20 Years watching Latics

[Latics and England]

Twenty years ago today my life changed. As an 11 year old football mad kid, the question from a neighbour was only ever going to have one answer. “Of course I want you to take me to Boundary Park to see a game”.

 

But the thing was, I wasn’t an Oldham fan. Far from it! Everything I owned had the Liverpool badge on it somewhere. For as long as I could remember, I’d listened to every Liverpool game on the radio and watched whenever they were on TV. My first ever football match had been a year or two before seeing Liverpool draw 1-1 at Old Trafford and then my parents had taken me to Anfield to watch them play Sheffield Wednesday.

 

My mum and dad weren’t football fans though and they were never going to take me to Anfield on a regular basis but that didn’t matter as I was happy as things were. My granddad on the other hand, was a football fan and would always tell me that football’s about supporting your local team, and more important than that, it’s about going to games. I’d not got the bug for going though. The game at Old Trafford was a great experience but I’d sat there quietly trying not to make it obvious that I wasn’t a United fan and I can’t even remember too much about the game at Anfield.

 

That first game at Boundary Park though, was different. I sat on the fence at the front of the Chaddy End and was transfixed with the whole event. The atmosphere was amazing and when Andy Ritchie stuck in a penalty to give Latics a one-all draw with Newcastle, I certainly wasn’t wondering how Liverpool were getting on.

 

I was lucky I guess. This was the ‘Team from a Town of Chimneys’ season and we were to go on to make the League Cup final and the FA Cup semi-final. That must have made a massive difference to hooking me in.

 

After that first game, I probably went to another seven or eight games that season but if I could, I’d have gone to every one. The bug had bitten and the Liverpool stuff was relegated to the back of the cupboard. I missed most of the big cup nights because I wasn’t allowed to go to midweek games but I was allowed to sit up and listen to them. It’s hard to imagine now, but just about every game was live on the radio. I suppose it is also difficult to imagine for some that this was the only way to find out how your team was getting on, other than watching teletext.

 

Although I missed many of the big games, I didn’t miss the biggest. Going down to Wembley on the Oldham Express, a specially chartered train from Mumps was an amazing experience. I look back on it and in many ways wish it had come a few years later so I appreciated it more but even for a newbie like me, seeing half of Wembley decked out in ‘Royle blue’ was fantastic. My inexperience also meant that I didn’t feel the pain. I enjoyed every minute of that day. The defeat didn’t matter; it was all about the atmosphere. I wish I could say the same today.

 

I think this was the event that also hooked my parents and they were more than happy to take me to Bradford for the last match of the season, my first proper away game.

 

I realised just how much Latics now meant to me as the new season started. We were away on holiday but I just wanted to be at Molyneux. These days, you could whip out your mobile phone, bring up the internet and get live updates on how your team is getting on. Back then, it wasn’t that straight forward. I can’t remember where we were, possibly the old Yugoslavia, but I do remember standing in the hotel reception waiting for people to arrive on the first flight that would have departed Manchester after 5pm on the Saturday. I also remember asking someone whether they knew any football scores. “Which do you want to know?” the bloke said. “Any,” I replied, thinking he was unlikely to know too many from Division 2 (that’d be the Championship for any kids reading). “Well, I only know one score, because only one game matters. Oldham won 3-2” he beamed. Well, what were the odds?

 

This was the start of the promotion season and what a season. It’s sad to see the state of the club with its dwindling crowds when I think back to that time. Sell out gates, away games where teams had to open up extra areas to house us, Junior Latics meetings that sold out the Queen Elizabeth Hall the day that tickets were released. The highlight of the season was, of course, the Redfern penalty against Sheff Wednesday but there were so many amazing moments. The penultimate home game against Boro when they were trying to film part of a TV series. Some bloke on the PA telling the fans what they were supposed to sing for this scene and every time they started to roll the cameras, the Chaddy bouncing up and down singing “We are going up”.

