roughyed34

Didnt know the man, but always sad when we lose a loyal supporter of our teams and clearly a character,and a friend to many of you guys,deepest condolences to all who knew him. RIP Les.

Well done to Tuoyo tonight, hat trick on debut for Castleford. Was great for us,nice to see him going well. Hope him and Gilly continue to develop and glad we played a part in their development 👏

Fair post HOTTB, don't think it's just "some of us" who want to be part of a supporter run club though ,that goes for everyone who has ORLFC at heart. Depends on who is voted in as "board" members wether the whole idea lives or dies. It would be a great step forward to go down that road of Supporter owned club although I can see many potholes along the way. Personally I think that this route is the future for most Champ/Champ1 clubs. Oldham need to re-engage the community and reenergise the fans, should actually be some sort of open forum/meeting for ALL fans/supporters to attend and discuss the Supporter led club route. It would be interesting to see exactly what support a scheme like this would garner. If hundreds turned up it would be worth exploring further, if three men and a dog did,then the future for RL in Oldham is bleak to say the least.

Spud,the new pitch size at Vestacare/Whitebank is 100x64 (thats the marked pitch size btw not including the gap between the pitch and stands),according to the plans passed by OMBC, Therefore a RL pitch would fit there in accordance to min standards as you have said with the required distances from the wall/fences.. Seems like it would be fine for RL. As for capacity etc I have no idea tbh, I'd be surprised though if it didnt meet RFL standards for Champ 1. The pitch size is stipulated in this PDF on page 7,for anyone interested. http://planningpa.oldham.gov.uk/online-applications/files/B5AF72D3BD5F50DE41C839D13756A5C2/pdf/PA_339093_16-DESIGN___ACCESS_STATEMENT-1580832.pdf

Positive that ML, thanks for the update.

Haha I hadn't actually noticed that Dave! lol

Bower Fold also has a brick wall in one corner, albeit further away than the football markings at Whitebank. Move the pitch in 1.5m or so and shorten it by the same and there is no difference at all really,maybe padding could be placed along the walls. For those who havnt seen it ,sorry for the footy pic but its about the best I could find. I wouldn't rule Whitebank out just yet

How can any club in Championship 1 confirm plans,squads,ticket prices etc when the RFL haven't even announced the format/funding for next season yet? Until they confirm the structure etc of the competition,players are in limbo,clubs and fans the same. The RFL may not confirm all that til the Champ 1 season is over.. CH has only said what he can,without the info from HQ ,a statement except to say we will compete next year is all that can be said really. I feel we will be back at Whitebank Rd,next season. It's the only logical solution really. It's a waiting game now til the RFL provide the info the club need and maybe after that we will hear more about the plans for next year.

Take it you didn't bother going today Old Yed? As it happens it was a decent game, played honestly between two fairly even matched sides. What made it even better was the banter and feeling between two sets of fans who's got behind there teams. Sit on the sidelines and complain all you want,if every two bob "Oldham" fan on here actually went to games then the crowd would have been in the thousands. Faceless wonders don't help the club, those players of ours and the fans that attended were a credit to both sides. Easy to criticise when you don't contribute to the club for whatever reason isn't it? Let's run a poll, how many people who contribute to the forum were there today. I know a few who were, the rest can get stuffed. Faceless,nameless,keyboard warriors. Doesn't matter who the chairman is,doesn't matter where we play. We all supposedly support ORLFC, guess not today though eh? Before Mr Bedford Roughyed jumps all over me again, the truth is above. Like it or lump it.Too many wannabes who don't support the club, chatting garbage day in day out because they don't actually go. This is a fans forum,clue is in the title, disgusted with the way people bang on about stuff. Fans support a club, most posts on here are from nobodies who don't support the club and just pick out negatives. Crowd size,Hamilton out etc, if any one of you can do better then buy the club and prove it, if not then shut up until you can. We had a great day today with the Dewsbury fans, our players appreciated our support. We lost, well that's normal.Even though it was a "poor"crowd it was made up of people that 100% back our clubs. Whatever the future is,I'd rather stand with those that were at BF today than half the so called fans that were not. Might upset a few, yet again,but I speak for myself. I can't help but be brutally honest when I spend every Sunday and a fair few bob following the team wherever they go and wherever we play.

There was a bus Whitworth, think it died a death, £1.50 or £2 return if I remember rightly. Last comment on this point from me HOTTB, I aint arguing about the crowd issue here, merely pointing out that 1000 extra bodies turned out for a glory game then disappeared and didn't return.. Amazing, no blame can be attributed to marketing at BF or any other reason. They picked a "I was there game" then bailed out.All the "don't like CH" stuff etc didn't matter to that 1000 folk when we were winning a trophy and gaining promotion. That's fact.So it is significant that people like to support the club in a final but don't turn up for regular games, even if half that number did regularly attend we would double our gate money and therefore have a bit more to improve the squads,marketing etc. Anyway, whatever the crowd on Sunday, I'm glad I can say its another "I was there" moment when the players thank us and shake our hands for the support they have had this season. That means more to me than anything to be appreciated by the lads we look upon as heroes. I hope for those that don't/cant go on Sunday it isn't the last time we will see an Oldham team in RL and we will return next season with everyone singing from the same hymn sheet and move forward together.

