When was your first game, and when did you get the bug?

[kellysheroes]

my 1st game at BP either was newcastle when any cole and peter beardsley ran the show, or liverpool at home when they were kicking the ball at the score board, which one was 1st??? god knows long time ago

[z3spacial]

My 1st game was v Orient in 1974. I was in one of the old blue 'executive boxes'.The only decent part of the game was a young black player called Laurie Cunningham - indeed, othere than the result, that was all I remembered about the game. It's a wonder I ever came back - but the magical 1-0 against Utd on Boxing Day of the same year was my 2nd game.... and the rest is history

[drw1909]

My Dad first took me to reserve games in the mid 1950's but my first proper season was 1962/63 and I was hooked immediately.(46 years, but supporting your club is a life sentence)

 

I still attend with my Dad who is now 83.

 

 

 

[KUNGFOO]

 

not sure on the eyar but it was a plastic pitch and after the game we won a trophy and thay did a lap of honour

 

 

 

 

atleaste 62.16% blame our farthers for taking is to the latics haha

Edited October 8, 2009 by KUNGFOO

[madaboutoafc]

My 1st game was in our last season of the prem if memory serves me right it was against QPR which we won 3-1,it was my cousin that took me to my 1st game,we use to stand in the Broadway cant remember what is was called back then at the bottom near the police box,i followed oldham for a couple of years before my 1st game but due to living in Germany (my dad was in the army) this made it just a little hard to get to BP n cause of living abroad no players or coaches ever visited our school.

Edited October 8, 2009 by madaboutoafc

[longtimeblue]

First game beat Leeds 4-1 in 86 - 3 at the time

 

Got the bug 89/90 (Unsuprisingly)

 

Had medals presnted by Ritchie St Hughs and Andy Barlow at Either 3d's or Uppermill

[Diego_Sideburns]

I lived in Stansfield Street, between Rochdale Road and Featherstall Road (behind the Queen's pub) and could hear the crowd noise coming from acoustically-perfect BP on match days.

 

I can't remember the first home game I attended with my Dad, but it was in 1950. I used to go to Reserve games at BP to find out the latest score from the first team's away match.

 

I attended my first away game with my Uncle and my cousin at Port Vale on Saturday 4th April 1953. My cousin and I had served as altar boys at St. Patrick's Church in an all-night Good Friday/Holy Saturday service, and we went straight to a coach company (possibly Renton's) in Manchester Road, Hollinwood for the trip to the Potteries. The attendance was 24,499 and the game finished 1-1, with Peter McKennan scoring for Latics. We were undefeated for the remainder of the season, finishing as Third Division North Champions, just one point above Port Vale. So my first away game proved to be absolutely crucial.

 

The strain of my all-night/all-day escapades, with lack of sleep and insufficient food and drink, resulted in my contracting jaundice and being off school for several weeks. During that time, to relieve my boredom, I entered a competition (organised by Sumrie who made boys' suits) to write an essay on 'Why cricket is my favourite sport'. I hated cricket but, with the help of a book my Mum borrowed from the library, I entered and won a cricket bat signed by the England captain Len Hutton (later to be knighted).

 

 

The essay was published in the rarely wrong weekly Chron and displayed with the bat in the window of Buckley & Procter's store at Mumps.

 

The rest is history, as I've continued to feel sick watching Latics and writing about escapades that many believe to be fairy stories.

[Diego_Sideburns]

....The only decent part of the game was a young black player called Laurie Cunningham....

 

Just the excuse I needed to show this:

 

[ghostofcecere]

My 1st game was v Orient in 1974. I was in one of the old blue 'executive boxes'.The only decent part of the game was a young black player called Laurie Cunningham - indeed, othere than the result, that was all I remembered about the game. It's a wonder I ever came back - but the magical 1-0 against Utd on Boxing Day of the same year was my 2nd game.... and the rest is history

Bloody hell! My first game too, my Dad took me because a certain young black player was playing..... how un PC is that in this day and age!

[The Chaplain]

My 1st game was v Orient in 1974. I was in one of the old blue 'executive boxes'.The only decent part of the game was a young black player called Laurie Cunningham - indeed, othere than the result, that was all I remembered about the game. It's a wonder I ever came back - but the magical 1-0 against Utd on Boxing Day of the same year was my 2nd game.... and the rest is history

 

AND

 

B****y h**l! My first game too, my Dad took me because a certain young black player was playing..... how un PC is that in this day and age!

 

AND

 

My first match was against Orient in 1974 too (although the away tie, bizarrely)! Maybe we should start a club. Maybe there's something significant here? Was it anyone else's first match? Shall we have a poll ... ?

[garcon]

I suspect the schools visit part of the poll will be skewed by the fact they only started doing that kind of thing in the last 20 years or so and there's plenty of us old bastards on here who'd already left school by then (at 13 to work in t'mill ).