 

The slowest ever own goal that gave us a point at home to Newcastle, ‘One Mrs Morley’, 3 home games just before Christmas where we couldn’t stop scoring, The win at Ipswich to take us up – one of my few huge footballing regrets, as I didn’t go. Roger Palmer’s testimonial with the Dodger knocking a couple in and being held aloft as the whole pitch turned into a sea of blue and white.

 

The Premier League/Old Division One days were the pinnacle of what we achieved but I don’t think they quite lived up to that 90/91 season. Again, I do feel that it probably didn’t mean as much to me as it should have done because I’d only known us as a successful club but at the time it seemed to mean everything. I did two years as ball boy, in the two Premier League years and got my chance to be mascot when we won at Villa Park in 93/94.

 

I think some of the best memories were, being invited, as a ball boy, to join the team in the lap of honour by Big Joe when we beat Southampton to stay up, Graeme Sharp’s free kick at Highbury, winning at Maine Road. My dad queuing for 9 hours to get us season tickets. That win over United and being berated by Peter Schmeichal because I wouldn’t give him the ball back with a couple of minutes to go. Beating Leeds the year they won the league (Cantona’s debut). “The Premier League is upside down…” Panini albums featuring Latics players. Feed The Bear at Burnden Park. Ian Marshall’s screamer against Notts County to make it 4-3. The big flag in it’s hey day. Asking for Psycho on the back of my shirt in Latique and the girl writing down ‘Sico’.

 

The memories are not all good though. I’m sure like most of us that were there, that goal at Wembley still hurts, the subsequent relegation was so painful at the time, too. What a day at Norwich when we went down though. Latics fans at their best.

 

I was convinced we’d bounce back up and would have thought that you were mad if you’d have tried to convince me in the summer of 1994 that we would still be in decline as we entered 2010.

 

Football-wise, the next three years were depressing. It was time for Joe to leave when he did but it was a thankless task for any successor and Graeme Sharp was never up to it. He was always up against it because the fans wanted Ritchie, not him. Away from the actual football, however, this was probably my favourite time as a Latics fan. The Independent Supporters Club provided a unity amongst a large group of fans that doesn’t exist today. Socials were organised often and the coach was always full. It was a real family feeling with the same group travelling together to every match. A special mention should go to John Stanley who did a wonderful job of running the association and his death late last year leaves him sadly missed.

 

I was doing pretty much every game by now but I’m struggling to think of many that stood out. Sean McCarthy’s hat-trick at Meadow Lane was one. I didn’t think we’d ever get three points there but after Super Sean’s triple, it became something of a lucky ground. I think the 4-0 hammering of Birmingham when Kevin Francis became a hero was also around now and of course we had our traditional beating of City in the relegation year of 96/97, only at home for a change. I recall the silencing of Blue Moon when Kinkladze missed a penalty.

 

96/97 was the last year before I went to Uni and knowing it would probably be my last chance, I did every game. Trust me to pick a relegation season. That win against City aside, there wasn’t much to cheer. ‘Ormandroyd is a football genius’ as he scored to grab us a much needed win at Molyneux and a 5-1 win at home to Swindon when I took my future wife to her first match are other happy memories. I’ve just looked up that Swindon match… Kelly, Duxbury, Serrant, Snodin, Rickers, Fleming, Rush, Ritchie, Richardson, Barlow, Reid. Subs: Graham, McCarthy, Hodgson. Not a bad side. How did we go down?

 

Then we got on to 13 years of League one football. It’s been far from boring. 13 managers, a couple of flirtations with the play-offs, Stop The Rot, the cup runs, Administration, not knowing whether you’ll have a team to support in the new season, waiting for City to sell Micah Richards.

 

That first season in this league was real doom and gloom and for all the wrong reasons, I think the game that sticks in the mind has to be the 1-0 home defeat to Wycombe which led to the larges demonstration I’ve ever seen at BP. “Stand up if you’re ******* bored” rung out from the Chaddy before a group of several hundred marched round to the main entrance demanding a change in ownership. Looking back on this with the benefit of hindsight, I think we were right. Clearly when the club looked likely to fold a few years later it appeared to be folly but we were going nowhere under the Lees-Jones stewardship. Some would argue that we’ve gone nowhere since but I think that TTA have been more forward thinking than they ever were.

