Oldham wave goodbye to Football League as miserable season concludes

Oldham Athletic

Oldham play their final Football League match until at least the 2023-24 campaign when they host Crawley Town on Saturday.

Protests against the club ownership are to be expected from the home supporters, following the pitch invasion and two hour postponement at the club’s most recent home match, where Oldham were relegated with a defeat to Salford City.

Rumours that fans will be banned from Boundary Park altogether are understood to be untrue, with the police instead electing to have a larger presence than usual at the ground.

Since the Salford match, John Sheridan has extended his contract as Latics manager until the summer of 2023 in a rare piece of good news for the club.

It’s been a middling season for Oldham’s final opponents of the season, Crawley, who sit in 12th place having lost their last three matches.

Striker Tom Nichols has been their top scorer, with ten league goals this season.

Speaking after last weekend’s loss to Tranmere, Sheridan said he was “150 per cent going to try my hardest to get a team together that's going to try to get us straight back up.”

Rather than dwelling on the disappointments on the pitch, he instead tried to put focus on the Oldham fans who traveled to the match.

He said: “I got quite emotional towards the end with the supporters. How can you have that support when we've just been relegated, trying to get behind the team? I just find it hard to talk about.

“It's fanatical that support. They don't deserve what's happened, but it has happened.”

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