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Oldham’s 3-1 victory over Crewe on Tuesday night will have gone unnoticed by many, not because of the result or the performance, but because it came in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

It’s probably understandable that even many who shell out their money to watch Latics every week treat this competition with distain. Before our win at Scunthorpe in the previous round it had been four seasons since we’d won a single game in it. To make matters worse, all those defeats had come at Boundary Park. In fact, in the last ten years there have only been four campaigns where we recorded victories in the various guises of the Football League Trophy (Paint Pot Trophy, Mickey Mouse Cup, call it what you will).

This season, however, it is clear that Paul Dickov is treating the tournament seriously and I think it is about time the fans did too. I’ve not seen every game this year but I have seen enough to suggest that we are likely to finish mid-table. Saturday gives us a good chance to progress in the FA Cup and it’d be great to think that we could get to the third round and the chance of that money-spinning tie. We’re hardly likely to win it though.

The JPT provides us with a real chance of glory. There isn’t a side left in the competition that we are not capable of beating. Maybe I’m on my own here, but I support this club in the vain hope that one day I might see us win something. Perhaps the JPT wouldn’t be my first choice but I’m more excited about that than I am about whether we finish 10^th or 14^th in the league.

The lift that a trip to Wembley would give the club and indeed the town cannot be underestimated. I’m not saying that we’d suddenly find thirty thousand fans but I’d be surprised if we didn’t take fifteen to twenty thousand. The money that could be made from the merchandise alone must make Simon and Alan giddy in anticipation.

If we could go one step further and win the thing it’d lead to a real feel good factor. People who you’ve never seen at BP, or certainly not in the last twenty years, would suddenly want to be associated with the club “I was there at Wembley you know when they won the trophy”. While I doubt that crowds to league games would triple over night, there would be a marked increase especially if the confidence generated by success led to improved performances.

The money generated might even go some way towards helping with the redevelopment of Boundary Park (at the very least the sponsors might chuck in some paint).

This is Latics we are talking about though so there is still some way to go before we can really start dreaming. I’ve only ever seen a Latics’ captain lift a trophy aloft once in my lifetime (Isle of Man Steam Packet Festival and the Rose Bowl excepted). How fantastic it would be to see that open top bus once again whatever the competition.

My trip to Carlisle on Saturday was a real eye opener. Nothing to do with seeing us toss away a three goal lead, but for the journey itself. I’d made a last minute decision to go and didn’t fancy driving up there myself so I grabbed the last seat on the coach from the Junction Inn.

Sitting at the back of the coach I was surrounded by seventeen and eighteen year olds and I found it fascinating. I guess I don’t tend to mix too much with that age group but listening to them gave me a whole new perspective on modern day football. Ignoring the fact that I only understood half of what they said (I know now that everything is sick), I was genuinely surprised with their take on things.

I’ve contemplated in the past about the fact that there is a generation of Latics fans growing up who have no memory of the ‘glory years’ but I’d not really thought of quite what that meant. If you consider that most kids probably start going to football when they are about ten years old, that means that very few under the age of 27 will have any memory of us playing in the Premier League. Even worse, those under the age of 24 will be able to remember us playing in any division other than League One. That’s scary. We’re not just talking about kids here.

The lads on the back of the coach will probably have seen the last seven or eight seasons. In that time, we’ve finished sixth on one occasion (2006/7) and in 2004/5 we just avoided the drop finishing 19^th. Other than that and a cup win at Goodison, pretty much nothing has happened. Many of our older fans spend a lot of time complaining that we are not attracting enough young fans. Perhaps we should be marvelling at the fact that we are attracting as many as we are.

The attitude of the lads to other clubs also came as a bit of a surprise. I’m quite open about the fact that I have a dislike for a number of clubs but my real hatred is split between the reds down the road and W*nky Wanderers ( and not 50/50). The journey up to Cumbria coincided with United playing Everton. I automatically assumed that pretty much everyone on the bus would want an Everton win. To my surprise, there was great excitement behind me when Hernandez scored what turned out to be the winner. Again this was a sign of the changing face of football. It wasn’t that they wanted an away win. They’d got Hernandez in their fantasy team and some of them had got a United win in their accumulator. It’s a strange concept to me but perhaps it makes sense. Why would they have any strong feelings towards a team that they have never seen us play?

It should be stressed that these are not random lads I’m talking about, these are kids who are spending a large proportion of their disposable income following OAFC. In short they are the future of the club. Perhaps these are the people the club should be talking to about how to increase our fanbase and perhaps those of us old enough to remember Roger Palmer/Rodger Wilde/George Hardwick (delete as appropriate) should remember how lucky we are and show them a little more respect.

Barely a week goes by without an expression of outrage at the latest abuse chanted at a football match. The latest outburst at the North London derby has resulted in a joint statement from Tottenham and Arsenal condemning the culprits who apparently wished that Emmanuel Adebayor had been killed when the Togo team bus was attacked at the African Cup of Nations.