 

Protests continued as nothing improved. Stop the Rot meetings in Oldham town centre in the week and mass leafleting on match days. Danny Standring sat on the centre spot! At the same time, the bright side was that we got to visit a whole load of new grounds and we also got to make the most of the annual trip to the Isle of Man. How many pints…

 

The Boxing Day game at Chesterfield where it rained, and rained, and rained, the double over Wigan in 2000, their first home and first away defeats of the season. FA Cup games against true minnows. Oh, and we still beat City.

 

Then, out of the gloom came our apparent white knight, Mr Christopher Moore. It is easy to look at this period with hindsight but I’ve got to be fair. The Chris Moore years were brilliant. When he took over in 2001, we were going nowhere. The 2001/2 season was good and the year after was something really special. We played some fantastic football under Dowie and we really should have gone up that second season.

 

 

I’ve not totally forgiven the 7-1 at home to Cardiff though.

 

4-0 home wins became the standard and we were awesome away from home for most of the 02/03 season. We had the cup run too. Unfortunately I missed the big one at West Ham but when you think that we turned over a team that included David James, Joe Cole and Jermaine Defoe, it tells you so much. I still think that the injury to Pogs was one of the reasons we didn’t go up so we can blame it on Adrian Littlejohn.

 

The play-off game at Loftus Road is another of those memories that will always be with me. The pub beforehand was jumping and to see how many had made the trip from Oldham for a midweek game was brilliant. I also remember Chris Moore in the pub telling us all that it didn’t matter whether we won or not because if it went wrong, he’d ensure we’d go up the season after. ****.

 

We started that following season without a hope, but with a club and for that I will be eternally grateful to Sean Jarvis and Neil Joy. Not to mention Alan Hardy, the one true constant throughout my twenty years.

 

My memories of the 2003/4 pre-season are so mixed. We really didn’t know from one week to the next whether there would be a club to support but somehow we were getting by. Ernie’s debut at Rochdale was amazing and then I’m sure we beat Blackburn at home. The hardest shot in the world, ever, stands out from Lord Kangana too. It that had hit someone in the Chaddy end, it would have killed them.

 

Staying up that season was an achievement up there with any others over the last two decades and in the end we did it comfortably. The jubilation surrounding the arrival of The Three Amigos was great but the reaction of the players on Celebration Sunday was something else. Grimsby were no doubt very poor that day but it is one of the most complete performances I have ever seen from a Latics side. I hope Adam Griffin still dines out on that goal he scored because he deserves to.

 

The season after was another one of struggle but, and I’m sure there is a trend here somewhere, we did manage to beat City in the FA Cup. Super Scotty. Other than that it wasn’t a season to live long in the memory, other than for the influx of AFC Wimbledon fans who arrived for the final game of the season hoping we would stay up at the expense of MK Dons. I guess the other story of the season was the LDV Trophy with us having our first ever run in the competition. Typical Latics though to make it to the Northern final and then collapse at home against a team below us in the league.

 

There’s not much to say about the late 2000s, there were some great performances and there were some shocking performances. We had our second go at the play-offs in ‘07 with the 5-0 at home to Forest and the 1-1 at Scunthorpe probably being the highlights. I think that goal going in at Scunny would have to be right up there with my best moments as a Latics fan. As we know, though, it wasn’t to be and I think that Blackpool probably deserved to beat us in the play-offs. We were arguably the better team at their place but they battered us at BP.

 

That brings us up to the last few years where things have got rather mundane. At times, it’s increasingly difficult to see us leaving this league at either end. We might look like pushing for promotion at times but it feels like I’ve seen it too many times before and I really think we are just about to strong to get sucked into an unwinable relegation battle. I guess that’s the cynicism that you get after all these years but deep down, I don’t believe it. Every game is winnable and maybe, just maybe…

 

So, twenty years on, do I have any regrets? Of course I do. I’ve no idea how many games I’ve been to or how much I’ve spent but there have been plenty of times I’ve stood there thinking ‘never again’. I’ve always been back the week after though because the beauty is that you just never know what’s going to happen. I’ll reuse a phrase I used to use years ago… There’s only one thing worse than watching Latics, not watching them. When we’re bad, you sit there wondering why you do it, but when you miss a game, that’s real agony, trying to listen to it, or catch up on the internet, not 100% sure what’s going on.

