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What was it like when we were good?


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On 1/18/2020 at 11:16 AM, Worcester Owl said:

I remember being in the Chaddy End for a game v WBA some time in the 70s, reckon it was April 1976, last game of the season and they got promoted. At half-time (I think) a wall of West Brom fans came across the pitch from the RRE. We stood at our end thinking, well somebody will stop them, and then I realised people around me were scarpering left right and centre, so I took off as well! I just can't remember where I ended up watching the second half! We lost 1-0. 22,356 there that day.

Biggest away following I`ve ever seen at BP that. The RRE (and for those younger fans - it was a massive open terrace back then) was absolutely crammed full.

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Every single story on here is absolutely brilliant. Answered every question I had. Just seems light-years away from club I've grown up knowing that struggles and falls at the last hurdle every time...

 

Few people have recently mentioned about opposition fans storming the pitch and going into other stands (e.g. RRE to the Chaddy). Never even knew this was a thing. Was this during/after games? Was it for a scrap or just for the craic?

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On 1/18/2020 at 11:16 AM, Worcester Owl said:

I remember being in the Chaddy End for a game v WBA some time in the 70s, reckon it was April 1976, last game of the season and they got promoted. At half-time (I think) a wall of West Brom fans came across the pitch from the RRE. We stood at our end thinking, well somebody will stop them, and then I realised people around me were scarpering left right and centre, so I took off as well! I just can't remember where I ended up watching the second half! We lost 1-0. 22,356 there that day.

 

2 minutes ago, wiseowl said:

Biggest away following I`ve ever seen at BP that. The RRE (and for those younger fans - it was a massive open terrace back then) was absolutely crammed full.

 

I too was at that game, on the boards at the back of the Chaddy- there were a few at the back who simply never ran (hard but stupid...) and stayed to confront the Away fans - carnage.  I seem to recall that the West Brom fans were eventually pushed back by the police.

 

The game that sticks in my memory was the 0-6 defeat by Aston Villa on 27 November 1971. The game saw the official opening of the newly built Ford Stand. The Villa were there in large numbers and occupied a huge section of the Chaddy with Latics pushed into the right hand corner. When the fourth goal went in the Oldham boys had had enough and launched themselves at the Villa. I was a teenager at the time and was caught up in the rush and carried along into the massed ranks of the, by now panicking brummies, in a sea of flailing boots and fists.The Villa were pushed down to the bottom of the stand with bodies spilling onto the pitch. I ended up with a few cuts and bruises and, bizarrely, a burn on the back of my hand. The adrenaline rush at  taking back our end was amazing. 

 

Suffice to say that I am now an older and wiser man.

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On 1/18/2020 at 12:19 PM, Summerdeep said:

Yeah, I think that game was on Match Of The Day, when of course only two matches were featured. 1975-76 was a season of two halves: we did pretty well until about mid-January, peaking around the Xmas-New Year period (home win over Bolton on Boxing Day, in front of 25,000 fans, then a 3-0 win at Chelsea a week or two later). The rot set in shortly after: we won only one of our last 16 fixtures, and were a bit lucky not to be relegated. I recall seeing a dreadful display at Bolton in April (0-4), it was shown on Granada's Sunday programme and is on YouTube (I love the demolition job on Garry Jones at 1:20!):

 

https://youtu.be/FwV1nrgP5uc

 

Cracker that one and a great video, thanks, even if we did lose 4-0! Mind you Gerald Sinstadt said on commentary we had 9 corners in the first half hour, so at least we started well!

 

Ah, the 70s and proper football.....no sponsors or names on shirts, packed terraces, muddy pitches, crunching tackles - great days! Good reminder also of the quality of players back then in Div 2 who didn't mind dropping down a level - Peter Thompson, Willie Morgan. And of course we signed Harry Dowd, Martin Buchan, and others. Feels like an eternity ago!

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9 hours ago, TheBigDog said:

The game that sticks in my memory was the 0-6 defeat by Aston Villa on 27 November 1971. The game saw the official opening of the newly built Ford Stand. The Villa were there in large numbers and occupied a huge section of the Chaddy with Latics pushed into the right hand corner. When the fourth goal went in the Oldham boys had had enough and launched themselves at the Villa. I was a teenager at the time and was caught up in the rush and carried along into the massed ranks of the, by now panicking brummies, in a sea of flailing boots and fists.The Villa were pushed down to the bottom of the stand with bodies spilling onto the pitch. I ended up with a few cuts and bruises and, bizarrely, a burn on the back of my hand. The adrenaline rush at  taking back our end was amazing. 

