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First County Visit:	Tuesday 25th October 1983
Competition:	Milk Cup – (Round 2 – 2nd Leg)
Result:	Oldham Athletic 2 – 2 Stockport County
Attendance:	3,328
Away Trip:	30
Away Day:	85
County Line-up	1 Mike Salmon; 2 Andy Thorpe; 3 John Rutter; 4 Dean Emerson; 5 Paul Bowles; 6 Tommy Sword; 7 Oshor Williams; 8 Nigel Smith; 9 Micky Quinn; 10 Graham Jones; 11 Tony Coyle
Scorers:	Dean Emerson (2)
Manager:	Eric Webster
County Visits:	7

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WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

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It was only a matter of months after that first sighting of Edgeley in October 1963 which captivated, and indeed captured, me that I started at grammar school.  There was a fair sprinkling of lads from Oldham in Form 1 Alpha at the Manchester Grammar School and they were certainly well tied to their home town. Monday’s football chat centred around the events at Boundary Park and also to a degree to those at Watersheddings, home of Oldham Rugby League Club.  The latter had to be whispered though.  The old attitudes towards the 13 a-side code still held, especially at MGS.  The old school tie stance of the Rugby Union was always something that irritated me.  .

Rugby League was, and indeed remains, a far superior spectacle, but at least the pariah status conferred on it by the RU has gone these days.  I never had much time for the 15 man game, and when Sale Sharks descended on EP many years later, my original prejudices still held firm and, given what transpired with them, strengthened more than somewhat

Those school days, and the friends I made, meant that Boundary Park was a reasonably regular port of call in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, on the times when the Hatters were away and my travelling days lay in the future. 

Oldham were a run of the mill Division 3 outfit for much of the time, never really capturing my imagination, but there again there was no reason to.  It was merely an afternoon out with mates.  There was no affinity – my interest lay elsewhere. The vagaries of League placings, and indeed Oldham’s elevation to the top tier for a period in the 1990’s meant that I never saw League action involving County at Boundary Park until the early years of the new millennium. The old stadium had changed a bit since the first visit, which was for a League Cup 2^nd round 2^nd leg game back in 1983.

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The Main Stand which is located on the prosaically named Sheepfoot Lane has stood there since 1920, and in truth can’t have changed a great deal. 

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With decent sight lines, and a good elevation, the view is more than fair.  On the terrace in front, by 1983 were a row of private boxes.These hampered the standing patrons and were obviously put up in the desire to pick up the then emerging hospitality opportunities.  They always reminded me of a series of garden sheds but with more extensive windows.To the right was a superb terrace, the Rochdale Road End.  Open to the elements, it was concreted at the bottom, but more rustic at the top end, being more grass and earth than anything particularly sturdy.  It was on here that I stood for that first County visit.

To the left of the Main Stand was the “Chaddy End” beloved of my school mates.  That’s where they and the rest of the vociferous home support congregated.  It was dark, gloomy place, (and if legend has any substance in truth purportedly haunted .. at least according to the impressionable 11 year olds in 1 Alpha).  Concreted at the bottom but moving upwards the the upper terracing, devoid of any support such as barriers, was wooden.  I saw a fair few games from this vantage point. 

When I first went in the late 1960’s a simple lean-to, (the Broadway Stand), covered the far touchline.  By 1983 this had been replaced by the “Ford Stand”.  It only ran for about two thirds of the length of the pitch and had been built following a Latics triumph.  Not in terms of points in League action or Cup progress but a calculation involving goals scored offset by deductions for behavioural transgressions on the pitch.  Oldham got £70,000 and ended up with a stand.  The money didn’t go too far, but did provide a decent view with some elevation.  That was the ground I first visited as a County fan that October evening.  It was more than sufficient.

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The Ford Stand was built from the prize, (£70k), that Latics received as winners of the Ford Sporting League in 1970/71. It was based on fair play; and goals scored and conceded.

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Three weeks before had Oldham had come out on top 2-0 in the first leg at Edgeley.  Consequently, no expectation on the short trip up the A627.  I’d stationed myself on the Rochdale Road End an impressive terrace, but one that wasn’t the most comfortable experience on a cold day.  Boundary Park is sometimes, (and wrongly) attributed with being the highest ground in the country.  That actually belongs to the Hawthorns but whatever the case Oldham can be as they say around here, “a cold hole”. 

The winter of 1981/82 was severe, with snow lying on the ground for weeks.  County went without a league game from the beginning of December until the end of January.  A couple of days before Christmas came news that Blackburn’s home game against Oldham had been postponed with Ewood Park snowbound.  Oldham were almost unique at that time in having undersoil heating so the Boxing Day game was switched.  In desperate need of a football fix I put on more than few layers of clothing and headed up there. 