 

For all the lows, there have been some amazing highs that well and truly outweigh them. Football may well not be a matter of life and death and I would be lying if I said that it hasn’t become less important in my life over time but it still take up much more of my time than is healthy. Things do change, but I’ve made so many mates through Oldham Athletic, including the best man at my wedding. What else would I rather do on a Saturday afternoon – absolutely nothing. It beats being dragged round the shops every time.

 

I’ve not been to a game now for over a month because of postponements and God, it’s boring. Tranmere tonight and I can’t wait.

 

[andy_b_100]

Brilliant thread opener

 

 

Well mate I have had just 5 years longer than yourself ... saw the season before the first play off season... Some great highs .. some lows ..... Paying half to get in at half time (because of work.. who eventually gave in and give me Saturday off ) after several illnesses and some fabulous acting. I even let a whole packet of cornflakes (only a small one) disolve in my mouth before fiening projectile vomiting .. only to be sent home sick .. whilst right outside was a van waiting to take me to Sheffield Utd away ... we won 0-5 ... Andy Lineghan scoring too. Sheff Utd fans were brilliant in defeat.

 

Days like that are long gone now.... I miss more and more games.. yet it still is like home at BP and as apathy screams I remain positive that I will still give a damn in another 10 years !!!

[Diego_Sideburns]

There’s only one thing worse than watching Latics, not watching them.

 

That was a great read!

 

Sorry to hear of the death of John Stanley. I remember a great night in the Clayton Arms with some lads over from Ireland, when a match had been postponed at the last minute, and John swapping a Latics/Eintracht scarf for a Shamrock Rovers shirt.

 

R.I.P. John. A minute's applause tonight would be appropriate.

[z3spacial]

A great read, some of which brought me goosebumps - but it reads like an epitaph

[Diego_Sideburns]

A great read, some of which brought me goosebumps - but it reads like an epitaph

 

Only if your glass is half empty.

[ghostofcecere]

Great read, a reminder to us all to

[andyb]

Great read Mark spot on. I remember being a young kid with you playing footy on the street and getting interested in Latics around the same time. Great memories and great times, like you i wish it could have come a few seasons later so i would have appreciated it a bit more, but not a bad way to gain your football education in the early days

[meatpie]

There’s not much to say about the late 2000s, there were some great performances and there were some shocking performances. We had our second go at the play-offs in ‘07 with the 5-0 at home to Forest and the 1-1 at Scunthorpe probably being the highlights. I think that goal going in at Scunny would have to be right up there with my best moments as a Latics fan. As we know, though, it wasn’t to be and I think that Blackpool probably deserved to beat us in the play-offs. We were arguably the better team at their place but they battered us at BP.

 

Great post mate. I haved shared most of those experiences with you.

 

Loved your comment about the Scunthorpe 1-1 away game. I completely lost it for about 60 seconds when we equalised, ran from right at the back of the stand to the front hugging anyone and everyone. One of those moments that make it all worthwhile.

 

Looking forward to tonight - most optimistic than I have felt for ages. Not sure exactly why but optimistic all the same. Come on you blues.....................

 

[oafcprozac]

Twenty years ago today my life changed. As an 11 year old football mad kid, the question from a neighbour was only ever going to have one answer. “Of course I want you to take me to Boundary Park to see a game”.

 

But the thing was, I wasn’t an Oldham fan. Far from it! Everything I owned had the Liverpool badge on it somewhere. For as long as I could remember, I’d listened to every Liverpool game on the radio and watched whenever they were on TV. My first ever football match had been a year or two before seeing Liverpool draw 1-1 at Old Trafford and then my parents had taken me to Anfield to watch them play Sheffield Wednesday.

