But this is a blog, so I had to limit it to just the top 10 reasons.
1. Sing the blues. Did you know that teams who play in blue (like Oldham) win more than reds?
2. Be distinctive. Don't be a boring Town, City or County, let alone United, when you can be the only Latics fan - who else has such a unique name?
3. Support your local team. A proper, real club. Connect with your roots. Remember, your team chooses you, not the other way round.
4. Feel special. Nobody outside Lancashire supports Oldham, especially if you live miles away (like in Oxford... or Cambodia). You're not excluded, you're exclusive!
5. Find an Oasis. If you're stuck in the south of England and really can't make home games, simply join Oldham Athletic Supportors In the South (yes it really exists: http://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/page/OASIS)
6. Enjoy winning. Not often, it's true - but that's why you truly savour a Latics victory. If you follow the big bad Manchester monoliths you expect to win and hate to lose - where's the fun in that?
7. Get a ticket! No queues, no membership, just push the creaky turnstile and pick from banks of empty seats. True banter included, truly awful pies extra.
8. Savour an atmosphere. Hear 6,000 Latics fanatics fill the ground (not ripples of polite applause drifting from 60,000 gentrified Gooners at the Emirates). And laugh at away fans who actually paid to come to Oldham - and to the highest and most inhospitable ground in the country, where the away stand doesn't even have a roof!
9. Keep the peace. Appease your 'friends', who never feel threatened by League 1 nonentities (Division 3 in old money). Even seasoned yobs will show pity when you declare your allegiance - it's like a Glaswegian supporting Partick.
10. Watch the highlights. To see overpaid Premiership primadonnas you must stay in on a Saturday night, or buy a rip-off box / dish / gadget. Not so for the lower leagues - just click the iPlayer on t'interweb and you'll be singing the blues. Here's to another famous Latics win on good old council telly!
Ok, so there are other Latics - Wigan, and maybe Charlton (though aren't they Addicks?), plus maybe Forfar, Alloa and Dunfermline if Scotland counts, though why should it? So for uniqueness you have to support Spurs or Villa, or for proper (rubbish) teams Forest, Orient or Wednesday? Or Argyle, Albion or Alexandra?
ReplyDeleteOh, and there may now be a roof on the Rochdale Road end at Boundary Park.
And, according to a New Scientist study quoted in the Torygraph - agressive, dominant reds win 10% more - time to change colours lads http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6097954/Why-teams-in-red-win-more.html
Yes - I too thought it was the team in red that was supposed to win!!! (My word your blogs changed!!!).
ReplyDeleteSorry - should have written: blog's!!! Are you enjoying Radio 4 (live!!)??!!
ReplyDeleteYes, I was going to comment on the red/blue thing. I think that Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest would offer a fairly dominant collective of success in English football but I wonder what the global stats on that are?
ReplyDeleteI'll put in a pitch for Arsenal on naming for two reasons. First is that I don't know of any other teams nicknamed the Gunners. Second is that there can't be many teams with a train station names after them.
Many of the other points I'd concur with, although having grown up in N4 and able to hear when Arsenal scored (not so gentrified back in the 1980s!) from my back garden I do believe I was chosen by the mighty Gunners rather than the other way around.