 

Suffice to say that I am now an older and wiser man.

I remember that one too - I was in the Main Stand Paddock with my brother and dad.

 

Andy Lochead scored a hat trick from memory - we subsequently signed him. Shows how my memory gets mixed up though - I could have sworn it was a cup game but it was a 3rd division match. 

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22 minutes ago, wiseowl said:

I remember that one too - I was in the Main Stand Paddock with my brother and dad.

 

Andy Lochead scored a hat trick from memory - we subsequently signed him. Shows how my memory gets mixed up though - I could have sworn it was a cup game but it was a 3rd division match. 

was a league game Wiseowl, we lost the return match 0-1 on a Tuesday night - Ray Graydon got a last minute winner.

 

Villa used to have the indian sign over us for many years 

 

Lochead (3), Bruce Rioch (2) and I think Ray Graydon

 

Villa by far the best team in our Division that season  

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2 hours ago, b0ndl1ne said:

This felt like a good month: 

 

 

 

How can we go from that team to this team in two years.....

 

Bradford are looking for £100k for Doyle I heard and take on 100% of his wages.  Granted he can’t play for another club this season but I’d pay both, keep him fit through training and closed door games plus gamble on him hitting the ground running come August.

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14 hours ago, Midsblue said:

How can we go from that team to this team in two years.....

 

Bradford are looking for £100k for Doyle I heard and take on 100% of his wages.  Granted he can’t play for another club this season but I’d pay both, keep him fit through training and closed door games plus gamble on him hitting the ground running come August.

 

Bradford want £100k for Doyle yet we have 2 or 3 players worth £500k+.

 

Difficult to believe we aren’t storming this division really.

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17 hours ago, b0ndl1ne said:

This felt like a good month: 

 

 

 

Yep - defo some nice goals. Agree it was criminal of Wellens to take us down with that squad. They would piss all over todays team.

Also Boo boys Gardner and Fane involved in a few....Fans favourite Fane with 2 lovely touches and a pass in the build up to the Davies goal at MKD!

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12 minutes ago, Londonboy said:

Agree it was criminal of Wellens to take us down with that squad.


Even more criminal if boardroom interference influenced the change in form, which resulted in relegation...

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15 hours ago, Midsblue said:

How can we go from that team to this team in two years.....

 

Bradford are looking for £100k for Doyle I heard and take on 100% of his wages.  Granted he can’t play for another club this season but I’d pay both, keep him fit through training and closed door games plus gamble on him hitting the ground running come August.

That could be the most mental thing ever posted on here.

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21 hours ago, unsworth blue said:

was a league game Wiseowl, we lost the return match 0-1 on a Tuesday night - Ray Graydon got a last minute winner.

 

Villa used to have the indian sign over us for many years 

 

Lochead (3), Bruce Rioch (2) and I think Ray Graydon

 

Villa by far the best team in our Division that season  

 

Some interesting recollections about games v Aston Villa in this era. Yes, we lost every game we played against them in the 70s. 

 

That 0-6 home defeat was especially painful as it was the main match in Granada's Sunday highlights show. It wasn't just Villa that had the Indian sign over us, it was also the presence of the ITV cameras and usually Gerald Sinstadt as well. In our all-conquering Div 3 championship season in 73-74, the Granada cameras also recorded an abysmal 0-3 home defeat by Watford, and a scrappy 2-2 draw v Tranmere, which to be honest we deserved to lose. Also on ITV were the 0-4 defeat at Bolton a couple of years later, and a 0-5 hammering by a George Best inspired Fulham in late 1976, shown on London Weekend TV. Brief highlights of that Watford game were on Youtube a few months ago, but seem to have been removed.

 

There was a terrific encounter with Villa early in the 74-75 season. We'd won all four of our home games up to then, and were looking good for a point at 1-1 when Keith Hicks put the ball into his own net in the 90th minute. That marked the start of our slide down the table towards the relegation zone, from which we only just escaped in the final two or three weeks of the season. The real talking point of that game was the sending off of the Villa right back John Gidman for a foul on Alan Groves. Their manager Ron Saunders was incandescent in his post-match comments, and remarked "We were told before the game that Groves won free kicks all over the park, but I didn't realize how bad it was - it was diabolical!" 

 

A week later, after Orient beat us 3-1 at Brisbane Road, their manager George Petchey said "That left-winger dived last week. He could win the World Diving Championship". Not the most imaginative of souls was old George...

