The opponent: Oldham Athletic
Is it on or is it off? I guess we will know in 9 and a bit hours, too late for some I fear. My friend asked me last night, “Are you going to Oldham”? My reply was “Only if you buy me dinner love”. I think it was lost on him, and probably most people of a relatively normal mind. We have had the classic Di Canio rant/non-rant, personally, since Jezza was shoved out of the door, it seems the hostility he mentions at boardroom level is a distinct possibility, others may feel that he is once again trying to attract the attention away from the players before a game and putting the attention on to himself. Either way the vital thing today is 3 points, an away win will set us up nicely for Friday night against the current league 1 leaders, but 1 game at a time eh....
So the long trek up to Lancashire begins. I wish I was going as Boundary Park is one of the grounds missing off the list of grounds to visit, but with Christmas looming it just wasn’t meant to be. I have done my usual digging on the opposition and have to say that finding out about Oldham was something of a disappointment; the place really can’t be far behind Milton Keynes in the lack of history stakes, with just a few noticeable exceptions. Winston Churchill started his long political career in Oldham, although he was defeated by the Liberal Party in the By-Election of 1899, still, he did alright for himself. Oldham started out as the wonderfully named Pine Villa FC in 1895, which played in local Manchester and Lancashire leagues. When rivals Oldham County F.C. folded in 1899, Pine Villa moved into their stadium, the Oldham Athletic Ground (now known as Boundary Park) and changed their name to Oldham Athletic, so you could say they have been there a while. Oldham were one of the original members of the maiden Premier League, and lasted 2 seasons in the top flight and in 1990 they made it to The Twin Towers in the League Cup Final, where they lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest, the goal incidentally scored by the then future Scummer, Nigel Jemson. Under the management of Paul Dickov, Oldham managed a disappointing 16th position finish in League 1 last season and will be hoping to improve on that this season.
One of my favourite set of ‘Oldhamers’ are the fantastic Inspiral Carpets, the band who gave us “This is how it feels to be lonely”. The band are also noted as having Oasis Axemaster Legend/God, Noel Gallagher as their roadie back in the early 90’s and together they visited The Oasis Leisure Centre, where Gallagher is alleged to have came up with the name oasis for his little brother’s band. Moving on to blocked fallopian tubes, the 1st ever IVF baby, Louise Brown was born in Oldham General Hospital back in 1977. Other famous people who hail from Oldham are the well past it Cannon and Ball (I’m sure they do double glazing adds nowadays), Wannabe Paedo exposer and Gopher molester, Philip Schofield, and footballers David Platt and Paul Scholes.
What are they saying about us? – Not a great deal it seems, you look round the forums they have and it makes you feel grateful for having The TEF.
“His name should be re spelt as Paolo Dick onio , the blokes fucking mental, but entertaining too”.
http://www.owtb.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=39459Oldham Athletic Last 6 – LLWWLW (Oldham are currently 16th on 26 points)
The Threat – The fantastically named Jose Baxter has scored 8 times for The Latics so far this season, loanee Matt Derbyshire has bagged 5 and is expected to return to his parent club, Notts Forest.
A Warm Welcome Too – Colombian winger/striker, and today’s answer to the loan ranger, Cristian Montano. The ex Hammer scored 1 goal in 4 games for us last season, on his debut in the 2-0 win against Accrington Stanley. Sadly Montano soiled his name and likely became a livestock botherer by agreeing to join Oxford on loan where he scored 3 goals in 9 appearances. So far this season he has scored 2 goals.
The irrelevant stats – Home form is somewhat indifferent, having won 3, drawn 3 and lost 4 games at Boundary Park. They have scored 11 and conceded 10 in the 10 games they have played at home. Oldham Gaffer Paul Dickov currently has a 31% win ratio over his 2 and a half years as a manager, not the most impressive and IF we can put some of these many chances we create firmly in the back of the net , that ratio will not be improving today.
Head to Head – We have met the Latics on 45 occasions in all competitions, and honours are very even, Oldham having won 17, Swindon having won 17, and a draw on 11 occasions.
The Odds – Oldham 21/10 Draw 23/10 Swindon 13/10 (odds taken from the sponsors of Oxfords league next season, Blue Square) Fancy a Stevenage style thumping? BetFred are offering 66/1 on a 4-0 victory for us, or the less optimistic may be looking at a 1-0 defeat, currently 8/1 with Bet 365. Who is likely to get the nod up front today? Williams and 1 other is likely and if you think Chris Martin is going to get off the mark today Bet365 will give you a rather ungenerous 11/2. Flint is generally 25/1 to score 1st and Montano is generally 9/1.
Sid Says – It took a good few minutes to encourage him to perform today and when he eventually did he predicted a 2-1 defeat, much more of that and he will be banished to Shaw Forest.
The Prediction – I have thought long and hard about this one, I am going for a 2-1 win with goals from Collins and Flint, 435 loyal Town fans in a crowd of around 3’698.
And Finally – Back on October 31st this year, a group of children going house to house trick or treating in Oldham were handed packets of cocaine instead of sweets. Snap bags containing the class A drug were found among sweets in the children's possession after they had visited a house in the Royston area of Oldham. As you can imagine, the Primary School aged kids empty their goody bags out on the living room floor, and Mum and Dad have had kittens on the spot. The substance was then taken to police, examined and confirmed to be cocaine. To be fair, with it being Oldham, the kids probably told their parents what it actually was.