 

My Dad first took me to a few games when I was about 8 or 9. No idea which was my first, but we're talking Valentine and Stainrod. I do remember getting rather excited when I heard we'd signed Keegan...

 

I didn't get hooked as a kid though. I remember half the kids at junior school being Liverpool fans, just because they won everything. So, being an awkward little sod, I became a United fan.

 

I went through my teenage years without really caring much for football. Girls, cars and snooker kept me busy. However, having come back home from my first job away from town a group of mates persuaded me to go - Christmas 1989 v Portsmouth. Little did I know how good my timing was...

[Hometownclub]

My first game was March 1972 against Swansea, my dad took me and I was 8 years old at the time.

 

We won 1-0 and David Shaw scored in the Rochdale Road end goal, we stood in the Chaddy End, I remember the goal really well because it was a shot from the edge of the box and struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced down on the line before going in.

 

I was hooked and the rest is history, 37 years later and still going.

[perfectOzblue]

My first game was United V Watford in 85 or 86. My first game at BP (that I remember) was a 5 - 3 victory. I'm sure it was either Pompey Or Hull. I think we were 3 nil up and left with about ten mins to go and it ended 5 - 3 ??? Can prozac confirm ? It was a night match.

 

I actually only had Oldham as my second team at that point. My dad brought me up as a Man U fan, but my step-dad took me to Latics every now and then from 88/89 onwards. I didn't make Oldham my first team until Mark Hughes equalised in the FAC semi in '94 (I'll get my coat)...something just made me change that instant. I could see the look of distraught in the Oldham fans faces in pub we were in and I went from being happy at United getting back in the game to be being gutted that Oldham were pretty much saying good bye to their chance of ever appearing in an FAC final. Since then it's Oldham first for me.

 

Yard Dog - that was my first match too! It was Pompey. Think it was February / March. I can vaguely remember standing about three-quarters of the way up in the Chaddy End with my Dad (the days before I graduated to hanging on the fence behind the goal). I can still remember being fascinated by the plastic pitch, the inflatable dogs still being waved...and the goals!!! I think a combination of Ritchie, Palmer and Wright put us 5 up, but then Pompey came back (I think) through a combination of Mickey Quinn and Warren Aspinall.

Ah, that's put me in reet good mood now....

 

[oafcshuck]

I remember having a manure shirt from the age of around 6, don't know if i'd still be like that now, if it wasn't for attending Oldham.

 

Auntie & Uncle started taking me along, they've been ST holders for life 30/35 years, and i just caught the bug from them. First game was at home to Grimsby in the league cup first round in 1997 aged 6, went a few more that season, then got a season ticket aged around 9.

 

If you start getting kids to come along regulary i feel it'll catch on.

[oafc1955]

Boxing Day 1962 with my Dad was the first game I can remember......some intro that was...11 v 0 against Southport. I started going regular home and away just after England won the World Cup.

 

I remember me and my mate being picked up at a bustop on Broadway by Ken Bates in his Rolls Royce!!

 

Went to Old Trafford with my mates several times during the Best/Law/Charlton era but it never felt right and I just couldn't get remotely excited about it!!

 

Even then at school everbody was either City or United so if my Dad hadn't taken me to Oldham I might have been a flaming red!!!

 

I was lucky as I had several friends who went to Oldham so it was a great day out home or away win or lose... As a youngster you need to be going with a few mates and then it develops into a habit and before long you're hooked!

 

We simply have to start getting kids interested in Latics from an early age otherwise this club is doomed..........I would be tempted to let all under 15's in free for a full season as a trial. Maybe give a free home shirt to all season ticket holders or a voucher to spend in the club shop.

 

We are going to have to do something very different to boost attendances, something totally innovative, but first and foremost we will have to entertain, we will have to have a reasonably succesful side which will then, hopefully, improve the whole matchday experience.

 

 

 

 

 

[oafcprozac]

Dad had always been a true blue, but fallen out of love with the team through a combination of sacking Jimmy Frizz, stagnation in Division 2 and being unemployed. The fire began to return at the beginning of 86/87 he went to a few games and he was soon hooked again.

 

In the mean time I'd begun to become interested in football, mainly through the Panini Football '86 collection that was an obsession at my school (Limehurst), Roger Palmer even visited in Junior 2 - although I hadn't a clue who he was a the time!) I watched my first match - highlights of an England v Scotland friendly in Spring '86. The first full game I watched was the '86 Cup Final and by the time the World Cup in Mexico came along I was becoming a full-fledged football fan. Around that time I changed schools and went to St. Patrick's, my classmates were obsessed with football and that was it I was hooked.

