Roy is back with more wonderful Latics memories

Book Review – ‘A Journey Down Sheepfoot Lane’ by Roy Butterworth

Anyone who has had the opportunity to spend time behind the scenes at Oldham Athletic’s Boundary Park will have come across, and been aware of, the enormous personal presence for over six decades of the eponymous Latics Match Day Press Officer, Roy Butterworth.

I had the pleasure of first working with Roy in 1983 when I started covering Latics games for the BBC and he was press steward.

Now, with a wealth of anecdotes to relate and decades of first-hand experience behind him to recall, Roy has followed up his first book of recollections of his time as a Latics fan, ‘A Fan on the Inside’ written several years ago, with a new publication, ‘A Journey Down Sheepfoot Lane’, with the proceeds from the sales of the book going to support the Maggie’s Centre charity.

The result is a veritable smorgasbord of information for the avid Latics fan.

After explaining how he came to work as a volunteer in 1963 (so is now in his Diamond Jubilee year!) Roy sets out his credentials at the very start, including his first visit to the ground with his grandad in 1946.

Among several initiatives from 1963, Roy first launched Radio Latics in the 1960s and many of us grew up attending matches at the club, under the tutelage of Ken Bates, watching our team play in their iconic Tangerine and Blue shirts and reading, as a match programme, the innovative Boundary Bulletin.

All of us in the crowd were treated every game to the sound of Mouldy Old Dough by Lieutenant Pigeon, effectively starting our match day experience and it was Roy’s voice we heard either in between records, or updating the first team score when Latics were away and the reserve team was playing at home on a Saturday afternoon.

The book begins with information on Pine Villa, the original club which began our Latics journey in the shadow of Pine Mill.

Then, using first hand archive material, there is useful information on Bob Mellor, who was club secretary/manager in a career that spanned for over 41 years at Boundary Park (1906-1948).

Using cuttings from Mellor’s own personal scrapbook, the book is bountiful with rare team photographs going back to the start of the 20th century, together with copies of articles highlighting some of the financial troubles the club faced in the interwar years.

The remainder of the book takes the opportunity to focus on the role of key servants at the club, including his close friend Gordon Lawton whose untimely death in 2017 came as a great shock to the Boundary Park staff.

There are some reflections on his time spent with all the managers he had worked with, from Les McDowell, his first, to the legends of Jimmy Frizzell and Joe Royle.

And also, his interaction, through his role as Match Day Press Officer, in dealing with journalists such as the late greats Jim Williams and Fred Austin and a plethora of other top broadcasters and local media is also a subject of note.

Within the book too, is a nod to the Sheridan years, thoughts on the Lemsagam period, before he finally brings the book up to date to 2022 with the dramatic entrance of the Rothwell family and his reflections on the impact they are having.

There is absolutely no doubt that, at the age of 83, Roy has acquired knowledge and experiences of Oldham Athletic during a special period in its history that so few could ever hope to match.

Therefore, this book must be seen as a good read and an important piece of archive material in Latics’ history.

Roy’s contribution is to maintain this legacy and is to be applauded.

If you wish to buy the book, it is available from the Latics club shop and is priced £10.

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