton at Goodison in the Littlewoods Cup, but a finish of 16th was a disappointment, the main culprit being too many draws. Still injuries had been a real problem again, the football at Boundary Park was still free-flowing but the defending had left a lot to be desired - 5-0 up vs. Portsmouth in March had seen us conceded three in the last 5 minutes to win 5-3! Joe again showed his ability in the transfer market by signing Neil Adams on Loan from Everton, Andy Holden from Wigan and Jon Hallworth from Ipswich, initially on loan. Only two wins away from home all season had not been good enough.

 

Pre-season 1989 was dominated by the will he won't he saga of Tommy Wright signing a new contract, he eventually signed for Leicester gain in a £300k + deal, the money was reinvested wisely. Joe returned to Everton to re-sign Neil Adams - this time permanently for £100k and the day before we went to Blackburn for the season's opener we signed Rick Holden for £165k from Watford. a low-key start to the season saw us lose 1-0 at Blackburn. We registered our first win in September vs. Plymouth and there was no stopping us, progress was made in the Littlewoods Cup and the goals were free-flowing at home in particular. By now Roger Palmer was playing a bit-part but by the end of the season still had scored 20 goals, bettered only by Stitch's 28 in all comps. What can I say about the 89/90 season that hasn't been said? Well it was like living in a dream, much of the away form was still pretty poor - in fact Joe Royle himself was quoted as saying that "we have a few paper tigers away from home" but you always knew that a Joe Royle team was never beaten until the ref blew his whistle. Only those that were there will realise the pride of watching your team walk out in an FA Cup Semi-Final only those that were there will know the sight of seeing grown men cry at seeing their 'boys' led out at Wembley, I was 13 at the time and they are amazing memories and ones that I am so privileged to have. Ultimately we failed at the death, but the whole nation had seen that little Oldham could live with the best and if I’m being bitter the fact we were playing three games a week for the last 6 weeks of the season undid is thanks to the Football League and a bent referee in Joe Worrall cost us an FA Cup Final place. Still it was in no small part down to our wonderful manager to get us through 65 League and Cup Games.

 

The summer of 1990 was a strange time to be a Latics fan. Yes we followed the familiar pattern of selling off our best players in Irwin and Milligan for around £1.8M but it did not mean the end. The club invested in new talent and spent a fortune on Keeley, Currie, (Moulden and Redfearn had signed towards the end of 89/90) and early in the season Jobbo. As Latics fans we no longer yearned for success we bloody well expected it! And boy did we get our wish, we weren't always as fluent as we had been in previous seasons but we had developed a steely resolve - especially away from home and we won promotion with three games to spare. I wasn't lucky enough to be at Portman Road or the Sheffield Wednesday game but from finishing 16th two years before, Royle had overseen us win the league in a division that included Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Watford. All former Division 1 big boys.

 

I think Royle knew we'd have to add height and strength to his team so he went out and signed Graeme Sharp and Brian Kilcline, typically Royle pulled off a coup by re-signing Mike Milligan from Everton, unfortunately this saw the demise of Neil Redfearn - probably Joe's biggest mistake as Latics manager. That was the real bugbear with Royle, if people stood up to him or questioned him he was out. It was very much his way or the highway. Typically the goals continued to flow and to be honest we comfortably survived but the summer of 1992 was possibly were BFJ began to get it wrong...

 

