Dear Fellow Supporters,

Welcome back from the Easter holidays. As I explained in the last programme, Easter is the time when promotion and relegation is usually decided. Well...... on Saturday Oldham 0 Derby 1. Third from bottom and 4 points adrift! Monday night - Port Vale 1 Oldham 3, but still in a relegation position. Things still look desperate and I was going to give reasons for the demise but Ralph Bowen beat me to it with his article on page 7. I sincerely hope Graham Sharp proves us both wrong.

We have finally made a breakthrough on the information highway. Many thanks to Surfer Sam for several of todays articles and for his excellent research work. We now have access to a Latics Homepage. We were hoping to be the first to introduce such a service but were pipped at the post. The Chairman has been communicating with the homepage writer and now receives up to the minute reports on match results and other Latics news which, of course, will be passed on to you.

What does D.N.A. stand for?
National Society of Dyslexics.

Did you hear about the dislecksyck who went to a toga party dressed as a goat?

Did you hear about the dyslexic, agnostic insomniac who stayed awake all night wondering whether there was a dog?

What does the Latin S.P.Q.R- , often seen in Roman films, stand for?
I don't know. Is it the supporters club for dyslexic Queen's Park Rangers fans?

Did you hear about the dyslexic Muslim who tried to shoot Willie Rushton?

Did you hear about the Irishman who thought Dyslexia was a kind of indigestion?

And finally a song all together now........ Old MacDonald was dyslexic, E I J K P.

Scunthorpe Utd: Out: Dave Moore. in: Mick Buxton.

In a last ditch effort to salvage the season, Oldham managed to beat the signing deadline and snapped up scoring sensation, Bill Clinton. During his college years at Harvard, and subsequently his political career, Clinton was known for his tremendous ability to "score". In an effort to bolster his new career, his wife Hillary, was overheard to say, "Bill has always had a huge following of fans. I trust and understand him as he always aims to please. I only hope he wears the correct protection as broken bones at his age are difficult to heal.”

Did you know........

Boundary Parks record attendance was 47,671 for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday in the F.A. Cup in 1930. Four years later there was a crowd of 46,011 present to watch the two teams in another F.A. Cup fourth round tie!

Oldham's best performance in the League was in taking runners-up position in the First Division in 1915.

Their worst performances were when they were forced to apply for re-election in 1935, 1959 and 1960. In 1960 the Chairman was there. 1959-60 was his first season supporting the Latics.

VERONA - March 17th. 1996 - Verona authorities were forced to cancel plans to name a stadium after Italy's 1938 World Cup winning goalkeeper Aldo Olivieri after discovering that be was still alive. Newspapers reported on Sunday that city authorities had everything ready for the inauguration until they discovered the former Verona player, in whose "unforgettable memory" the ground was to be named, was not as dead as had been assumed. "Thanks for the initiative but I hope to live a while longer, touch wood, 86 year old Olivieri told the Gazzetta dello Sport from his home in western Italy!

The first of our competitions is very simple. Answer the following question to win one unit at a future meeting.

What does Kevin Keegan (Newcastle United’s manager) have in common with The Chairman?

Answers (amusing or serious) must be given in writing to the Chairman. The prize will be given to:
a) The correct answer or (tie breaker)
b) The most amusing answer.

As usual the Chairman’s decision is final. All entries will be published in the next programme.

It may seem a little early to be writing an obituary on the 1995-1996 season, but it is a fact that even if the Latics do stave off the drop it is has still been a sad and desperate season. Manager Sharp has had to contend with the perennial injury list that seems to plague Boundary Park. He has had to contend with a fall in revenue and a lack of funds to build the squad. He has found himself under pressure as the Latics' season spluttered to a standstill in December and has misfired regularly ever since. Commonplace but genuine mitigating circumstances.

On the transfer front he would appear to have done better than you might think. He has attracted several good and experienced players, like Orlygsson, Barlow and Gannon and held onto a significant number of players who may well have gone elsewhere. Tactically he is not lacking and at times the side has produced good flowing football, eager to attack in numbers but also to track back and defend resolutely. No-one has really given the Latics a spanking this season and for a team in their position the defence has been remarkably thrifty.

But when the Latics have failed to produce a showing, while the defence has usually held up, and so it should with the players at the club, there has been utter confusion and lack of fight in the midfield. At times there has been something almost comic in watching McCarthy drag defenders left and right, probing for openings, whilst the Latics midfield have either given the ball away, passed back to the defence, or simply put long balls into touch in the general direction of the corner flags.

