Search: 'Oldham Athletic'

For Dan Turner, a 1990 FA Cup semi-final was the first staging of a derby against Manchester United in his lifetime and a 3-3 draw still constituted nirvana

“Nick Faldo is on the verge of a second successive US Masters, yesterday we witnessed the fastest-ever Grand National, and this was the day you saw 13 goals in the FA Cup semi-finals” – I can still recall Des Lynam’s super-smooth sign-off on the video I watched as soon as I got home from Maine Road. I wasn’t much fussed about Crystal Palace’s earlier epic 4-3 victory over Liverpool, I just wanted to double-check that my eyes hadn’t been deceiving me for the previous two hours.

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Tom Davies examines the day to day struggle for survival of three clubs in the lower leagues

The wheels have well and truly come off at Barry Town. Mounting debts have caught up with the seven-times League of Wales champions, forcing the club into administration and the team to the bottom of the Welsh Premier table. The crisis came to a head shortly after shy and retiring John Fashanu quit in August. As reported in WSC 192, Fashanu took over at the end of last year with talk of using the club as a gateway to European foot­ball for African players for whom he acted as agent. But none of this came to pass and fans now see his tenure as just a publicity stunt.

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Could this be the end of the road for Oldham Athletic? Steve Ragg explains how a promising season suddenly went so wrong

From the brink of promotion to the edge of ex­tinction in what seems like no time at all. While hopes of Division One football died with the play-off defeat at QPR, Oldham Athletic may be killed off altogether if a solution to our latest crisis isn’t found very soon.

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Steve Ragg talks Latics

What have been your best and worst moments as an Oldham fan?
Seeing the team walk out at Wembley for the Littlewoods Cup final in 1990, then clinching the old Second Division title with a last-minute penalty in the final game the following year, represent a two-year spell that it is hard to see being beaten for a Latics fan. The worst: two last-minute goals, one against Leeds in the 1987 play-offs, the other, just too painful to mention.

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Wednesday 1 Norwich reach the First Division play-off final, beating Wolves 3-2 on aggregate after a 1-0 defeat at Molineux. David Jones declines to discuss his team’s decline (“What I think will stay in-house”), while Nigel Worthington is taking each day as a bonus: “Before the start of the season I’d have settled for eighth or ninth.” Cardiff miss the chance of a play-off final on their doorstep by losing 2-0 at home to Stoke in the second leg of their semi. In the other Second Division tie, Brentford beat Huddersfield 2-1. After two years in administration, Airdrie go into full liquidation and consequently lose their place in the Scottish First Division – any new club launched under the same name would have to start in the Third. A Turkish man is jailed for 15 years for the murder of two Leeds fans in Istanbul in 2000. Four others are found guilty of lesser charges.

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