2,445 At Boundary Park Tonight

There were more Reds fans there on Satdi!

 

Massive.

 

Really puts things in perspective in terms of the job Lee Johnson did there with what must have been literally no money, he himself would have probably earned more at ASOS.

 

That's frightening! They could well implode and be the one team that always plummets into
trouble in the run in

 

Abysmal away following doesn't help matters.

 

Yeah and back to 5000 at donny haha


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Just realised we sound like Wednesday fans discussing attendances, can we leave it there?

 

It's nothing to laugh about.
There but for the grace...... etc.
You've got to feel sorry for any struggling lower division side whose future gets worse week after week. It could have been us.

 

66. Incredible.

 

I wonder how many seats went flying. And whether any MK Dons fans actually sat down.

 

Evening. Oldham fan comes in peace Just to clarify, I work with MarioKempes and NezBFC, and I met them Saturday for a pint or 2 before the game. Good banter in the pub with like-minded football fans, just how it should be.

I didn't go to Boundary Park tonight, and I know a few others who dropped out. Since Lee Johnson left us with "his" team (A dodgy keeper, and a piss-poor striker who he spent money on 2 weeks before leaving), there's an air of deflation around Oldham Athletic.

Our board haven't helped matters since the whole Ched Evans Fiasco - I've heard 2 sides to that tale. One is that LJ wanted Evans, the other it was the board, not LJ who wanted him. I don't which is true, but I guess it'll come out eventually.

The other thing that has destroyed any confidence from us blues is that the board have failed to act since LJ departed. We promoted a mediocre coach in Dean Holden to be caretaker manager, and today, they made the announcement that he is in charge until the end of the season.

This is why the Latics fans have stayed away - the board has given up on what was a season of hope, and took a cheap option to allow us to fester in this league once more. I'd rather they got someone in to see out the last 10-11 games of the season rather than coming in blind in the summer.

Any vitriol aimed at LJ at Saturday's game is because of the above. He spun his yarns and deceived us. I liked the fella, but he's turned out be like a smarmy politician

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the season, and no doubt see you in this league next year, when LJ has left you for the next offer that comes his way ;-)

OWTB

 

Another fair weather supporter , as soon as things go the wrong way you stop going.

 

Thats pathetic , they dont deserve a football league team. Athersley Rec take more away than that ffs

 

If Oldham fans want to analyse what is wrong with their club they need look no further than themselves. I understand why attendances have dropped off for the last couple of matches, but the average for the whole season is only just above 4,000 and that isn't anywhere near enough to generate a budget that will produce a successful side. You can point fingers in any direction you want, but the simple truth is that a large percentage of your support has abandoned the club making the job of the board and the manager almost impossible.

I've heard it said that Johnson left Oldham for a big club. Absolute nonsense. We're Barnsley FFS. We are the proverbial small, unfashionable club. When big headed footballers find themselves playing in a league they believe to be below their station, it's 'the likes of Barnsley' they usually moan about having to visit. We're a small town club, kicking against the pr*cks, sometimes beating them, that's what makes us special. And Oldham used to be the same.

I reckon I've been to Boundary Park more than any other away ground. As I wrote on here the other day, I didn't see us win there in my first dozen visits. I always viewed Oldham as our most comparable opponents: similar sized northern town, similar attendances, similar aspirations, operating in the shadow of much bigger clubs on our doorstep - Man Utd and City in your case, Leeds and Sheff Wednesday for us. The fact that we played one another so often suggested a similar level of success. In actual fact, you've spent more years in the top division and fewer in the basement league - another example of what a nonsense it is to call us a big club. You had some players of a quality we could only dream about - Andy Goram, Earl Barrett, Denis Erwin, Andy Ritchie and Roger ******* Palmer. I'm not sure how many goals Roger Palmer scored in his career, I know he's your all time leading goal scorer, but I reckon half of those were against us. Then there was Frankie Bunn scoring a zillion goals in one cup game and you even signed Gary Lineker and Tony Cottee's strike partner from Everton.

The idea that back in the 80s or early 90s Barnsley could have waltzed in to town and stolen Joe Royle was ludicrous. You wouldn't just have laughed in our faces, you'd have beaten us up and stolen a couple of our better players for good measure. The only difference between now and back then is that the people of Oldham used to support the town's club, but now they don't, where as the people of Barnsley have stuck with it.

I know you've been down in this division for much longer than us and there may be an excuse in that, but we've been absolutely ***** for 15 years. Some of that time may have been spent in The Championship, but it's been fighting relegation every year, getting battered every week. We've lost a hell of a lot more games in that time than Oldham and we've got one of the worst records in the entire football league over the period. We've been awful. We've even seen administration come and go, but unlike many clubs that take that route, we actually came out the other side in a much worse position, losing all our assets in the process.

Make no bones about it, Lee Johnson came here for the money. Not to line his own pockets, but to work within a budget that makes it possible for him to achieve a bit of success at this level. We happen to have a rich owner who is a Barnsley fan and he has put money in to the club, but we're talking about a few million over a dozen years that gives us a bit of a leg up, not bucket loads of brass for the much lauded but never seen 'bums on seats' signings. Unless you count a fat Mido who wobbled about for 20 minutes, committed a sensational foul, ate the town dry of kebabs, then ****** off. We're not money bags, even by the standards of this division. The majority of our signings this summer were free transfers. Most came from league 2 or non league. We do have a bigger budget than Oldham and the reason for that is that more than twice as many Barnsley fans pay through the gates.

Lee Johnson didn't spin you a yarn. He didn't deceive you, Oldham fans let him down. He built you a decent team and had you challenging for promotion, but nobody turned up. If the people of Oldham can't be bothered, why should he?

Barnsley are no bigger club than Oldham, it's just that our fans haven't abandoned our club to ruin. You can blame an ineffective board or a manager walking out all you like, but nothing will ever change if no one goes to watch. That is the start and end of the problem.

 

Jay, that is outstanding. Your writing gets better & better each time you see fit to blather on about summat. Bravo.

 

Crikey, that's a hell of a post.

Bang on though, it never fails to both surprise and please me how our fans have stuck with us over the last few seasons. It seems that going back as far as the Premier League season we attracted an additional 2 or 3 thousand diehards who have stuck with us in good times and (mostly) bad.

 

Cracking post Jay. I am not sure why there is so much vitriol against LJ. If they didn't rate him then it should be positive he is gone. If they did then its all sour grapes. However I hope we get the backing back of the fans now for the run in and get the 500+ back on the gate that's been missing last run of home games from first 10 at the season start. Looking at our Away following enthusiasm and Preston's too I'm sure Saturday will be a good crowd 10k+

 

Be much more than 10k due to away following I would have thought.

 

More people are watching Stockport County, a team with a similar geographical profile and a much poorer tradition, in tier 6. Tells you all you need to know.