14th March 2000     

Foster returns to Rovers

ATHLETIC striker Mark Allott tonight takes his first tentative steps on the road to recovery from injury. Allott, who will be 22 on Thursday, has reason to celebrate early as he is earmarked for a return in the home reserve-team match against Birmingham City at Boundary Park. Manager Andy Ritchie is hoping to give Allott, who has missed the last six matches with a torn hamstring, a run out in the last 20 minutes after naming him as a substitute. Athletic's competition for striking places is hotting up as Matthew Tipton also plays for the reserves having completed a four-match ban. 

The reserve team tonight also includes trialist Richard Dunning, a right wing-back, who is a member of Blackburn's under-19 Academy side. Dunning, who was with Athletic as a schoolboy before joining Blackburn, played in the reserves last Thursday against Manchester City. Midfield player Martin Foster, a trialist from Doncaster Rovers, also played against City but is unable to do so tonight because the Yorkshire club is in action. As preparations begin for Saturday's home match against Bristol City, Ritchie will have Shaun Garnett and Tipton available after suspension. But it is still too early to say what Richard Graham's prospects are. The injury-jinxed defender missed the Wycombe match after straining a groin playing in the garden with his son.

On the 10th anniversary of Athletic’s glorious ‘pinch-me’ season MICHAEL YARWOOD talks to the personalities involved in the club’s most memorable and successful period Thanks for the memory, Latics. To many Athletic fans — especially those who endured the dark and disappointing years which went before — it seems like yesterday. The glory, the exposure, the shock upon shock upon shock, the sheer unpredictability of it all . . . no season in the club’s long history can match 1989/90, the year Oldham Athletic became national heroes. In fact, those days were a decade ago. It was a different century, a different millennium. And today, March 14, is exactly 10 years to the day since Aston Villa arrived at Boundary Park for an FA Cup quarter-final.

They were top of the old first division, boasted half a dozen internationals and possessed a manager, Graham Taylor, who would be leading England within the next six months. Athletic, of course, stuffed them out of sight. Rick Holden’s glorious left-foot curler; Villa’s Chris Price scoring the most celebrated own goal ever seen at Boundary Park; Neil Redfearn on hand to tuck away a rebound. Three-nil, no problem. Bring on United. Yet, to paint a stark picture of Athletic’s astonishing achievements that season, the surprise giant-killing wasn’t really a surprise at all. They had already beaten Arsenal, Southampton, West Ham and Everton in either FA or Littlewoods Cup. This was par for the course, just another indelible image for the memory banks of Athletic’s euphoric faithful. The hammering of Villa was to be the final cup success of that 10-year-old campaign. Not the final act — there was still a Littlewoods Cup final and an epic FA Cup semi with Manchester United to come — but the final taste of victory.

It had begun much more modestly, at a time when words like ‘cup’ and ‘run’ seemed like a foreign language to fans in the know. Leeds, at the time sharing Athletic’s status as one of the better sides in division two, took the lead through Gordon Strachan in the Littlewoods Cup second round. The response from Joe Royle’s side was to hit back through Andy Ritchie and Rick Holden for a 2-1 first-leg lead. No-one could have it known it, but that fighting spirit was to surface again and again over the course of the next seven-and-a-half months. The tie was settled before half-time in the Elland Road return, Ritchie and Frank Bunn making it 4-1 on aggregate before Leeds pulled one back. Next came Scarborough, conquerors of Chelsea in the previous round but now flattened 7-0 thanks to six-goal Bunn and his finest moment.

Athletic had already matched their best run in the League Cup — but the adventure was only just beginning. Arsenal, the reigning champions and league leaders, succumbed 3-1 on Boundary Park’s controversial plastic pitch, thanks to Ritchie (2) and a spectacular blast from emerging midfield star Nick Henry. In the quarter-finals, a long midweek trek to Southampton looked doomed to end in despair. Then, deep into injury time, Ritchie slid in his second equaliser and it was all back to Oldham where, in a replay which left hundreds of supporters locked out, the first division team were beaten 2-0. Meanwhile, Athletic were also making good progress in the FA Cup, beating Birmingham after a replay and Brighton in round four. There was no doubt that, by that stage, cup fever had well and truly gripped the town.

