What is Oldham Athletic to you?

[oafcprozac]

Emotions understandably are running high at the moment, but just what is Oldham Athletic to you?

 

A football team?

 

A sports club?

 

An identity?

 

A town?

 

A social event?

 

For me it's my football team, I support the team, not the town and not the ground…the ground was important to me, but seeing it in the state it is I couldn't really care less...

Edited February 4, 2011 by oafcprozac

[Macca]

The vast majority of OAFC fans are fans because they are from Oldham. That's the link no matter how much you say it isn't.

[oafcprozac]

The vast majority of OAFC fans are fans because they are from Oldham. That's the link no matter how much you say it isn't.

 

Maybe so, but that's not the question i'm asking….

[Scapegoat]

I havent lived in the town for 17 years but have kept the season ticket and travel to games.

 

When people ask why do I support them I joke I'm a glory hunter - and they say I am from the town originally, why else do people support lower league football? Perhaps parental influence if they were from the town originally?

[RobOAFC]

Emotions understandably are running high at the moment, but just what is Oldham Athletic to you?

 

A football team?

 

A sports club?

 

An identity?

 

A town?

 

A social event?

 

For me it's my football team, I support the team, not the town and not the ground…the ground was important to me, but seeing it in the state it is I couldn't really care less...

Football team. However i think it is wrong to move the club outside of the Oldham Borough. 115 year history within the town, to move this outside the town because the owners want a 30 acre site, isn't a good excuse to get rid of that history. The club can survive on a smaller site, that would be available within the Oldham Borough. The owners just need to scale down their ambitions. Whats more attractive to a potential buyer - a football club sharing a new ground with another football club, or a football club which has its own new stadium?

Incidentally, how many acres is it where Curzon play??

[Takemeanywhere]

For me, it's "homemade steak pie with chips, peas and gravy please" in Butterworths chippy with my dad (Levers when he comes over nowadays, with Butterworths gone). It's the walk to the ground, listening to his stories of players of old - Johnstone, Lister, Frizzell.. It's the fact that, in the same way my dad first took me, his dad first took him. It's the walk back after the game discussing what we've just seen. It's 'Come on Oldham'. It's those who are no longer here (R.I.P. Paul Smith) and those who remain. It's the glory of the past and the hope for the future. It's Oldham Athletic because it's Oldham.

 

The link between town and club is everything to me, which is why, well, my signature says what it does.

[cmon_oldham]

It's a football club for me, a football club that my dad first took me too when I was six years old. I will be thirty one this year and have been too most home games and plenty away in that time. For me personally I would watch latics in Rochdale or Tameside, it wouldnt be ideal but I would still go WHY??? because I want to be able to take my kids to watch OLDHAM ATHLETIC.

[slurms mckenzie]

I havent lived in the town for 17 years but have kept the season ticket and travel to games.

 

When people ask why do I support them I joke I'm a glory hunter - and they say I am from the town originally, why else do people support lower league football? Perhaps parental influence if they were from the town originally?

 

And you've managed to convert your mrs to come to the games who has no association with Oldham whatsover, which is good work.

[Yard Dog]

Good post, takemeanywhere

 

In answer to the poll question, Oldham Athletic is all of those things - including the town.

[lane5612]

Strange emotions on this, I must admit I've not been going to much recently due to other reasons - wife,kids,lack of money etc..

Can't say I feel that I've missed to much either over the last couple of seasons but the football and structure is promising this season.

 

Today's news feels like I've been told that a life long friend is terminally ill, Not just any friend but one of those life long friends that is always there for you in your hour of need,

Then they tell you that they could of been saved with the right support and cooperation.

You feel sickened by the people who let this happen to your friend,

My friend I will always be there for you,as you have for me. Right up until your final hour.

 

[oafcprozac]

Strange emotions on this, I must admit I've not been going to much recently due to other reasons - wife,kids,lack of money etc..

Can't say I feel that I've missed to much either over the last couple of seasons but the football and structure is promising this season.