In an attempt to shore up a defence that had lost Earl Barrett in February, he signed Steve Redmond and Neil Pointon - the former going on to give us five years sterling service, the latter was a big Dissa in my opinion. But in exchange for these two defensive lynchpin was our expert crosser Rick Holden. To begin with the goals flowed as usual but we were still shipping them at an alarming rate. The entertainment value could not be matched anywhere but we weren't really winning games. The onus was on Neil Adams to supply record signing Ian Olney and Graeme Sharp. By November Latics position in the table was beginning to falter and after a first-half hammering at Old Trafford - regular custodian Jon Hallworth was ruled out for the season. John Keeley was finally going to get his chance after two years at the club - Joe quickly realised that the performances at BP for Brighton had been his only good games ever and he was in fact :censored:e. Royle ever the supporter of good young players gave rookie Paul Gerrard his chance. Two defeats in London - one a tonking at Wimbledon were followed by a dramatic late win vs. Spurs. The Christmas programme was destroyed by a big freeze and although we won at Ipswich in early January with one of the goals scored by Mark Brennan (The left sider finally brought in to compensate for Ricky's sale) the freefall was beginning. We didn't score again that month and Royle had lost his nerve with his young keeper, moving to bring Andy Dibble in on loan before the Chelsea game. Typically Tony Coton got injured in training and Dibble was recalled 24 hours later! So young Gerrard was reinstated. He performed superbly and assisted by Roger Milford’s arse we despatched Chelsea 3-1 at a foggy BP. Over the last two years, Royle had seen the appearances of Andy Ritchie become increasing infrequent, even more anonymous had been Paul Moulden, well uncle Joe gave him a reprieve in January-March 1993 before finally deciding he actually was :censored:e after-all. The fantastically named Orpheo Keizersweerd made a brief cameo in a 1-0 defeat at Anfield, but by then the tide had turned. The never say spirit had waned a little during those dark winter months but a miraculous comeback at Everton, were we had been quite frankly rubbish for 87 minutes saw the team regain its fighting instinct. Champions elect Manchester United were despatched 10 days later at Boundary Park on a night I will never forget and by the last week of the season, despite our upturn in form I knew we needed a miracle to stay up. We had 3 games left and were 8 points from safety, I thought we were doomed. Still I travelled to Villa Park and stood in the home end. Nick Henry nicked an early goal and despite being battered for 70 minutes we held on by defending resolutely - not least through the efforts of the recently recalled Steve Redmond. Ruthlessly Royle had dropped our main catalyst in our survival push (Neil Adams) in favour of another defender. A nervy night at BP the following Wednesday saw us edge a five goal thriller vs. Liverpool, but Palace's draw at Maine road had virtually sealed our fate. So onto Southampton, we were cruising at 4-1, do we shut up shop? Do we hell as like Royle's boys want 5 almost finishing their manager off in the process we hang on to win 4-3, safety is assured. amazing scenes at Boundary Park that again add to my memories of the great man in charge.

 

If I’m honest, that's where the roller-coaster would have ended. I would have brought a new man in with fresh ideas; we had become increasingly direct since our promotion - probably due to the addition of out and out target men like Olney and Sharp. Stitch's influence had diminished through injury and so had the Dodger's through age. Probably Royle's second biggest mistake was selling Ian Marshall who had become increasingly frustrated at his lack of opportunities in attack. Joe forever wrestled with the idea of whether he was best in attack or defence. What we were missing was immediately rammed back down our throats when Marshall scored the opening goal in a 3-0 opening day defeat to his new club Ipswich. It quickly was apparent that the game was up, the team was seriously lacking in all areas - even though Rick Holden re-signed from City he was not the player he had been four years earlier, Sharp returned from injury but Olney's season (and career) was all but curtailed at West Ham in November, low point was a footballing lesson from newly promoted Newcastle in front of the Sky cameras at BP. Sean McCarthy was signed to try and replace the crocked Olney but was quickly injured himself and despite a wonder goal at Old Trafford on Easter Monday was way off the Premier League pace. Injuries bit hard but a lack of goals from midfield cost us all season, neither Milligan or Henry registered, only Paul Bernard chipped in. The hero of the previous season was sold to Norwich - Neil Adams and we became increasingly reliant on the goals of the injury prone Darren Beckford. Somehow we managed to reach the FA Cup semi-finals and the league form had picked up to the extent of survival somehow being a real possibility. Unfortunately our failure to clear a hopeful ball forward saw Mark Hughes score THAT goal and our dreams died that afternoon in North London. Would bringing Andy Ritchie on have made a difference in killing the game - we'll never know! So relegation it was, all fight disappeared from the team from that day and despite a spine tingling show of defiance at Norwich on the final day we were relegated. Our dream was over.

