Sliding Doors, Oldham and Freeman

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N20 Blade

N20 Blade

The clock strikes thirteen
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Went to Barnet v Oldham last night in the away end. Great match and superb support, nearly 500 made the trip tuesday night when it was on tv.

I got talking to a few of the Oldham lot and realized the last time i saw them play was the 1-1 draw in 94, our penultimate match. I know all football fans enjoy the ''woe is us'' stance especially us but the Latics surely have to be up there.

As their fans sang:

Premier League we fucked it up
Championship we fucked it up
League One we fucked it up
League Two we fucked it up
National League we're fuckin it up

Considering we were both founder members of the PL, our respective fortunes could not have been more stark.

The highlight of the night was watching Kieron Freeman, although he is widely regarded as the worst defender at the club. He is overweight, slow and gave away the penalty but me and the kids gave him a great reception much to the disbelief of the Oldham fans. Once a blade always a blade especially that Wilder group.

Anyway, whilst we're not doing great at least we've had four years in the PL since 94 and some great promotions / cup runs. Oldham fans have had a miserable 29 years, with very few silver linings. Glad they won last night.
 

I went to see them earlier in the season vs Halifax whilst they were still managed by Unsworth. They ended up losing 2-1. Freeman still looked like he had a good touch, but he wasn't half blowing by the end! Was a good evening with a decent fan's zone type thing under the main stand. Hopefully they've got their house back in order a bit and can start to progress again.
 
N20 Blade said:
Went to Barnet v Oldham last night in the away end. Great match and superb support, nearly 500 made the trip tuesday night when it was on tv.

I got talking to a few of the Oldham lot and realized the last time i saw them play was the 1-1 draw in 94, our penultimate match. I know all football fans enjoy the ''woe is us'' stance especially us but the Latics surely have to be up there.

As their fans sang:

Premier League we fucked it up
Championship we fucked it up
League One we fucked it up
League Two we fucked it up
National League we're fuckin it up

Considering we were both founder members of the PL, our respective fortunes could not have been more stark.

The highlight of the night was watching Kieron Freeman, although he is widely regarded as the worst defender at the club. He is overweight, slow and gave away the penalty but me and the kids gave him a great reception much to the disbelief of the Oldham fans. Once a blade always a blade especially that Wilder group.

Anyway, whilst we're not doing great at least we've had four years in the PL since 94 and some great promotions / cup runs. Oldham fans have had a miserable 29 years, with very few silver linings. Glad they won last night.
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My business partner is an Oldham fanatic

We are working away this week - when he found out the score , he was ecstatic.

Great support - I think their average attendance is 6,500
 
They finished 14th or below in every season between 2009/10 and 2021/22 when they dropped out of the league. Huge respect to their fans, they've had some really bleak years. The last time they did (sort of) well and got the the League One playoffs in 2007 their top scorer was Chris Porter with 22 goals.
 
Chezzy Blades said:
They finished 14th or below in every season between 2009/10 and 2021/22 when they dropped out of the league. Huge respect to their fans, they've had some really bleak years. The last time they did (sort of) well and got the the League One playoffs in 2007 their top scorer was Chris Porter with 22 goals.
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Just looking at their history. In the almost 30 years since they got relegated from the Prem in 1994, they've never been promoted and only got in the playoffs twice, losing in the semis both times. That level of mediocrity is actually quite hard to achieve, at least we've had ups as well as downs.
 
Bell4 said:
My business partner is an Oldham fanatic

We are working away this week - when he found out the score , he was ecstatic.

Great support - I think their average attendance is 6,500
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Well their fans were superb last night, we were really impressed. Reminded me of blades away days back in the 80s & 90s.

Let's hope they're finally turning the corner.
 
sufc323 said:
This alone would've been worth the admission fee

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the chant was ''he's god's number 9'' !!

their penalty was funny too, the keeper kicked the ball against the defender and the guy was clean through and brought down. the pen awarded and red shown. the ref then realised his error and changed to a yellow. never seen that before.

funny thing was some of the oldham fans didn't realise and thought barnet were taking the piss. who needs VAR.
 
N20 Blade said:
Went to Barnet v Oldham last night in the away end. Great match and superb support, nearly 500 made the trip tuesday night when it was on tv.

I got talking to a few of the Oldham lot and realized the last time i saw them play was the 1-1 draw in 94, our penultimate match. I know all football fans enjoy the ''woe is us'' stance especially us but the Latics surely have to be up there.

As their fans sang:

Premier League we fucked it up
Championship we fucked it up
League One we fucked it up
League Two we fucked it up
National League we're fuckin it up

Considering we were both founder members of the PL, our respective fortunes could not have been more stark.