 

It took me weeks to convince my dad to take me to a Latics match, on 22nd November 1986 he relented. The opposition were Crystal Palace, it was a cold day and I remember a wall of senses hitting me as we took our place up on the terrace, the smell of coffee and bovril mixed in with tobacco and stale pies. The crackly PA system belting out Mouldy Old Dough, the chanting of the crowd - which to my young ears was the loudest thing i'd ever heard! The brightness of that wonderful Spall kit and how I concentrated as I read the programme. We scored early through Tommy Wright and a hero in my eyes was born. We left after after about 75 minutes as my 6 year old brother was frozen stiff - I was cold but loving every minute of it and didn't want to go. Two weeks later I was back. Due to domestic circumstances I only managed 6 games that first season and only 1 game the year after. However, the obsession took hold - particularly when my Grandma's friend gave me a little battery operated radio and for three hours every Saturday I would listen to David Oates on Radio Manchester - back in the days when their coverage was much fairer. Those days if anything strengthened my resolve as a Latics Fan. As I rarely saw the team the club and players had an aura about them. Now I can go whenever I want that magic has gone and there's an over-familiarity between me and my team.

 

Dad says the night he knew I was forever to be a Latic was the night of the Littlewoods Cup 3rd Round Replay against Everton in November 1988, the crowd was massive in comparison to our usual attendances and I had to take a position clinging to the Chaddy Fence. I was a filthy night with persisitent rain falling from well before kick off. I was frozen solid but loved every minute of the game even though we lost 2-0. Dad knew that was it - I was beyond hope. I was 11!

Edited October 8, 2009 by oafcprozac

[oafc0000]

Well its pretty clear where the marketing needs to be aimed for the future of the club...

 

Free seats for kids anyone ?

[rudemedic]

My first game was in 1988 we lost to Chelsea in the old division 2 (try telling that to some new Chelsea fans) 4-1. A side note I met one of the Chelsea players a few years later in a jacuzzi in Wales and he did seem genuinely apologetic that was my first game. I was taken along by my Dad and I don't think it was co-incindence I started school a few weeks prior.

 

I'm not sure when I got the Oldham bug- as I had been an Oldham/City/Liverpool fan for a bit after that, but I think I started calling Oldham my team probably about 90 minutes after Roger Palmer nipped in front of Neville Southhall (cut knees and all) to put us in front against Everton (who were the third best team in the country the year before).

 

As to Oldham players visiting my school- the closest I got was David Cross as his lad was the year above me. But then again going to school in Bury where one of the senior teachers was some relation to the Bury chairman (probably his wife) I wasn't likely to see any Oldham players.

[Diego_Sideburns]

...Roger Palmer nipped in front of Neville Southhall (cut knees and all) to put us in front against Everton (who were the third best team in the country the year before).

 

Neville Southall wasn't taking chances in such a crucial match, so he arrived early to get used to the plastic pitch before the game. His only problem was that he spent all his preparatory time and played in the match......without wearing his track suit bottom. I imagine that when sand gets into cut kees it can be bloody painful.

 

Happy days!

[Diego_Sideburns]

I remember me and my mate being picked up at a bustop on Broadway by Ken Bates in his Rolls Royce!!

 

Good deed or kerb crawling?

[Latics_Fanatic]

First Game : Vs Blackpool '01

Got Hooked straight away

 

& A few years ago Gareth Owen & Will Haining came to my primary school to do a talk on healthy eating. Really it turned into a talk about Latics

[yarddogs]

i remember gary hoolickon coming into my primary school and me putting my hand up for tickets,1983 brighton at home lost 3 nil,been going ever since,like has been mentioned before we need to get latics players back into schools selling the club.

[oafcprozac]

i remember gary hoolickon coming into my primary school and me putting my hand up for tickets,1983 brighton at home lost 3 nil,been going ever since,like has been mentioned before we need to get latics players back into schools selling the club.

 

Many of the players under the previous regime just weren't interested - personally I think it should be stipulated in their contracts, especially Gregan's as Captain.

 

Get Pav into the schools around the Werneth, Coppice and Hathershaw areas - that's where the Polish community traditionally live. Take the bull by the horns and generate interest.

Edited October 8, 2009 by oafcprozac

[rodger er]

Wimbledon beat them 6-2 at home think it was in the prem years (might have been a cup game) then went home and watched it on MOTD. remember nick henry scoring a great goal what didnt look as good on telly

I was still in junior school me dad took me and made me and my bro walk from the junction pub on primrose bank to bp

Edited October 8, 2009 by rodger er

[rudemedic]

Wimbledon beat them 6-2 at home think it was in the prem years (might have been a cup game) then went home and watched it on MOTD. remember nick henry scoring a great goal what didnt look as good on telly

I was still in junior school me dad took me and made me and my bro walk from the junction pub on primrose bank to bp

 

That was in the league and it was supposed to be one of the games Fash (and the goalie- Segers) threw for money. Considering Fash scored an own goal and Segers gifted us one I'm not surprised.