The question of what is acceptable and what isn’t is an exceptionally difficult one for me. There will be many out there who will claim that any kind of abuse is unacceptable and that is a perfectly reasonable argument, but I suspect that those saying it aren’t football fans.

In an idealistic world, what happens in a football ground should mirror what happens outside the ground. It would be totally unacceptable to shout abuse at someone as you pass them in the street so by this argument, the same would apply inside the stadium. The reality, however is that football is often somewhere you go to escape from the real world and the mentality is different once you pass through the turnstile. Football also stirs up a passion that is seldom felt about other pastimes.

When England played in Bulgaria last month the FA complained about the racist chanting that was directed at a number of our black players by sections of the home support. The British press, however, seemed more concerned about anti-Gypsy chants from the England contingent in the ground. My view was that the two incidents were poles apart. When the locals made monkey noises at Ashley Young, they were inferring that because he was black he was not human. That is a disgraceful inference that should not be tolerated. When the England fans retorted with “Where’s your Caravan?” it was a chant based upon stereotyping. This, to me, is acceptable. The fact is, however, that Gypsies are a race and so there is an argument that this was racial abuse.

My broad view has always been that abuse based upon a stereotype is acceptable. You will not see many games between a Lancashire and Yorkshire side where those from the right side of the Pennines will not sing about what the opposing fans do to sheep. I doubt many of them actually think that there are a large number of people in the ground who have partaken in such behaviour but the chant seems like fair game. Likewise, a game against Liverpool, Everton or Tranmere will lead to the assumption that nobody has a job and that your wallet is probably not safe.

What happens, though, when the stereotyping has a racial element? I will return to the case of Mr Adebayor. A chant aimed at him last season was described as “The most racist chant ever heard at a football match”. The chant referred to his parents and used a racial stereotype that people in Africa wash elephants. In many ways, this was no different to the kind of chants I’ve spoken about above but that racist element completely changed the perception of it.

The big story last year was of sectarian chanting at Old Firm games in Scotland. The hatred felt for each other by Rangers and Celtic fans is as strong as any I have witnessed and the venom can be felt in the songs that are sung. Scotland has even brought laws in the specifically outlaw any sectarian chanting. I think this is a particularly complex issue as the clubs are so deeply ingrained in their religious histories. If you were to successfully remove the religious aspects of the clubs, you would remove the soul of the clubs. My view is that while singing songs that abuse the opposition fans for being part of one religion should not be accepted, that doesn’t mean that all religious aspects of chants are necessarily a problem. The problem is that because of the strength of feeling involved, the likelihood of trouble flaring inside our outside the ground is high. It is that volatility of the atmosphere which leads me to the conclusion that this needs to be treated differently to chanting in England and that it is probably right that specific legislation exists.

The chanting at White Hart Lane on Sunday is similar to the other high profile case in recent weeks. The Leeds v Man Utd game in the League Cup was overshadowed by chanting from both sides. While the Leeds fans sang about Munich, the United fans were busy chanting “Istanbul”. All the logic in the world says that both these are despicable. I cannot put up any kind of argument as to why this is not wrong… but I also cannot put my hand on my heart and say that I have not joined in with similar chants.

The truth is that when you are at a game against a team you cannot stand, you will sing whatever will get to them most. This doesn’t mean that you want it to boil over and I cannot condemn enough those who were fighting outside Elland Road, I do, however, understand the chanting without condoning it. It’s probably a sad state of affairs but when you go to a game like that, you want your rivals to have as miserable time as possible.

It seems amiss as a Latics fan not to mention Ian Thomas Moore in this piece. There are many examples of individual players being subjected to torrents of abuse and ITM is probably the best example from an Oldham viewpoint. The fact that the abuse he receives is aimed at his parents is probably the reason that it disgusts some people. It is the prime example of a type of abuse that divides opinion. It is in no way racist/homophobic/picking on a disability etc. What it does do, though, is affect him. Sometimes it can lead to him playing out of his skin, sometimes he went into his shell, but he always reacted to it.

My overriding view is that football grounds cannot be allowed to become too sterilised. After a long week in the office, I want to be able to go and have a rant. Sometimes the ref will be the subject of my wrath, sometimes it will be plastic MK Dons fans and sometimes it will be Ian Moore (OK, not now as he’s retired). There are laws in place to prevent racist and sectarian chanting and I think that’s only right, beyond that though, football fans really need to police themselves. When you chant things that are ‘vile and inappropriate’ you make yourself and your club look bad. That should be encouragement enough to keep things within the realms of decency.

The season might only be eleven days old but I think it is fair to suggest that the first ten of them were not a good time to be a Latics fan.

So the season is finally upon us and it is time to look at how we are likely to fair this campaign. Add a comment

When I went on holiday last week, I did so fully in the knowledge that this Saturday would see the opening game of our final season at Boundary Park. By the time I returned the future had changed completely.