The highlight of the night was watching Kieron Freeman, although he is widely regarded as the worst defender at the club. He is overweight, slow and gave away the penalty but me and the kids gave him a great reception much to the disbelief of the Oldham fans. Once a blade always a blade especially that Wilder group.

Anyway, whilst we're not doing great at least we've had four years in the PL since 94 and some great promotions / cup runs. Oldham fans have had a miserable 29 years, with very few silver linings. Glad they won last night.
Click to expand...
Great post. Much needed in the category ‘there’s always somebody worse off than us.’ For a year or so Freeman was sensational at the Lane under Wilder. One of the moments that made me relax a bit was a home match against Millwall (?), we were 1-0 up defending the Kop, and broke away from a corner or free-kick, and Freeman from right-back bombed up the pitch in support in the inside-left position; I was just asking in colourful language what our right-back was doing there when the ball was played to him, and he scored. Excellent organised (?) chaos, and from that moment I was fully on board with the Wilder/Knill ways. I also recall from the celebrations after the Chesterfield game that he appeared to have a youngster who ran all over the pitch in a similarly random way.
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
Great post. Much needed in the category ‘there’s always somebody worse off than us.’ For a year or so Freeman was sensational at the Lane under Wilder. One of the moments that made me relax a bit was a home match against Millwall (?), we were 1-0 up defending the Kop, and broke away from a corner or free-kick, and Freeman from right-back bombed up the pitch in support in the inside-left position; I was just asking in colourful language what our right-back was doing there when the ball was played to him, and he scored. Excellent organised (?) chaos, and from that moment I was fully on board with the Wilder/Knill ways. I also recall from the celebrations after the Chesterfield game that he appeared to have a youngster who ran all over the pitch in a similarly random way.
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Freeman epitomized all that was great about that era. Journeymen players who found their mojo and the best form of their careers. Players and fans alike bought into it. The Chesterfield game was shortly after his mum's death and you could see how much the fans' support meant to him and his young family. Did he score that day too? For some reason the fact he and sharp scored in the first win away that season set the tone for what followed. Like you say a full back should not be scoring so many goals in the box. Brilliant. No wonder the poor lad's legs have gone after all those great sprints up and down the pitch for us.
 
N20 Blade said:
Freeman epitomized all that was great about that era. Journeymen players who found their mojo and the best form of their careers. Players and fans alike bought into it. The Chesterfield game was shortly after his mum's death and you could see how much the fans' support meant to him and his young family. Did he score that day too? For some reason the fact he and sharp scored in the first win away that season set the tone for what followed. Like you say a full back should not be scoring so many goals in the box. Brilliant. No wonder the poor lad's legs have gone after all those great sprints up and down the pitch for us.
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For a few moments in time he was superb and unplayable
 
I don't know why, but I've always quite liked Oldham for some reason. Respect any fan of clubs like theirs, who are neighbouring to some huge teams. Must be tough going turning up every week.

Always quite liked the trips to Oldham in the L1 years, in a sadistic sort of way. Big away end and only a short trip from the delights of Manchester.

Hope they can make it back into the football league.
 
N20 Blade said:
the chant was ''he's god's number 9'' !!

their penalty was funny too, the keeper kicked the ball against the defender and the guy was clean through and brought down. the pen awarded and red shown. the ref then realised his error and changed to a yellow. never seen that before.

funny thing was some of the oldham fans didn't realise and thought barnet were taking the piss. who needs VAR.
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He was right the first time. That was in no way an attempt to play the ball - when he starts to dive the ball isn't even in the box so he can't handle it, when he realises what he's done the ball's out of reach and all he can do is take out the man. Clear pen and red for me, not that it ended up mattering
 

Oldham away was the first match we played in League One after relegation from the Championship.

We won 0-2 with goals from Maguire and Cresswell.

That day, nobody would have believed it would be the first of 276 matches we would play in that Godforsaken league.
 
PeterNdlovu081 said:
Oldham away was the first match we played in League One after relegation from the Championship.

We won 0-2 with goals from Maguire and Cresswell.

That day, nobody would have believed it would be the first of 276 matches we would play in that Godforsaken league.
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Good away day that, just glad to be winning a match after the prior season shit show!
 
jt64 said:
He was right the first time. That was in no way an attempt to play the ball - when he starts to dive the ball isn't even in the box so he can't handle it, when he realises what he's done the ball's out of reach and all he can do is take out the man. Clear pen and red for me, not that it ended up mattering
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If you made the trip to Oldham on that big
“ open “ end back int day , you might have changed your mind absolutely fucking freezing 🥶, and on one trip it pissed rain on us as well and we lost
 
joe casey said:
He scored 10 goals in that league 1 season from RWB!
In terms of attacking effectiveness in that position hes been the best we've had (admittedly at a lower level than Baldock/Bogle) - forever a legend in my eyes
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Memory can play tricks, at times, but what I recall most was Freeman always seemed to blast the ball up into the roof of the net, giving the keeper no chance.