 

So we were back where we started, could we go straight back up? Well I for one thought yes, we had kept the squad together except for Mike Milligan who went to Norwich but we had replaced him with Billy Kenny and Lee Richardson. The opening day was played out in brilliant sunshine, the flowing football was back, the goals flowed but the defensive frailties had returned and we were somewhat flattered to beat Charlton 5-2. By the end of August, we were top 3 wins from 4. Then it all began to go wrong, the team and manager struggled to adjust to life in Division 1, the team was far too inconsistent and was clearly under-achieving. Highlight was the comeback at Bolton with Joe giving the Bolton main stand as good as they gave when Super Sean bagged a late equaliser. We drew Arsenal in the Coca-Cola Cup, it was ironic - the team who against it had all began back in 1989, I hoped a win would again be the catalyst for better days, but despite a decent performance our lack of cutting edge saw us draw 0-0. It was sad actually that four out of Big Joe's last six games ended up 0-0, his last game being a 2-0 defeat in the Highbury replay. So Joe left us where it had all began - mid-table in the old Second Division. What a ride and one that I am privileged to have witnessed the last eight years of.

 

Strap yourselves in folks, it'll be one hell of a ride until May. Welcome home Joe, give it your best that's all we ask and we know you will.

 

Our overpaid 'experienced' prima-donnas won't know what's hit them!

 

How ironic would it be if we gained revenge gainst Leeds in the Play Offs? Oh the irony!

During the year we got promoted I remember as a young 17 year old watching the latics play wolves at home. I was stood in the rocky rd end and for all the match you couldnt see the chaddy goal due to fog.( it was an evening match) I remember buying a hot chocolate just to keep my hands warm. i also remember the second half battering we gave them as latics were attacking the rocky rd end in second half.

I also remember the 3-2 wednesday win. 18,809 is etched in my memory. It is right Joe only stays till the end of the season. He has earned his status and should leave it intact.

We only have one god and he goes by the name of JOE ROYLE.

 

[chamberssmc]

Very good post! I learnt a lot!

 

Just to make you all feel old i was 4 months old when we were promoted to the Premiership But Big Joe is still one of my Latics heros!

[JoeLatics]

Let's just hope that he doesn't make everyone forget about his legendary status with 9 straight defeats!

[oafcprozac]

During the year we got promoted I remember as a young 17 year old watching the latics play wolves at home. I was stood in the rocky rd end and for all the match you couldnt see the chaddy goal due to fog.( it was an evening match) I remember buying a hot chocolate just to keep my hands warm. i also remember the second half battering we gave them as latics were attacking the rocky rd end in second half.

I also remember the 3-2 wednesday win. 18,809 is etched in my memory. It is right Joe only stays till the end of the season. He has earned his status and should leave it intact.

We only have one god and he goes by the name of JOE ROYLE.

 

The Wolves game was a pre-Christmas Saturday match mate, we were 1-0 down, equalised right on half-time, then proceeded to come out and wipe the floor with a very good Wolves side (Steve Bull and all) 4-1, in fact that game was in a remarkable run of home games that began with us beating watford 4-1 in early November, the next home game we beat Brighton 6-1, then Wolves 4-1 then 6 days later on a Night beat our nemesis* inspired Plymoth 5-3! (4 home games 19 goals and we were behind in 3 of them!!!)

 

 

* Keith 'the bastard' Edwards!

Edited March 15, 2009 by oafcprozac

[latic12345]

This man is one of the main reasons I love this club so much. Started watching in 88/89 season a young age of 3. To have the formative years in football under that team makes me positive today. He proved, we can live the dream. Maybe, just maybe, we can live it again and ensure he has a fantastic 12 game swansong!!!

 

I'm gutted I'll miss his homecoming but I will be there at Leyton with bells on. I'll be like a big kid that day (bigger than normal anyway!!!)

[Scapegoat]

It is right Joe only stays till the end of the season. He has earned his status and should leave it intact.

 

Even if he brings promotion via the Play-offs with victory over Leeds?