 

My mum and dad weren’t football fans though and they were never going to take me to Anfield on a regular basis but that didn’t matter as I was happy as things were. My granddad on the other hand, was a football fan and would always tell me that football’s about supporting your local team, and more important than that, it’s about going to games. I’d not got the bug for going though. The game at Old Trafford was a great experience but I’d sat there quietly trying not to make it obvious that I wasn’t a United fan and I can’t even remember too much about the game at Anfield.

 

That first game at Boundary Park though, was different. I sat on the fence at the front of the Chaddy End and was transfixed with the whole event. The atmosphere was amazing and when Andy Ritchie stuck in a penalty to give Latics a one-all draw with Newcastle, (it was a glancing header from a Denis Irwin cross!) I certainly wasn’t wondering how Liverpool were getting on.

 

I was lucky I guess. This was the ‘Team from a Town of Chimneys’ season and we were to go on to make the League Cup final and the FA Cup semi-final. That must have made a massive difference to hooking me in.

 

After that first game, I probably went to another seven or eight games that season but if I could, I’d have gone to every one. The bug had bitten and the Liverpool stuff was relegated to the back of the cupboard. I missed most of the big cup nights because I wasn’t allowed to go to midweek games but I was allowed to sit up and listen to them. It’s hard to imagine now, but just about every game was live on the radio. I suppose it is also difficult to imagine for some that this was the only way to find out how your team was getting on, other than watching teletext. (Same here mate, my parents divorced when I was very young so only really started going week in week out from 90-91 onwards but still managed 9 games in 89-90 including Everton 2-2, The first Semi-Final (could see sod all at the back of the Kippax aand Wembley, oh and the 4,940 game v Plymouth our first win of the season!)

 

Although I missed many of the big games, I didn’t miss the biggest. Going down to Wembley on the Oldham Express, a specially chartered train from Mumps was an amazing experience. I look back on it and in many ways wish it had come a few years later so I appreciated it more but even for a newbie like me, seeing half of Wembley decked out in ‘Royle blue’ was fantastic. My inexperience also meant that I didn’t feel the pain. I enjoyed every minute of that day. The defeat didn’t matter; it was all about the atmosphere. I wish I could say the same today.

 

I think this was the event that also hooked my parents and they were more than happy to take me to Bradford for the last match of the season, my first proper away game.

 

I realised just how much Latics now meant to me as the new season started. We were away on holiday but I just wanted to be at Molyneux. These days, you could whip out your mobile phone, bring up the internet and get live updates on how your team is getting on. Back then, it wasn’t that straight forward. I can’t remember where we were, possibly the old Yugoslavia, but I do remember standing in the hotel reception waiting for people to arrive on the first flight that would have departed Manchester after 5pm on the Saturday. I also remember asking someone whether they knew any football scores. “Which do you want to know?” the bloke said. “Any,” I replied, thinking he was unlikely to know too many from Division 2 (that’d be the Championship for any kids reading). “Well, I only know one score, because only one game matters. Oldham won 3-2” he beamed. Well, what were the odds?

 

This was the start of the promotion season and what a season. It’s sad to see the state of the club with its dwindling crowds when I think back to that time. Sell out gates, away games where teams had to open up extra areas to house us, Junior Latics meetings that sold out the Queen Elizabeth Hall the day that tickets were released. The highlight of the season was, of course, the Redfern penalty against Sheff Wednesday but there were so many amazing moments. The penultimate home game against Boro when they were trying to film part of a TV series. Some bloke on the PA telling the fans what they were supposed to sing for this scene and every time they started to roll the cameras, the Chaddy bouncing up and down singing “We are going up”. (They wanted us to sing 'What's New' the title of their regional magazine programme) _ Chaddy End were also singing "Get yer tits out..." To co-presenter Becky Want! Tremndous night, I'd stupidly thought the title had gone and as mny paper round money could only stretch to two out of three home games I elected for 'Boro and Roger Palmer's testomonial, so I had to make do with Stuart Pike as Redders buried THAT pen!