When Sharp dropped McCarthy as the long barren run continued, it soon became clear that whoever you had playing up front, the chances of a decent through-ball to chase, or a penetrating cross being whipped in, or the astute diagonal ball from midfield to split the defence were absolutely zero. In the game at Swindon in an FA Cup tie, the Latics failed to win a single corner. Players scampered up and down, left and right, there was plenty of individual effort but there was no pretence of any purpose to most of what anybody did. It was as dismal a 90 minutes I've ever witnessed.

Sharp obviously saw the midfield as the problem. His most concerted attempts on the transfer market have been to bolster this difficult area for him. There has been a marked lack of continuity in the midfield due to injuries and team changes as Sharp has striven to find a good blend from what he has had available.

Given this, the midfield has been absolutely terrible for most of the season. A good midfield obviously, plays as unit. Broadly speaking it might essentially be combative, harrying, chasing back, closing down but always looking to release the ball to an overlapping defender, or winger/striker running into space and follow this up quickly to lend support. Alternatively it will look to spread the play, hold the ball up, sit back in front of the defence, play a more patient game peppered with cultured passes, flair and vision. Such midfields are rarely found outside the top half of the Premier and they always contain a recognised ball-winner. To take Man Utd as an example, an Ince, Keane, Robson etc etc.

The best Oldham midfield in recent times was without doubt the Henry and Milligan duo. Around them when it worked best were Barlow and Irwin, for example, full-backs willing to get forward on the overlap. On either side of them you had players able to take on and beat defenders, good crossers of the ball and potential match-winners.

Take the current Latics rnidfield. Is there a Henry or Milligan ? Rickers shows flickers of promise but too often gives himself a lost cause to chase which often means he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. He doesn't read the game well enough, whether through lack of experience or not. Who else is there in the squad ? Nobody I don't think, realistically. We have plenty willing, in theory, to stand on the ball and make it play for them, get forward and score. Brennan, Richardson, Orlygsoon, Halle, to name just a few. But all these players too often drift around in a match. None of them are the type to take the game by the scruff of the neck and wring something out of it.

The problem throughout the whole squad really seems to be that as individual, names you can say.. oh he's a good defender/midfielder/forward but no matter how you arrange them in front of you, try it, they do not make an inspiring team.

In this way I sympathise with Sharp. He's got a squad of players lacking some essential ingredient which is why they have found themselves playing at Oldham. Where Royle was successful was that he saw something in certain players that no-one else did and could bring it out in them, or he could simply turn someone into a better player by making them believe they could be a better player. I think Warhurst was the best example. He had pace, but the footballing sensibility of a frozen pea. Royle turns him into a pacy man-to-man marker, extremely effective but prone to waving his hands about in front of the ball. The man becomes so inspired he becomes the subject of some serious transfer money and even takes to scoring remarkable goals at the highest level.

It is quite clear that Sharp is not in the same mould as his two most recent predecessors. You cannot fail to notice that he has neither the grit and passion of Frizzell nor the dedication and man management of Royle. Can you imagine yourself being inspired by Sharp? He hardly oozes grit, determination, warmth, understanding does he? At a club with resources he may well prove to be a decent manager, but decent managers make nothing of clubs like Oldham, Bolton or Swindon. They yo-yo between the divisions, fall out of the Cups in early rounds and breed young players to sell on. Good managers, potentially great managers, live on passion, commitment, motivation. They inspire the fight to overcome mightier opposition in the Cups, produce week in week out gritty performances. They achieve, they put the little clubs on the map, however briefly.

Royle and Frizzell achieved something very remarkable. Between them they sustained Frizzell's wonderful effort in getting the Latics into the second division and they both kept them up there. Since 1974 in fact. A fantastic record for a club whose gates can sink desperately low, as they did in the early to middle Eighties. Royle inspired the Latics further, all the way to the top flight and some epic cup campaigns.

In Sharp's defence, by the time Royle left, the squad was already showing signs of the malaise currently affecting it. But in all honesty I don't believe Sharp is the right manager for a club like Oldham. Ritchie, for example, a popular choice among fans, would have been better. I believe the Latics need to begin a new search for a manager whatever the final outcome this season. I don't feel Sharp has been a bad manager. I just think the wrong manager. Whatever the board's reasons you cannot help but think they were swayed by reputation, the chance of Harvey as a number two etc etc. It was not right for the club which is unfortunate for the Latics because relegation this year in particular will see them miss out badly, and it was not right for Graeme Sharp who may well yet prove a good manager but really was not able to provide the type of leadership required by a club like Oldham.

So, I don't condemn or over-criticise Sharp, but I do believe the Latics need to review the managerial position. Oldham Athletic can and should be a First Division club. It will be bad enough dropping lower than their current level for the first time since 1974, but we must get back at the first attempt. It is with this in mind, more than any other consideration, that I advocate a change.

Ralph Bowen --------------