I think I am right in saying that he was the first non-striker, since Lee Williamson, to hit double figures?

Always liked him.
 
dublin 10 blade said:
If you made the trip to Oldham on that big
“ open “ end back int day , you might have changed your mind absolutely fucking freezing 🥶, and on one trip it pissed rain on us as well and we lost
Click to expand...
Yes that away terrace was good in the sun though. remember losing 2-1 with nine men, i think deano scored and was diagnosed with glandular fever the next day. his next goal? pigs at home 2-0.
 
N20 Blade said:
Went to Barnet v Oldham last night in the away end. Great match and superb support, nearly 500 made the trip tuesday night when it was on tv.

I got talking to a few of the Oldham lot and realized the last time i saw them play was the 1-1 draw in 94, our penultimate match. I know all football fans enjoy the ''woe is us'' stance especially us but the Latics surely have to be up there.

As their fans sang:

Premier League we fucked it up
Championship we fucked it up
League One we fucked it up
League Two we fucked it up
National League we're fuckin it up

Considering we were both founder members of the PL, our respective fortunes could not have been more stark.

The highlight of the night was watching Kieron Freeman, although he is widely regarded as the worst defender at the club. He is overweight, slow and gave away the penalty but me and the kids gave him a great reception much to the disbelief of the Oldham fans. Once a blade always a blade especially that Wilder group.

Anyway, whilst we're not doing great at least we've had four years in the PL since 94 and some great promotions / cup runs. Oldham fans have had a miserable 29 years, with very few silver linings. Glad they won last night.
Click to expand...
I think that may have been the last time I saw us play Oldham too, I missed the League One matches with them I think. I recall they beat us at BL under Wilson in the Ched season and those points cost us dear in the end!

Quite like Oldham as a club, they should be in League One at least, always a decent atmosphere at Boundary Park too. That 1 - 1 was a funny match, at the end we were singing going down, going down, etc to their fans, then four days later we both went down! They've never been back of course. They were a formidable side with their plastic pitch though until we beat them 2 - 0 in the 1990 promotion season!
 
Booker4 said:
I think that may have been the last time I saw us play Oldham too, I missed the League One matches with them I think. I recall they beat us at BL under Wilson in the Ched season and those points cost us dear in the end!

Quite like Oldham as a club, they should be in League One at least, always a decent atmosphere at Boundary Park too. That 1 - 1 was a funny match, at the end we were singing going down, going down, etc to their fans, then four days later we both went down! They've never been back of course. They were a formidable side with their plastic pitch though until we beat them 2 - 0 in the 1990 promotion season!
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I agree the 1-1 was a weird one, after beating newcastle it was in our hands. we scored first but then the game just drifted. i think we had a sending off but on the coach back it didn't feel as if we'd missed out. maybe we were just used to escaping in those days.

the 2-0 win was on the back of two defeats but we played great with webster up front! there weren't many united fans there that night, always regret not making the effort to go that night. we were the first to beat them there for about 40 games.
 
N20 Blade said:
Freeman epitomized all that was great about that era. Journeymen players who found their mojo and the best form of their careers. Players and fans alike bought into it. The Chesterfield game was shortly after his mum's death and you could see how much the fans' support meant to him and his young family. Did he score that day too? For some reason the fact he and sharp scored in the first win away that season set the tone for what followed. Like you say a full back should not be scoring so many goals in the box. Brilliant. No wonder the poor lad's legs have gone after all those great sprints up and down the pitch for us.
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Well certainly great sprints up the pitch, but he needed half an hour to get back to his defensive full back position.
 
S64 Blade said:
I don't know why, but I've always quite liked Oldham for some reason. Respect any fan of clubs like theirs, who are neighbouring to some huge teams. Must be tough going turning up every week.

Always quite liked the trips to Oldham in the L1 years, in a sadistic sort of way. Big away end and only a short trip from the delights of Manchester.

Hope they can make it back into the football league.
Click to expand...

They don’t like us very much, strangely. Always found Oldham a bit like NE Lancs - a bit grim.
 
N20 Blade said:
I agree the 1-1 was a weird one, after beating newcastle it was in our hands. we scored first but then the game just drifted. i think we had a sending off but on the coach back it didn't feel as if we'd missed out. maybe we were just used to escaping in those days.

the 2-0 win was on the back of two defeats but we played great with webster up front! there weren't many united fans there that night, always regret not making the effort to go that night. we were the first to beat them there for about 40 games.
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Might not have been many there, but they certainly celebrated the goal!

 
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