Be a strange game on Sunday, already down but a chance to sign off at home with a win. Dewsbury may rest a few with Toulouse in mind in the Shield semi the following week. The usual suspects will be there to say thanks for the efforts of the players and staff, not just for this season but the past ones too. Hopefully the majority of fans will turn up for that reason alone, we could also be saying goodbye to a few players as well, think they deserve a send off after the last 3/4 seasons. Funny how 2 years ago the crowd at Whitebank for the promotion game was over 1500, we will be lucky to get 400 on Sunday. Just shows how many people fade off when the bad times occur.Thats not a dig at peeps who cant go for various reasons,just fact that a successful team brings in more crowds. No idea really wether Scott will go, if he does its with my thanks as it will be for any players that leave/retire. Its been a roller coaster ride this season, some ups, loads of downs. The fans have played their part with tremendous vocal support everywhere we have visited and of course at home. What happens next is anyones guess really, we could do with a statement from CH just confirming we will have a team in Champ 1 next season, that would put some minds at rest. I'm not going with the feeling it will be the last game for the club, but it could happen. I don't blame people for being a bit ambivalent to attending on Sunday, its just a chance to say farewell to the players and staff for the year and the last game at BF (probably), as an aside the staff at BF in the bar etc have been amazing with us over the last 2 seasons and they deserve our thanks also. Hoping we finish the season in style and get the win. Then we build again and give it a good crack in Champ 1 to get a return to the Champ next season. Up the Yeds!

I thought long and hard about posting on the CH/club debate but for what is worth here is my point of view. We clearly have two factions with a common aim, those that go at present and those that have lapsed for various reasons. Clearly there are different points of view and all have valid points to make (even if we all find them unpalatable). The first thing we really should be doing is trying to unite EVERYONE who has an interest in ORLFC,meeting up,forming some sort of "Fans Group" and debating all the points which we all have. Perhaps then with everyone on the same page the animosity is diluted. CH does the best he can as a one man band, this season's relegation can't be levelled at him. As Scott Naylor said,it was his fault and the players and that group alone that failed. CH said last season at presentation night that he gave Scott more money to recruit and this was shown in the signings of Tyson,Neal,Leatherbarrow,Hewitt etc. On the terraces believe me,most people are aware of CH's shortcomings but as has been said before we still go to support the team not the regime. The supporters trust idea is one that I feel most fans would contribute to, the issue is when would the monies from the "investors" actually be enough to sustain a club and be accepted as a viable business from the RFL? If people had to pay in over 12 months say, it would take at least that time before enough would be in the pot to start. I can't see that enough people would have a spare grand to pay upfront.What happens in the "fallow" year? A members club is definitely the way forward in my opinion,how that is implemented is my concern. At present we have a club,if CH folds it then there are no guarantees of having another ORLFC being born from the wreckage. Maybe there is a hint of better the devil you know in that attitude, it's not the answer long term I know. Whatever happens I think we all want Oldham playing in Oldham with a solid foundation and long term future, no matter what division we are in, is that achievable I don't know, the cinicism aimed at some previous efforts at talking to CH are born from the fact that sometimes for the fans on the terraces it's incredibly frustrating that we hear from some quarters that there are thousands of fans in Oldham that would go if there was a regime/ground change. Are there really that many people actually interested in pro/semi pro rugby in Oldham these days? That's not a go at anyone just a simple fact that people have drifted away from the game generally and nowhere is that more apparent than in Oldham. Very few kids go to the matches,no disrespect but we have a ageing fanbase. The problems lie deeper than just a regime/ground change, we need to get people excited about Oldham RLFC again and rekindle the enthusiasm of those that have drifted. To actually get 2000 people or more of all ages through the gates is a massive ask. Maybe changing the regime/ground would encourage more to go,I certainly hope it would. Financially the game is precarious, £70000 funding in Champ 1 is not a lot of money to run a club,nor is £150000 in the Champ. Money has to be made from outside that via any means possible. Merchandise,a proper supporters club,connections with local business. These are all things that CH fails in,but as I say at the present time we still have a club. Change is needed,how it happens is unknown. Hopefully we can all pull together and come up with some form of "plan" that benefits the great name of ORLFC and maybe,just maybe one day,3000 or more fans will once again stand united behind the banner of ORLFC.

Excellent work Dave,spot on pal 👏👏

Fair play to Swinton today, took every chance on offer. We did indeed boss the first half and I thought at 12-6 we would turn it around and win the game. That went west rather quickly lol. Swinton fans were a credit today, showed the spirit of RL, could have took the proverbial out of Oldham fans quite easily but were compassionate and supportive of our club. Many thanks for that. Wish you all the best next season, congratulations on staying up.

Totally agree Andy , don't know what happened second half, we seemed to lose enthusiasm, will to win, deviated from what was working in the first half. I must admit at half time I thought we would kick on and win it. Sadly it wasn't to be, although that was the final nail in the seasons coffin, it's a culmination of promising much but delivering nothing. Ifs and buts are easy in retrospect, over 30 games we were not smart/good/lucky enough to survive. We should have been, I can't help feeling that the Summer Bash game was a huge turning point.