 

Today's news feels like I've been told that a life long friend is terminally ill, Not just any friend but one of those life long friends that is always there for you in your hour of need,

Then they tell you that they could of been saved with the right support and cooperation.

You feel sickened by the people who let this happen to your friend,

My friend I will always be there for you,as you have for me. Right up until your final hour.

 

I felt like that in 2003, this time I'm simply angry that we've been denied yet another opportunity of moving forward...

[another fan]

Dont know why I am a Latics fan

 

Something that started in 1961

 

My first child became a "believer" Ten years after she was born my only son was born and he became

one too

 

In the words of my daughter (who by her own admission is married to a plastic red) my grandkids WILL follow OAFC even if I have to drag them kicking and screaming to "our home ground"

[keep_the_faith]

all of the above. you can slate the town, the council, the politics, immigrants, drugs, lowlife scumbags all week long but come saturday /tuesday theres 1 thing that matters, supporting 11 men that are fighting for 3 points for the fans, come matchday im proud to represent oldham fc and oldham town , im struggling this month financially the cars in the garage, im nearly down 2 the bare bones already yet i know ill be at bp for tomorrow and carlisle , and the trips to huddersfield , bristol and milton keynes , why? for the club, for town, the 2 come as 1

[dave_ragg1984]

No offense like, but the poll is a bit rubbish. I can't vote for all 5 options, but:

 

A football team - Well, it is a football team to me. I am from Oldham and it is Oldham's football team, so I support the,

 

A sports club - See above (just one of Oldham's sports clubs, but its biggest)

 

A unique identity - I'm an Oldham fan. Not a City fan, or United, or Rochdale. Oldham.

 

A town - I support them because they are representatives of the town where I was born and where I live.

 

A social event - I go. I go for a pint with my old man and my uncle. See some mates. Watch the game. See more mates. Go for another pint. See more mates.

 

Its all the above, and quite a lot more.

[lancy lad]

The club is everything to me literally. I have turned jobs down because the hours dont fit in with Latics (stupid as it seems). I have a family but Latics ranks only second to them.

 

Never lived in the town. Born in Ashton, live in Stalybridge.........

 

Support them because my dad took me as a kid and his dad took him.

 

A big part of my life and I proudly wear the tattoo of the team badge (again stupidly to some).

[Oafc88]

Club means everything to me too as sad as it might appear to some people. If the club goes under then il happily walk away from Oldham.

[oafc0000]

People are right that its more of a multiple choice question...

 

A football team - yup

A sports club - yup

A unique identity - yup

A town - stopped being this when I left the town.

A social event - stopped being this when my friends stopped going

 

My best memories of the club are from my childhood... Going with my dad

Edited February 4, 2011 by oafc0000

[maddog]

All of the above.

[Lukers1]

All of the above.

 

 

Latics was to me when on my own in Toronto was something that made me smile

 

With all the talk in the kitchen being about the maple leafs or the blue jays results... Id walk away quietly and think, you poor bitches, you never witnesses Reders last min pen or the 6 against West Ham..

 

Thats what I love about my club

[RobOAFC]

Am i allowed to say they provide me with a perfect excuse for not doing homeworks on tuesday night when we're playing?

[qwerty]

Oldham Athletic to me is my get away as i said in another post my partner has lung cancer so i spend everyday with her and the little one.

so for one or 2 days a week OAFC is my freedom a place to chill out forget about everything have a laff and watch some cracking football without all this i would have to listen to a nagging gf muahahaha so were ever we go what ever league il be there with me dad cheering the latics on

[slider1]

I found Latics by being a typical glory hunter, my dad was never into football, as a kid i grew up and followed Liverpool, they were the best and i didn't know better, to be honest i can't ever recall ever really knowing about Oldham Athletic. When i was 11 or 12 my step dad took me to my first ever football match, Bury v Fulham, i think it finished 0-0 all i remember was being bored out of my skull. Then it was around 3 years later, i was 14 or 15, and my mate's sister's boyfriend who was a Forest fan was taking my mate to watch Oldham v Southampton the carling cup replay, at the time i didn't know about Latics previous exploits in the cup that year. My mate asked me i'f i'd go with him, so i did along with two more friends. They took me into the Chaddy and we all stood somewhere at the back, i remember the noise made hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We won the game 2-0 but the result for me wasn't important i was hooked, this was nothing like the Bury v Fulham match i'd witnessed. I think i went to two more games that season, then the season after i went to pretty much every home game and witnessed our promotion to the top flight, all the games i went to were with my two mates, and every moment we talked about football and Oldham.

