Forget trophies what real football fans want to see is effort and care – reflections on Oldham Athletic relegation.

On Saturday I sat and watched my home town team Oldham Athletic become the first team to have played in the Premier League and eventually drop out of the Football League.

The 2-1 defeat to Salford City coupled with wins for Barrow and Stevenage took them down. It was a messy and farcical affair with the last 15 minutes potentially ever of League Football at Boundary Park being played behind closed doors after a fans demonstration on the pitch held up the game on after 80 minutes had been 

So overall not good and saw many fans in tears.

I started watching “Latics” on April 30th 1966. My grandad had watched them since n the 1930’s and attended their record attendance at Boundary Park of 47,671 v Sheffield Wednesday in 1930. My dad watched from the 1940’s.

They both watched the Liverpool FA Cup tie there in 1962, with an official 42,000 attendance and my Grandad claimed there were about 10,000 more than when they had played Wednesday, such was the lax attendance audit trail in those days, putting it politely. Every family in Oldham will have their own story. 

                                                    Fond memories 

And every fan remembers his first match, for me a 1-1 draw with Workington Town. That first game saw Jimmy Frizzell in the team, then just a player but who would later become manager and have the Rochdale Road stand named after him, suddenly I am hooked from an early age watching matches which I could enjoy with my brother and Dad. (As Finance Director of Slumberland plc my brother Paul Rooney who saw his first match 3 years earlier, the famous Oldham v West Ham FA Cup would go on to be a main club sponsor many years later so the club got something which began 30 years earlier by making the fans welcome.

The sixties, spent in the Third and Fourth Division saw Athletic owned by the legendary Ken Bates, who changed our strip to tangerine and blue, made Latics goalkeeper wear red because he believed it would put off strikers and our programme became a newspaper, the “Boundary Bulletin”.

We still got relegated to the Fourth in 1969 after Bates left and, undeterred we all still went. Then Frizzell took over in 1970 and both he and Joe Royle then managed for 12 years each, nearly a quarter of a century between them, continuity from a small club which paid dividends.

So, the club rose up from Fourth Division in 1971 to First Division Premier League and were not relegated for 23 years, a whole generation of fans spared the anguish, and an incredible achievement.

After I left Oxford and Bar School in 1983 my first job was as a football commentator for BBC Radio Manchester and, as there didn’t seem any competition, I found myself covering Oldham Athletic regularly. I was actually not just getting in free to Boundary Park but getting paid for doing it!

The affable Joe Royle never refused a post-match interview in the days when managers were allowed to refuse and frequently did. He even gave me an interview when Latics lost 6-0 at Leeds one year (a later posting to cover Nottingham Forest and deal with the unique Brian Clough made me really appreciate Joe’s bonhomie!)

Oldham were often everyone else’s second club and we reached two FA Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1913. We had risen to both second tier and top tier as Champions. It was the good times and ask any Oldham fan for the turning point it was Mark Hughes equaliser at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final that turned the club’s fortunes for the worst for ever in 1994. Relegated weeks later that season, for the next generation of supporters it was gradual decline with now four relegations since then culminating in the club’s worst moment since formation in 1895 on Saturday. 

Relegation is not as devasting as journalists or top club fans often believe. The whole point of watching a football club is not to bathe in success (the often-quoted phrase “it is the hope that kills you not the despair” applies perfectly to football supporters) It is a tribal thing and an outlet for a whole list of emotions.

                                                           Cycles in History 

All clubs have cycles in their history, ask Manchester United fans, ask Norwich City and Fulham fans every season! Even Man City fans will happily talk about the Gillingham game as much as Champions League Finals) We go through the gamut of those emotions saying “come on” in about 10 different ways with 10 different meanings and intonation during every match. 

And that is exactly the point and why Oldham’s demise is so sad because it has left supporters feeling frustrated and fearing much worse, of which relegation is just a part. Your average say Carlisle or Cardiff fan supports his or her club with the same passion as a Chelsea or Arsenal fan, in fact probably more because he can get tickets and access to games much more thoroughly. Relegation for fans is not the end of the world, they pick themselves up, dust themselves down and start again with bright hope as soon as the fixture list is announced.

Oldham fans regard the club as their club not that of the owners. Emotionally and financially they contribute to its support. Unfortunately, as the trend has moved from local businessmen effectively stewarding their local club within its means, it has now developed into carpet bag owners who hope to bolster their vanity and their wallets ultimately by picking the right “sleeping giant/ hidden gold mine” and achieving a quick win.

Rarely do the new owners succeed in anything but animosity. If the team does well the manager and the players justifiably win all the plaudits, if they fail the owners get the abuse. At that point the owners frequently feel trapped I have spoken to many chairmen/owners over the years who have recognised that they have reached that stage poured in their own personal money, knowing they would never get it back, just to be treated like a pariah. Who would buy a football club in the lower leagues without extensive resources they can afford and a good commercial management team? 

During the wonder years at Oldham athletic with local businesses like Lees Brewery actively involved, it was a Commercial Manager, later CEO, Alan Hardy who played that role. Many successful clubs have an unsung hero like Alan who fought for every penny with which to build a tremendous squad such as the Oldham Division 2 title winning side on 1991 which took the club to the top flight for the first time in 68 years. This was built after the previous season with on two cup runs to the League Cup Final and FA Cup semi final in 1990, and the money was invested well. 

Fans of all clubs need to see passion on the pitch and passion off it, and only resort to forming protest groups and demonstrations when the disconnect with the owners becomes so severe that they think they have stopped caring. The usual signs are often many managers coming and going, strange buys, banning fans for protesting (three fans were banned at Oldham this season just for speaking out).

The club is currently for sale but with potential liabilities in their recently published accounts approaching £5m it is going to need a lot more to thrive. They will now miss out on EFL central income (which even now is six figures, save for a couple of years of parachute payments. Even clubs with an even prouder Football League heritage such as Notts County have struggled to bounce back in a very competitive National League. 

                                                  What do fans want 

What Oldham fans want is a new owner who feels for the club and its proud history, ensures positive PR and activity in the community, offering well researched ticket prices that do not seek to extort the fans, and players, ideally home grown who play for the shirt; fans will forgive anything else, including relegation. 

Luton are riding high in the Championship with a fan-based consortium and perhaps that will be the norm in future for lower league clubs to prevent many other clubs falling much further, as Macclesfield and Bury. The owners should realise they are only perceived as custodians for a community for their club, and that community relies heavily on having a local town club. They must genuinely treat the supporters with respect and dignity, openly engage with fans, not just as consumers and apologize when mistakes are made and explain why things are the way they are. 

When it comes to finances owners must not make their eyes bigger than their belly. Only spend what they can afford, cut cloth accordingly. But most of all be a happy club playing entertaining football with a smile and a be a fun place to go, whether in the Premier league or the North West Counties League if a new phoenix club. 

Oldham fans will not stop loving the club, there are many more people in the town who would call themselves supporters that do not go that may be enticed to go with the right environment. 

Relegation hurts but it is not terminal.  But those fans in tears last Saturday must be given a sign that there is a plan in place primarily to keep the club in existence, but after that to thrive and bring enjoyment again. 

It is not rocket science; football club owners need to remember their club’s roots as the supporters do.

 

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