 

We played Villa at home again in the FA Cup Third Round in the New Year. They were far too strong for us this time and won 3-0. I don't think we created a single good scoring chance in the 90 minutes. Interestingly, they'd had a very indifferent first half to their season, and were in mid-table after losing to Cardiff (who ended up being relegated) in the final game of 1974. The Latics cup-tie obviously acted as a springboard for them, as they only lost one further league game between then and the end of the season, finishing as runners-up to Man Utd. They also won the old Football League Cup at Wembley.

 

To cap it all, we were then pasted 5-0 at Villa Park in April. Brian Little ran our defence ragged that day. I think he scored a hat-trick.

 

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35 minutes ago, Summerdeep said:

To cap it all, we were then pasted 5-0 at Villa Park in April. Brian Little ran our defence ragged that day. I think he scored a hat-trick.

 

I remember going to that game. We arrived late and somehow got separated  I went into the nearest turnstile and found myself in the packed Holte End terrace. I eventually found a spot where I could see, and suffice it to say I'm glad we didn't score. I left after the 4th. went in, and one of my mates was already back at the car when I got their. 

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23 hours ago, Jerry the Berry said:

Andy Lochead now he was an old fashioned no 9 , scored some great goals for us usually at the Chaddy End usually diving headers , I used to stand “ on the boards “ at the back of the Chaddy, had some cracking “ derbies “ Bolton Blackburn Burnley 

 

Yep, he scored quite a few spectacular goals, including a couple against Blackburn on Boxing Day '73 (I recall the Blackburn fans chanting 'Lochhead's a bastard' as a response, probably in part because he was an ex-Burnley player). 

 

I think Frizzell signed him to be a Jim Fryatt replacement, but he was in his mid-30s by then, and no longer had the pace or athleticism to be a prolific goalscorer. His most important contribution came when he was appointed club captain just after halfway through the 73-74 season (can't recall who he replaced - Mulvaney?). He proved to be a brilliant motivator on the pitch, and it was no coincidence that his appointment was accompanied by the run of 10 consecutive wins that propelled us from 8th in the table to being challengers for the Div 3 title.

 

Frizzell's other masterstrokes were the signings of Tony Bailey from Derby (a more skillful and mobile centre-back than Dick Mulvaney), Alan Groves from Bournemouth, who added another dimension to the forward line, and finally the selection of Colin Garwood as a regular member of the side after his hat-trick at Bournemouth in February. It was always a real mystery to me how the very willing but limited George Jones could have been preferred for so long to Garwood, who finished that season as leading scorer despite only playing in just over half the games. And why was he released so soon after the start of the first season back in Div 2? That left us with just the very inexperienced Alan Young, Jones and Ian Robins (better as a midfielder) as strikers.

 

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22 hours ago, Londonboy said:

Yep - defo some nice goals. Agree it was criminal of Wellens to take us down with that squad. They would piss all over todays team.

 

 

I can't watch modern football, for numerous reasons (such as an extreme aversion to all-seater stadia), so I'm not very well qualified to comment on more recent developments, but from the sidelines (so to speak) it seemed that the relegation in 2018 might have been down largely to the disruptive influence of Paul Jewell as assistant manager. The decline seemed to start almost as soon as he arrived, and after he left the team's fortunes revived again under Wellens, but too late to prevent relegation. Is that a reasonable speculation?

 

It seems to me that a mouthy, opinionated guy like Jewell, who had managed in the Premier League, was not going to play second fiddle to a rookie like Wellens, and was probably sticking his oar in on a regular basis, undermining the manager and unsettling the players. Didn't he leave after just two or three months under a bit of a cloud?

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14 minutes ago, Summerdeep said:

 

I can't watch modern football, for numerous reasons (such as an extreme aversion to all-seater stadia), so I'm not very well qualified to comment on more recent developments, but from the sidelines (so to speak) it seemed that the relegation in 2018 might have been down largely to the disruptive influence of Paul Jewell as assistant manager. The decline seemed to start almost as soon as he arrived, and after he left the team's fortunes revived again under Wellens, but too late to prevent relegation. Is that a reasonable speculation?

 

It seems to me that a mouthy, opinionated guy like Jewell, who had managed in the Premier League, was not going to play second fiddle to a rookie like Wellens, and was probably sticking his oar in on a regular basis, undermining the manager and unsettling the players. Didn't he leave after just two or three months under a bit of a cloud?

 No its not reasonable speculation.

 

Infact of all the reasons we went down its the most ludicrous. It was a combination of an inexperienced manager towards the end of the season and overly interfering owner causing disruption in the dressing room.

 

Plus Jewel is working with Wellens at Swindon currently as director of football challenging for promotion at the top of this division, if he was that bad they wouldn't be working together now.

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