 

My two mates have now become armchair Man U supporters, yet i stayed true to Latics, so i now either attend games on my own, or i'd take my 16 year old daughter if she fancies it, but lately think she's gone off the football, tomorrow i'll be taking my 5 year old daughter to her first game.

Edited February 5, 2011 by slider1

[bossrocks]

Perhaps parental influence if they were from the town originally?

This is the sole reason I'm a fan. My dad (who is from Chadderton) first brought me when I was six and I've been coming back ever since. I was born and live in Preston and feel no affinity with the town/borough of Oldham other than its the place where the football team I love is located.

 

I once had an interesting discussion with a non-footballing friend regarding what makes us football fans actually support the team we do. These were some of his questions and my answers:

 

Is it the town? Nope, I'm proof of that.

Is it the players/manager/staff? Nope, they change over time - we didn't all follow Shez to Chesterfield.

Is it the fans? No, definitely not!

 

So is it simply the name of the club on the shirt that we support? At what point does it become just a name?

 

Difficult one to answer. I guess for me, it's become part of who I am and even if I wanted to, I couldn't simply stop supporting OAFC. I could choose not to attend games. I could even choose to go and watch another team. But I'd still support OAFC.

 

The point at which the team we pay to watch ceases to be OAFC, now that's another matter. If in the space of one close-season the club moved from BP, changed the manager and entire playing staff and changed the colour of the shirt, would it still be OAFC?

[Guest Scratch2000uk]

It's a whole lot of good memories of when i was growing up,( i was only about seven or eight at the time, mid seventies ) i remember being pegged up over the wall and not paying to get in, but had a laugh at the one who got caught.,by the coppers.

I remember the hot dog seller passing them through the iron railings and people snatching them and running off into the crowd.

I remember the glory years, i remember us beating southampton to stay in the premier league, and the party afterwards.

 

Oldham Athletic is part of me, it's always been there. i couldn't imagine it not being there.

 

[bilsborrow]

I found Latics by being a typical glory hunter, my dad was never into football, as a kid i grew up and followed Liverpool, they were the best and i didn't know better, to be honest i can't ever recall ever really knowing about Oldham Athletic. When i was 11 or 12 my step dad took me to my first ever football match, Bury v Fulham, i think it finished 0-0 all i remember was being bored out of my skull. Then it was around 3 years later, i was 14 or 15, and my mate's sister's boyfriend who was a Forest fan was taking my mate to watch Oldham v Southampton the carling cup replay, at the time i didn't know about Latics previous exploits in the cup that year. My mate asked me i'f i'd go with him, so i did along with two more friends. They took me into the Chaddy and we all stood somewhere at the back, i remember the noise made hairs on the back of my neck stand up. We won the game 2-0 but the result for me wasn't important i was hooked, this was nothing like the Bury v Fulham match i'd witnessed. I think i went to two more games that season, then the season after i went to pretty much every home game and witnessed our promotion to the top flight, all the games i went to were with my two mates, and every moment we talked about football and Oldham.

 

My two mates have now become armchair Man U supporters, yet i stayed true to Latics, so i now either attend games on my own, or i'd take my 16 year old daughter if she fancies it, but lately think she's gone off the football, tomorrow i'll be taking my 5 year old daughter to her first game.

 

I started to watch Latics in 1934 Due to ill health and the fact that I live 40 miles away I now only visit B P on odd ocas sions I am registered at OWTB under the name of bilsborrowi