 

The slowest ever own goal that gave us a point at home to Newcastle, ‘One Mrs Morley’, 3 (4 home games - 4-1, 6-1, 4-1 & 5-3) home games just before Christmas where we couldn’t stop scoring, The win at Ipswich to take us up – one of my few huge footballing regrets, as I didn’t go. Roger Palmer’s testimonial with the Dodger knocking a couple in and being held aloft as the whole pitch turned into a sea of blue and white. (Palmer scored one mate, Jobbo and Marshall scored the others, but typical his strike was the third putting us 3-1 up and proved to be decisive in a 3-2 win. awesome night and although I missed the Sheff wed game, it was a night to remember with a 15,000+ crowd)

 

The Premier League/Old Division One days were the pinnacle of what we achieved but I don’t think they quite lived up to that 90/91 season. Again, I do feel that it probably didn’t mean as much to me as it should have done because I’d only known us as a successful club but at the time it seemed to mean everything. I did two years as ball boy, in the two Premier League years and got my chance to be mascot when we won at Villa Park in 93/94.

 

I think some of the best memories were, being invited, as a ball boy, to join the team in the lap of honour by Big Joe when we beat Southampton to stay up, Graeme Sharp’s free kick at Highbury, winning at Maine Road. My dad queuing for 9 hours to get us season tickets. That win over United and being berated by Peter Schmeichal because I wouldn’t give him the ball back with a couple of minutes to go. Beating Leeds the year they won the league (Cantona’s debut). “The Premier League is upside down…” Panini albums featuring Latics players. Feed The Bear at Burnden Park. Ian Marshall’s screamer against Notts County to make it 4-3. The big flag in it’s hey day. Asking for Psycho on the back of my shirt in Latique and the girl writing down ‘Sico’.

 

The memories are not all good though. I’m sure like most of us that were there, that goal at Wembley still hurts, the subsequent relegation was so painful at the time, too. What a day at Norwich when we went down though. Latics fans at their best.

 

I was convinced we’d bounce back up and would have thought that you were mad if you’d have tried to convince me in the summer of 1994 that we would still be in decline as we entered 2010.

 

Football-wise, the next three years were depressing. It was time for Joe to leave when he did but it was a thankless task for any successor and Graeme Sharp was never up to it. He was always up against it because the fans wanted Ritchie, not him. Away from the actual football, however, this was probably my favourite time as a Latics fan. The Independent Supporters Club provided a unity amongst a large group of fans that doesn’t exist today. Socials were organised often and the coach was always full. It was a real family feeling with the same group travelling together to every match. A special mention should go to John Stanley who did a wonderful job of running the association and his death late last year leaves him sadly missed. (Ditto, RIP John, good lad he was)

 

I was doing pretty much every game by now but I’m struggling to think of many that stood out. Sean McCarthy’s hat-trick at Meadow Lane was one. I didn’t think we’d ever get three points there but after Super Sean’s triple, it became something of a lucky ground. I think the 4-0 hammering of Birmingham when Kevin Francis became a hero was also around now and of course we had our traditional beating of City in the relegation year of 96/97, only at home for a change. I recall the silencing of Blue Moon when Kinkladze missed a penalty.

 

96/97 was the last year before I went to Uni and knowing it would probably be my last chance, I did every game. Trust me to pick a relegation season. That win against City aside, there wasn’t much to cheer. ‘Ormandroyd is a football genius’ as he scored to grab us a much needed win at Molyneux and a 5-1 win at home to Swindon when I took my future wife to her first match are other happy memories. I’ve just looked up that Swindon match… Kelly, Duxbury, Serrant, Snodin, Rickers, Fleming, Rush, Ritchie, Richardson, Barlow, Reid. Subs: Graham, McCarthy, Hodgson. Not a bad side. How did we go down?

 

Then we got on to 13 years of League one football. It’s been far from boring. 13 managers, a couple of flirtations with the play-offs, Stop The Rot, the cup runs, Administration, not knowing whether you’ll have a team to support in the new season, waiting for City to sell Micah Richards.