 

 

Joe Royle. In the end left Oldham where he found us (and perhaps where our natual level was), made some dodgey signings when he had cash later on, but it was simply an amzing ride that I would not have missed for the world.

 

So many memories, so much great football. Will be an amzing reception for him on Saturday.

[EASTLEY]

During the year we got promoted I remember as a young 17 year old watching the latics play wolves at home. I was stood in the rocky rd end and for all the match you couldnt see the chaddy goal due to fog.( it was an evening match) I remember buying a hot chocolate just to keep my hands warm. i also remember the second half battering we gave them as latics were attacking the rocky rd end in second half.

I also remember the 3-2 wednesday win. 18,809 is etched in my memory. It is right Joe only stays till the end of the season. He has earned his status and should leave it intact.

We only have one god and he goes by the name of JOE ROYLE.

Can we give Jimmy Frizzell Demi-God status then ;-)

 

I remember being gutted as a young kid that Frizzell was sacked until uncle Joe turned up

 

At a Junior Latics do he once told me if I got his autograph just once more time then I could swap it for Alex Fergusons

[leeslover]

I just want to know if he's be putting Maddog's embroidery up in his office again (along with the 3,000 other ones he also had up in it, allegedly)

[johnny punkster]

well my lad isn't called joe for nothing!

he is the messiah!

[Markoasis]

This man is one of the main reasons I love this club so much. Started watching in 88/89 season a young age of 3. To have the formative years in football under that team makes me positive today. He proved, we can live the dream. Maybe, just maybe, we can live it again and ensure he has a fantastic 12 game swansong!!!

 

I'm gutted I'll miss his homecoming but I will be there at Leyton with bells on. I'll be like a big kid that day (bigger than normal anyway!!!)

 

shame you'll be away .... can i have your Season ticket

[outoftheblue]

Fabulous piece Prozac. Brutally honest, and saying it exacly as I remember it other than the omission of that wonderful 6-0 defeat of WHU and the second leg where Joe took the (then) unusual step of naming a keeper on the bench, saying "The only way we can lose this semi final now is if our keeper gets injured.

As you say, JR had his failings, but motivation and passion were never absent.

Your memory never ceases to amaze me, and it's always great to be reminded of those fabulous days (And more often nights) under Joe Royle.

[droyblue0]

after reading all these great posts, i'm now going to watch all my old videos of latics .let the countdown to saturday begin !!!!!!!!!!!

[Scapegoat]

after reading all these great posts, i'm now going to watch all my old videos of latics .let the countdown to saturday begin !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Theres a good idea. Saturday morning sorted now.

[dfOAFC]

with Royle, if people stood up to him or questioned him he was out. It was very much his way or the highway.

 

just what we need right at this moment

 

[Forte_Baby]

I was lucky my first ever match was the season we won promotion under Royle (although the 2 cups year before on TV got me hooked)

 

I really hope this goes well last thing i want is what happened with Keegan at Newcastle.

[wakefield-oldham]

i wonder if joe is sat there in front of fire,slippers on,wife glaring like hell at him,,,thinking what the !$&k have i done

[beag_teeets]

How ironic would it be if we gained revenge gainst Leeds in the Play Offs? Oh the irony!

 

I've carried the scars from those two games for too long. I hate the play-offs but have held on to the belief that if we are ever going to win in them then it will be against Leeds.

[OLDHAMADE]

I know many of you on here are too young to remember Royle's first tenure so as a fan of 23 years I'll try to explain why so many of us are delighted with this appointment. For many of us Joe Royle is Oldham Athletic, my first game was in November 1986, Joe had been manager for four and a bit seasons and to be honest for most of that tenure we had struggled in a dilapidated stadium with a team of kids and has beens. Yet in the summer of 1986 we laid the artificial surface and immediately took to it. By the time I attended my first game on 22nd November 1986 we had added Tommy Wright and Denis Irwin to a team that included Andy Goram, Andy Barlow, Andy Linighan, Roger Palmer, Ron Futcher, Tony Henry and Gary Williams. The team that year exceeded all expectations and narrowly lost in the play offs to Leeds.

