Positive Points about Boundary Park

A few thoughts from Simon Wright on his visit to Oldham last Sunday.

• Ice Station Zebra was warm! Its quite hard to explain this phenomena to those who haven’t visited Oldham before. Its always cold. This is one of the great unwritten laws of football that Oldham and Hartlepool will always be the two coldest venues in the Football League. In his match report for the Guardian, Phil Shaw felt compelled to comment on the weather, such was the transformation from “notoriously blustery.” In my dozen or so visits in the 1980’s and 1990’s, only once were we not wrapped up like Eskimos… and that solitary occasion was in early August. The “Boss” and I were easily picked out in the away end. We were the ones sporting heavy coats and smug expressions “we know better”. But we didn’t! Clearly global warming is big in Lancashire … we even spotted several palm trees in the town on the way out.

• The warmth of the Latics club officials. The car park attendants were both elderly and highly affable. They put on a great PR show as did the turnstile operator (female) who offered a hearty “thank you, sweetheart” for each note pushed in her direction. I did a double take. Think back to the over-eager Leeds stewards .. or even worse the megalomaniac at Mansfield who insisted all the 100 people dotted around a 1,000 seater stand had to sit down.

• Ah yes… the car park. I was grateful that nothing dropped off the car as we bounced across the rutted surface. It was rough in their pre-Premier League days… and its still rough now. Quite how they get away without being sued in these litigious times, I have no idea. Imagine night matches where the ruts become invisible underfoot……

• Not removing the top from plastic coke bottles sold in the ground. Such common sense - for once. I remember being particularly annoyed when Tamworth insisted on removing tops… Tamworth who are very grateful if they get 1,000 people through the turnstile… its farcical because clued up supporters carry a spare top in their pocket to counter such a practice.

• That Hereford supporters can still retain their sense of fun. Gallows humour abounded such as chants of “the Bulls are going up.” Nice one. The comprehensive defeat reminded me somehow of my first pair of away League matches with the Bulls – at Third Division Walsall and Oxford back in the 1978-79 season. Hereford lost both heavily and were relegated … yet the craic was still going strong.

• That under-strength Oldham didn’t score 6 … or 7 … or

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