 

That first season in this league was real doom and gloom and for all the wrong reasons, I think the game that sticks in the mind has to be the 1-0 home defeat to Wycombe which led to the larges demonstration I’ve ever seen at BP. “Stand up if you’re ******* bored” rung out from the Chaddy before a group of several hundred marched round to the main entrance demanding a change in ownership. Looking back on this with the benefit of hindsight, I think we were right. Clearly when the club looked likely to fold a few years later it appeared to be folly but we were going nowhere under the Lees-Jones stewardship. Some would argue that we’ve gone nowhere since but I think that TTA have been more forward thinking than they ever were.

 

Protests continued as nothing improved. Stop the Rot meetings in Oldham town centre in the week and mass leafleting on match days. Danny Standring sat on the centre spot! At the same time, the bright side was that we got to visit a whole load of new grounds and we also got to make the most of the annual trip to the Isle of Man. How many pints…

 

The Boxing Day game at Chesterfield where it rained, and rained, and rained, the double over Wigan in 2000, their first home and first away defeats of the season. FA Cup games against true minnows. Oh, and we still beat City.

 

Then, out of the gloom came our apparent white knight, Mr Christopher Moore. It is easy to look at this period with hindsight but I’ve got to be fair. The Chris Moore years were brilliant. When he took over in 2001, we were going nowhere. The 2001/2 season was good and the year after was something really special. We played some fantastic football under Dowie and we really should have gone up that second season.

 

 

I’ve not totally forgiven the 7-1 at home to Cardiff though.

 

4-0 home wins became the standard and we were awesome away from home for most of the 02/03 season. We had the cup run too. Unfortunately I missed the big one at West Ham but when you think that we turned over a team that included David James, Joe Cole and Jermaine Defoe, it tells you so much. I still think that the injury to Pogs was one of the reasons we didn’t go up so we can blame it on Adrian Littlejohn.

 

The play-off game at Loftus Road is another of those memories that will always be with me. The pub beforehand was jumping and to see how many had made the trip from Oldham for a midweek game was brilliant. I also remember Chris Moore in the pub telling us all that it didn’t matter whether we won or not because if it went wrong, he’d ensure we’d go up the season after. ****.

 

We started that following season without a hope, but with a club and for that I will be eternally grateful to Sean Jarvis and Neil Joy. Not to mention Alan Hardy, the one true constant throughout my twenty years.

 

My memories of the 2003/4 pre-season are so mixed. We really didn’t know from one week to the next whether there would be a club to support but somehow we were getting by. Ernie’s debut at Rochdale was amazing and then I’m sure we beat Blackburn at home. The hardest shot in the world, ever, stands out from Lord Kangana too. It that had hit someone in the Chaddy end, it would have killed them.

 

Staying up that season was an achievement up there with any others over the last two decades and in the end we did it comfortably. The jubilation surrounding the arrival of The Three Amigos was great but the reaction of the players on Celebration Sunday was something else. Grimsby were no doubt very poor that day but it is one of the most complete performances I have ever seen from a Latics side. I hope Adam Griffin still dines out on that goal he scored because he deserves to.

 

The season after was another one of struggle but, and I’m sure there is a trend here somewhere, we did manage to beat City in the FA Cup. Super Scotty. Other than that it wasn’t a season to live long in the memory, other than for the influx of AFC Wimbledon fans who arrived for the final game of the season hoping we would stay up at the expense of MK Dons. I guess the other story of the season was the LDV Trophy with us having our first ever run in the competition. Typical Latics though to make it to the Northern final and then collapse at home against a team below us in the league.

 

There’s not much to say about the late 2000s, there were some great performances and there were some shocking performances. We had our second go at the play-offs in ‘07 with the 5-0 at home to Forest and the 1-1 at Scunthorpe probably being the highlights. I think that goal going in at Scunny would have to be right up there with my best moments as a Latics fan. As we know, though, it wasn’t to be and I think that Blackpool probably deserved to beat us in the play-offs. We were arguably the better team at their place but they battered us at BP.