 

During the summer of 1987, we lost Gary Hoolickin to injury in the IOM tournament and he never played again, but Joe managed to sign a striker called Andrew Timothy Ritchie, typically Latics bartered and the tribunal set a fee at a laughable £55k, we also signed Glenn Keeley (the less said the better), in the early Autumn we sold our talented young keeper Goram to Hibs for £325k, we had started the season poorly and suffered from a horrendous injury list. around Christmas time Royle realised he needed a foil for Stitch and initially tried to sign former Watford veteran George Reilly from WBA, the deal fell through at the eleventh hour and instead Joe turned his attention to Frank Bunn of Hull City, Frank made his debut at Hull City joining other recent recruits Earl Barrett and John Kelly in the team - to help balance the books Tony Henry was sold to Stoke the following week, the day after scoring an equaliser against his new team in a 2-2 draw at the Victoria Ground. Suddenly the team that had struggled to score goals all season were bagging for fun. The team that looked certs to be fighting relegation all season recovered to finish in 10th place, one place below Manchester City.

 

The spring of 1988 saw Andy Linighan go to Norwich in another £300k + deal, but saw the impressive youngster Mike Flynn increasingly involved and goalkeeper Andy Rhodes arrived to replace the wayward Andy Gorton and everton centre-half Ian Marshall arrived too. By the summer of 1988 Joe had moved to strengthen his attacking options further by signing Tony Philliskirk from Sheffield United. To be honest the 1988-89 season was a letdown, the highlights being an amazing 4-1 win at Maine Road, a great draw to earn a replay versus Everton at Goodison in the Littlewoods Cup, but a finish of 16th was a disappointment, the main culprit being too many draws. Still injuries had been a real problem again, the football at Boundary Park was still free-flowing but the defending had left a lot to be desired - 5-0 up vs. Portsmouth in March had seen us conceded three in the last 5 minutes to win 5-3! Joe again showed his ability in the transfer market by signing Neil Adams on Loan from Everton, Andy Holden from Wigan and Jon Hallworth from Ipswich, initially on loan. Only two wins away from home all season had not been good enough.

 

Pre-season 1989 was dominated by the will he won't he saga of Tommy Wright signing a new contract, he eventually signed for Leicester gain in a £300k + deal, the money was reinvested wisely. Joe returned to Everton to re-sign Neil Adams - this time permanently for £100k and the day before we went to Blackburn for the season's opener we signed Rick Holden for £165k from Watford. a low-key start to the season saw us lose 1-0 at Blackburn. We registered our first win in September vs. Plymouth and there was no stopping us, progress was made in the Littlewoods Cup and the goals were free-flowing at home in particular. By now Roger Palmer was playing a bit-part but by the end of the season still had scored 20 goals, bettered only by Stitch's 28 in all comps. What can I say about the 89/90 season that hasn't been said? Well it was like living in a dream, much of the away form was still pretty poor - in fact Joe Royle himself was quoted as saying that "we have a few paper tigers away from home" but you always knew that a Joe Royle team was never beaten until the ref blew his whistle. Only those that were there will realise the pride of watching your team walk out in an FA Cup Semi-Final only those that were there will know the sight of seeing grown men cry at seeing their 'boys' led out at Wembley, I was 13 at the time and they are amazing memories and ones that I am so privileged to have. Ultimately we failed at the death, but the whole nation had seen that little Oldham could live with the best and if I’m being bitter the fact we were playing three games a week for the last 6 weeks of the season undid is thanks to the Football League and a bent referee in Joe Worrall cost us an FA Cup Final place. Still it was in no small part down to our wonderful manager to get us through 65 League and Cup Games.

