Owen: Fans were on our side

CHED EVANS . . . lunch meeting with Barry Owen last week.

ATHLETIC supporters told Barry Owen of their regret that the Ched Evans deal couldn’t be completed, the club director has claimed.

The home match against Doncaster on January 10 was the first fixture in the aftermath of its collapse, and Owen says fans he met were “full of congratulations” on a brave but fruitless attempt to sign the released prisoner.

“What transpired after the announcement was that it became clear a lot of fans felt we should have followed through,” said Owen in a Dublin radio interview.

“That starts to tell me that a lot of the vile stuff wasn’t coming from genuine football fans, either from Oldham or from other clubs.

“I remember going to the game and people were coming up to us and congratulating us for being a club prepared to sign this player. One banner made by our young supporters said, ‘Where are the 70,000 today?’, referring to the petition saying Evans shouldn’t play. It might have seemed a sarcastic remark, but it was a reminder that all those people who signed that petition weren’t really Oldham Athletic fans.”