Now there may have been undersoil heating for the pitch but it certainly didn’t extend to the Rochdale Road terracing, where my sturdy hiking boots were put to good use with 3 or 4 inches of snow providing the soft landing.  Nowadays, with uncovered terracing the exception rather than the rule it wouldn’t happen and even if there were the H&S boys would deem it a danger.

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But returning to October 1983 Latics were 4^th bottom of Division 2; County lay 41 places below, marooned in mid-table in Division 4.  But we put up a decent show, drawing 2-2 on the night, as Dean Emerson grabbed both of them.   Emerson had, over the previous 18 months become a key element in the County team.  Originally with the Club as a part-timer, (and like Mike Power a printer by trade), he was a tiger in midfield, and not without a decent touch and finish.  Insofar as his first stint at EP was concerned he was a “victim” of the perilous financial circumstances which always seemed to surround the place.  After a desperately poor season in 198/85, with an application for re-election capping things off, and gates falling below 2,000 the first decent bid, (reputedly £30,000), saw him move to Rotherham, and thus keep HMRC at bay.  He had a decent career moving to Coventry, but with an injury must have been sorely disappointed to miss out on the Sky Blues FA Cup success at Wembley in 1987.  He returned to EP for a second stint after a spell at Hartlepool.  One of my favourite players of the 1980’s – for ability; tenacity and generally looking like he cared.

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I might have had no affinity to Latics in those early days, but their ascent into the top tier led to a real dislike.  And it wasn’t jealousy that they were there.  Good luck to them.  It was the aspiration of many a lower League outfit to reach the heady heights, and even more so as the Sky millions on offer came on to the table. 

Once up with the elite, Ian Stott, then Chairman at Oldham, (but using this office as a vehicle to become a professional Committee member at the FA according to Latics fans), put forward a proposal that the Premier League should be a two division competition, with no promotion from or relegation to the lower levels.  Forty eight clubs would be cut adrift, devoid of any aspiration of reaching the top.  But it didn’t matter to Stott – this was about keeping as much of the Sky cash as possible.  Funny how he proposed all this when his Club were above the cut-off point. 

The concept was a disgrace beyond measure, and was quite rightly thrown out, although his opposite number at Bolton, Phil Gartside, tried much of the same thing a few years later.  Oldham survived a couple of years in the Premier League, and then subsided away, never to return.  It did lead to a couple of visits for League football after the millennium had dawned.

It is of course arguable that the financial arrangements now in place for the Premier League have effectively created much of the same thing.  The competition is effectively three leagues in one.  There’s the top half dozen – the same every year, (notwithstanding Leicester’s triumph in 2016 which I am confident will never ever be repeated).  Then a gaggle of mid-table teams content to just survive, hoovering up the TV money; employing some really nondescript foreigners on big money; paying agents scandalous sums, and generally creating a pretty sound balance sheet.  Then there’s the bottom half dozen, plus the same number at the top of the Championship.  These are the Clubs which just shuttle between the two divisions.  Content that relegation one year will bring with it some monumental parachute payment which will be used to buy an almost instant return.  What chance for a Club making its way up through the hierarchy.  Not beyond imagination, but a dim and distant prospect nonetheless. The TV millions have sent the game to hell .. in a handcart.

So absolutely no love for Oldham, where I spent some of my earliest spectating experiences.  It’s not a ground fondly remembered as a County follower.  Seven visits, and but a solitary win.  A 2-1 scoreline in February 2005 was the only time I walked back up Sheepfoot Lane with much joy.  That afternoon we saw the debut of Harpal Singh.  The guy looked like he could play and hopes were high.  Sadly that was the high spot of what was a forgettable County career which lasted 35 games; produced a single goal and not much else. 

And over my 57 years of following the Hatters there’s been more than a fair few of similar pedigree …..

January 2017

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VISITS

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Day	Date	Competition	Tier / Round	Opponents	Res	F	A	Crowd	Away Day
Tues	25/10/83	Milk Cup	Round 2 – 2nd Leg	Oldham Athletic	D	2	2	3,328	85
Tues	24/08/99	Worthington Cup	Round 1 – 2nd leg	Oldham Athletic	D	1	1	2,885	408
Sat	02/11/02	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	L	0	2	8,251	472
Tues	30/09/03 (Highlights)	Nationwide Football League – Division 2	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	L	0	2	7,015	491
Sat	19/02/05	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	W	2	1	5,924	524
Sat	24/01/09	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	L	1	3	7,605	623
Sat	08/08/09	Coca-Cola Football League – League 1	Tier 3	Oldham Athletic	D	0	0	6,918	634

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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS

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Previously – SALTERGATE Next stop – BUCKS HEAD