IN THE build-up to the Littlewoods Cup semi-final against West Ham, television crews descended, excitement mounted and the wise-cracking Royle became a popular figure nationwide. It was a two-legged affair beginning on February 14, but everyone knew that Athletic’s Wembley hopes could rest on their performance aboard Boundary Park’s magic carpet. West Ham began the game with a sweeper system. And, in a manner which now seems more crazy than cavalier, Royle immediately threw Ian Marshall into a five-man frontline. Could you imagine that happening these days? Well, no-one could it imagine it happening in those days either. But it worked to stunning effect. By the 78th minute, Athletic were 6-0 up through Neil Adams, Roger Palmer, Earl Barrett, Rick Holden and two-goal Andy Ritchie, who had now scored in every round of the competition. It was dubbed the St Valentine’s Day Massacre and, despite losing the second leg 3-0, Athletic had reached the Twin Towers for the first time.

BACK IN the FA Cup, Everton were the next target for a young side bristling with confidence, bubbling over with goals and, despite their marathon season, bursting with energy. For the footballer, adrenaline is like a drug. The more you have it, the more you want — and Athletic had become addicted. It looked like the end of the road for Royle’s side when Everton went two up within 25 minutes, Graeme Sharp registering the opener against his future employers. Yet Ritchie’s penalty and Roger Palmer’s equaliser took the teams back to Goodison Park, where Marshall’s extra-time header was cancelled out by a late penalty. So here we go again. Replay number two, played at Boundary Park after Athletic won the toss for venue, and The Toffees came unstuck as a Marshall penalty made it 2-1, again after extra time.

Villa were crushed four days later and what had begun as an optimistic chant — “Put the champagne on ice, we’re going to Wembley twice” — suddenly had a very realistic ring. EVEN TODAY, many who watched as neutrals will tell you that Athletic’s FA Cup semi-final with Manchester United was the most memorable of recent years. It was the aristocrats versus the people’s favourites, big business against misty-eyed romance. Viewers in 26 countries watched a gripping see-saw battle as Athletic went ahead through Barrett. United hit back through Bryan Robson and Neil Webb, only for Marshall to force the extra half-hour.

Danny Wallace put United back in front but — providing drama on a Shakespearean scale — Palmer ghosted in at the far post to set up another Maine Road cracker. The rematch saw Brian McClair make it 1-0, Ritchie pounce 10 minutes from the end and, in yet another period of extra time, Athletic again thrilled the nation by throwing five up front. But, this time, they paid the price. Local lad Mark Robins slotted in the 110th-minute winner and the curtain had finally fallen on Athletic’s dream of a Wembley double.

THAT bitter disappointment was quickly brushed aside as the build-up began to the Littlewoods Cup final. The town’s rugby league club were also aiming for Wembley in the Challenge Cup and sport had become Oldham’s greatest unifying factor, bringing together communities with one shared dream. It was a scorching day when Athletic met cup holders Nottingham Forest. Thirty thousand excited fans — bedecked in scarves, hats, rosettes or anything remotely blue and white — headed south, while everybody else sat glued to the television. On April 29, 1990, the borough of Oldham pulled up the shutters, blotted out its problems and soaked up a day unique in its history. The result, of course, was the wrong one for all bar the strangely subdued Forest contingent. Long-standing Athletic fans have never really forgiven Nigel Jemson for scoring the only goal of the game but, deep down, everyone knew this day was more about the occasion than the right result. Twenty-four hours later, that was shown by the amazing and affectionate turn-out for a richly-deserved civic reception. In material terms, Oldham Athletic ended the 1989/90 season just as they began it. After 65 matches, they had won precisely nothing. But they captured the hearts of a town, the minds of a nation and, as the following season would show, had laid the foundations for a return to football’s big time.

FRANK BUNN, now a youth coach at Manchester City, had a telepathic understanding with strike partner Andy Ritchie. “Scoring six goals against Scarborough has to be my personal highlight,” he said. “It isn’t the kind of thing that happens very often and I only ever did it before, or after, when I was playing as a schoolboy. “It’s a record which hasn’t been broken, although one or two people have got close. “We were 5-0 up at half-time (Bunn had scored all five), but I wasn’t aware of any record until after the game. “Playing at Wembley later on was unforgettable, but so was the homecoming when we got back to Oldham. “There were thousands of people out on the streets and we got a great reception. “We only just missed out on the play-offs at the end of the season and it was a shame we didn’t make it. By that stage, the number of games was starting to catch up with us.” 

Darren Wassall is also included in the reserves tonight, his first game for six months as he tries to resurrect a career plagued by an Achilles tendon injury for two months. The central defender has been told his contract will not be renewed when his current deal runs out at the end of the season, but now has the chance to sell' himself to other clubs. Wassall, who last played in the first team against Exeter in the Worthington Cup in August, is still part of Francis's plans, the manager hoping to have him as back-up to David Holdsworth, Darren Purse and Michael Johnson.