 

That brings us up to the last few years where things have got rather mundane. At times, it’s increasingly difficult to see us leaving this league at either end. We might look like pushing for promotion at times but it feels like I’ve seen it too many times before and I really think we are just about to strong to get sucked into an unwinable relegation battle. I guess that’s the cynicism that you get after all these years but deep down, I don’t believe it. Every game is winnable and maybe, just maybe…

 

So, twenty years on, do I have any regrets? Of course I do. I’ve no idea how many games I’ve been to or how much I’ve spent but there have been plenty of times I’ve stood there thinking ‘never again’. I’ve always been back the week after though because the beauty is that you just never know what’s going to happen. I’ll reuse a phrase I used to use years ago… There’s only one thing worse than watching Latics, not watching them. When we’re bad, you sit there wondering why you do it, but when you miss a game, that’s real agony, trying to listen to it, or catch up on the internet, not 100% sure what’s going on.

 

For all the lows, there have been some amazing highs that well and truly outweigh them. Football may well not be a matter of life and death and I would be lying if I said that it hasn’t become less important in my life over time but it still take up much more of my time than is healthy. Things do change, but I’ve made so many mates through Oldham Athletic, including the best man at my wedding. What else would I rather do on a Saturday afternoon – absolutely nothing. It beats being dragged round the shops every time.

 

I’ve not been to a game now for over a month because of postponements and God, it’s boring. Tranmere tonight and I can’t wait. (Same here! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, even if we are :censored:e! It's our :censored:e!)

 

Hope my corrections have not spoilt your memories too much - Part IV of my review of 89/90 to follow soon!

 

So what you're saying Mark is that you're a glory hunter By Christ have you paid a price for those fleeting glimpses of glory! How ironic you started supporting Latics the year Liverpool last won the league title. Ronnie Rosenthal or Stitch?

 

I started an Everton fan, Liverpool beat them in the '86 cup final, I was captivated by the World Cup in Mexico and I had my first hero in Gary Lineker - I supported Liverpool by the time the Charity Shield had come round and Ian Rush was my new hero (met him in the IOM when he signed for Wrexham in '98 - what an ignorant tosser - never meet your childhood heroes!) However, my dad a lifelong Latics fan who through unemployment and disaffection had grown apart from Latics suddenly had his interest reinvigorated with the great start to the 86/87 season, he went to a couple of Friday night games v Millwall and Portsmouth and the bug was back. By November I was mithering like mad to go to a game, he finally relented on 22nd November 1986, it was bloody freezing but I loved every minute and suddenly I had another hero - Thomas Elliot Wright! Now I've met Tommy a few times and he's a great lad! Dad said it took him another two years to realise I was a true blue, it was during my first night match when I was 11 years old in 1988. We were playing everton in a Littlewoods Cup replay, the Chaddyn was rammed so I was clinging to the fence for dear life - it lashed down for 90 minutes, I was drenched but I didn't care, I was watching my team pit their wits against and more than match the cream of English football...

 

25th season next season and that's the project I've decided to focus on...

[GlossopLatic]

Brilliant write up Latics and England

 

Like you this year sees me celebrating if thats the word 20 years of being an Oldham Fan. In a way our generation those in their mid to late 20's early 30's were lucky in the sense that we grew up with genuine heroes to worship it was much easier getting into all things Latics in 1990 than it is for Kids today, credit to those under 25 who haven't seen all the success that we saw back then allthough its not all been a disaster their have been good moments in their aswell. You did miss out the Everton cup game which was certainly one of my favourite days being an Oldham Fan and does deserve a special mention as it was a special day. Apart from that as I said Brilliant.

[Diego_Sideburns]

... the Everton cup game which was certainly one of my favourite days being an Oldham Fan and does deserve a special mention as it was a special day.

 

The best result in the Club's history in terms of the number of places separating the two clubs. The 'pinch me season' and 'glory years', which younger fans regret missing, were when Latics were in the second or top tier. If you witnessed that victory at Goodison you are part of a result which may never be bettered.