 

The summer of 1990 was a strange time to be a Latics fan. Yes we followed the familiar pattern of selling off our best players in Irwin and Milligan for around £1.8M but it did not mean the end. The club invested in new talent and spent a fortune on Keeley, Currie, (Moulden and Redfearn had signed towards the end of 89/90) and early in the season Jobbo. As Latics fans we no longer yearned for success we bloody well expected it! And boy did we get our wish, we weren't always as fluent as we had been in previous seasons but we had developed a steely resolve - especially away from home and we won promotion with three games to spare. I wasn't lucky enough to be at Portman Road or the Sheffield Wednesday game but from finishing 16th two years before, Royle had overseen us win the league in a division that included Sheffield Wednesday, West Ham United and Watford. All former Division 1 big boys.

 

I think Royle knew we'd have to add height and strength to his team so he went out and signed Graeme Sharp and Brian Kilcline, typically Royle pulled off a coup by re-signing Mike Milligan from Everton, unfortunately this saw the demise of Neil Redfearn - probably Joe's biggest mistake as Latics manager. That was the real bugbear with Royle, if people stood up to him or questioned him he was out. It was very much his way or the highway. Typically the goals continued to flow and to be honest we comfortably survived but the summer of 1992 was possibly were BFJ began to get it wrong...

 

In an attempt to shore up a defence that had lost Earl Barrett in February, he signed Steve Redmond and Neil Pointon - the former going on to give us five years sterling service, the latter was a big Dissa in my opinion. But in exchange for these two defensive lynchpin was our expert crosser Rick Holden. To begin with the goals flowed as usual but we were still shipping them at an alarming rate. The entertainment value could not be matched anywhere but we weren't really winning games. The onus was on Neil Adams to supply record signing Ian Olney and Graeme Sharp. By November Latics position in the table was beginning to falter and after a first-half hammering at Old Trafford - regular custodian Jon Hallworth was ruled out for the season. John Keeley was finally going to get his chance after two years at the club - Joe quickly realised that the performances at BP for Brighton had been his only good games ever and he was in fact :censored:e. Royle ever the supporter of good young players gave rookie Paul Gerrard his chance. Two defeats in London - one a tonking at Wimbledon were followed by a dramatic late win vs. Spurs. The Christmas programme was destroyed by a big freeze and although we won at Ipswich in early January with one of the goals scored by Mark Brennan (The left sider finally brought in to compensate for Ricky's sale) the freefall was beginning. We didn't score again that month and Royle had lost his nerve with his young keeper, moving to bring Andy Dibble in on loan before the Chelsea game. Typically Tony Coton got injured in training and Dibble was recalled 24 hours later! So young Gerrard was reinstated. He performed superbly and assisted by Roger Milford’s arse we despatched Chelsea 3-1 at a foggy BP. Over the last two years, Royle had seen the appearances of Andy Ritchie become increasing infrequent, even more anonymous had been Paul Moulden, well uncle Joe gave him a reprieve in January-March 1993 before finally deciding he actually was :censored:e after-all. The fantastically named Orpheo Keizersweerd made a brief cameo in a 1-0 defeat at Anfield, but by then the tide had turned. The never say spirit had waned a little during those dark winter months but a miraculous comeback at Everton, were we had been quite frankly rubbish for 87 minutes saw the team regain its fighting instinct. Champions elect Manchester United were despatched 10 days later at Boundary Park on a night I will never forget and by the last week of the season, despite our upturn in form I knew we needed a miracle to stay up. We had 3 games left and were 8 points from safety, I thought we were doomed. Still I travelled to Villa Park and stood in the home end. Nick Henry nicked an early goal and despite being battered for 70 minutes we held on by defending resolutely - not least through the efforts of the recently recalled Steve Redmond. Ruthlessly Royle had dropped our main catalyst in our survival push (Neil Adams) in favour of another defender. A nervy night at BP the following Wednesday saw us edge a five goal thriller vs. Liverpool, but Palace's draw at Maine road had virtually sealed our fate. So onto Southampton, we were cruising at 4-1, do we shut up shop? Do we hell as like Royle's boys want 5 almost finishing their manager off in the process we hang on to win 4-3, safety is assured. amazing scenes at Boundary Park that again add to my memories of the great man in charge.

 

If I’m honest, that's where the roller-coaster would have ended. I would have brought a new man in with fresh ideas; we had become increasingly direct since our promotion - probably due to the addition of out and out target men like Olney and Sharp. Stitch's influence had diminished through injury and so had the Dodger's through age. Probably Royle's second biggest mistake was selling Ian Marshall who had become increasingly frustrated at his lack of opportunities in attack. Joe forever wrestled with the idea of whether he was best in attack or defence. What we were missing was immediately rammed back down our throats when Marshall scored the opening goal in a 3-0 opening day defeat to his new club Ipswich. It quickly was apparent that the game was up, the team was seriously lacking in all areas - even though Rick Holden re-signed from City he was not the player he had been four years earlier, Sharp returned from injury but Olney's season (and career) was all but curtailed at West Ham in November, low point was a footballing lesson from newly promoted Newcastle in front of the Sky cameras at BP. Sean McCarthy was signed to try and replace the crocked Olney but was quickly injured himself and despite a wonder goal at Old Trafford on Easter Monday was way off the Premier League pace. Injuries bit hard but a lack of goals from midfield cost us all season, neither Milligan or Henry registered, only Paul Bernard chipped in. The hero of the previous season was sold to Norwich - Neil Adams and we became increasingly reliant on the goals of the injury prone Darren Beckford. Somehow we managed to reach the FA Cup semi-finals and the league form had picked up to the extent of survival somehow being a real possibility. Unfortunately our failure to clear a hopeful ball forward saw Mark Hughes score THAT goal and our dreams died that afternoon in North London. Would bringing Andy Ritchie on have made a difference in killing the game - we'll never know! So relegation it was, all fight disappeared from the team from that day and despite a spine tingling show of defiance at Norwich on the final day we were relegated. Our dream was over.

 

So we were back where we started, could we go straight back up? Well I for one thought yes, we had kept the squad together except for Mike Milligan who went to Norwich but we had replaced him with Billy Kenny and Lee Richardson. The opening day was played out in brilliant sunshine, the flowing football was back, the goals flowed but the defensive frailties had returned and we were somewhat flattered to beat Charlton 5-2. By the end of August, we were top 3 wins from 4. Then it all began to go wrong, the team and manager struggled to adjust to life in Division 1, the team was far too inconsistent and was clearly under-achieving. Highlight was the comeback at Bolton with Joe giving the Bolton main stand as good as they gave when Super Sean bagged a late equaliser. We drew Arsenal in the Coca-Cola Cup, it was ironic - the team who against it had all began back in 1989, I hoped a win would again be the catalyst for better days, but despite a decent performance our lack of cutting edge saw us draw 0-0. It was sad actually that four out of Big Joe's last six games ended up 0-0, his last game being a 2-0 defeat in the Highbury replay. So Joe left us where it had all began - mid-table in the old Second Division. What a ride and one that I am privileged to have witnessed the last eight years of.

 

Strap yourselves in folks, it'll be one hell of a ride until May. Welcome home Joe, give it your best that's all we ask and we know you will.

 

Our overpaid 'experienced' prima-donnas won't know what's hit them!

 

How ironic would it be if we gained revenge gainst Leeds in the Play Offs? Oh the irony!

 

Being 46 I remember everything you've listed and more, Joe Royle like Andy Ritchie is one of the nicest blokes i've ever had the honour of meeting and talking of that play-off game against Leeds i'll never forget how sick I was after that one,

Could it be???? tonking Leeds in the play-off final would be as good as it gets but let's not get over excited till we see how saturday goes

 

Tranmere will be thinking long and hard about it now as you always seem to do far better when a new manager arrives and yet again another 6 pointer

 

 

[grim]

I first when to BP in 86 and consider myself lucky to have been part of the ride under Big Joe.He was a fantastic man manager whose teams played good attacking football with quality service from the wide areas(Adams,Holden,Halle,Barlow,Irwin).I am shocked at Joe coming back but cant wait as Ive also winged a ticket for the directors box and players lounge so am hoping I might bump into the great man again.Also would like to take this opportunity to thank Shez for all he has done both as player and manager.