Saturday 30th November
The GKA had no idea how close or easy it would be to get to Oldham
Athletic Football Club. The weather was
clear and so were the roads and it took 47 minutes to arrive.
And I parked on this street… because it was close to the junction and I followed
other fans like a sheep.
From the car is was a 3-minute walk up the street.
Towards this excellent old-school stadium.
And home to Oldham Athletic.
The Latics School of motoring seemed to be attached to the stadium as I
continued towards the designated turnstiles for my pre-bought ticket.
This took my down a precariously looking slippery path towards entrance points
29, 30 and 31.
The ticket had cost me £15.
Stadium costs so
far – Men v Women
Men £79
|
£1 Women
|
Inside it took me directly to ‘Wrights’ and their sign stated that Match Day was Pie Day.
So, how could I resist – It cost £5.50 for a coffee and a steak pie (the
coffee came straight out of a ‘draft’ tap on the bar).
I entered the ground it was a lovely day; the temperature was 4 degrees
and I had bought a fantastic seat on the half way line – this makes watching
football so much easier as you can see the whole game.
Unless you tried to see what was happening in the Burton Albion goal
mouth.
Deacon Blue’s ‘Dignity’ was playing over the PA and I noticed that the
Latics are sponsored by a Manchester based company called Wakelet – these guys
are friends of mine, so check out their Website https://learn.wakelet.com/ (shameless plug by the GKA).
The game kicked off and the atmosphere was quiet. People in the stadium were chatting and not
watching the match.
Behind the goal to my left were the other home fans and I could hear
drumming and singing, but this would often go quiet.
Boundary Park has a capacity of 15,513 people and 2858 fans attended
this game – perhaps a smaller attendance in a larger stadium affects the atmosphere.
On the 23rd minute, Burton Albion scored and the crowd behind
their goal erupted with sound.
In a half that was mainly dominated by Burton Albion, I could hear people’s
conversations throughout. One guy was
complaining that his wife was making him buy a Christmas Tree (Merry Christmas
everyone) and others were quietly complaining about the game.
Fan 1 – ‘There is something missing on that left wing’.
Fan 2 – ‘Yeah, a player’.
Fan 3 – ‘Do we have to have a tree?’
Various fans – ‘Why is there no one in the middle?’
We wound up to half-time and it was still a larger attendance than the GKA
has seen in the women’s route.
Attendances – Men V Women
Men 15,079
|
306 Women
|
Highest Number of Fans
Notts County
|
5,729 (4th Qualifying Round)
|
Blackpool FC
|
5,371 (1st Round Proper)
|
Oldham Athletic FC
|
2,858 (2nd Round Proper)
|
Belper Town FC
|
528 (3rd Qualifying Round)
|
Rushall Olympic
|
259 (1st Qualifying Round)
|
Rushall Olympic
|
249 (2nd Qualifying Round)
|
Sheffield FC
|
184 (Preliminary Round)
|
Avro FC
|
150 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
|
Liverpool Feds LFC
|
109 (1st Round Proper)
|
Stockport County Women
|
75 (3rd Qualifying Round)
|
Sunderland West End Ladies
|
54 (1st Qualifying Round)
|
Curzon Ashton Ladies
|
44 (Preliminary Round)
|
Mossley Hill Ladies
|
24 (2nd Qualifying Round)
|
A recent BBC article had stated there has been a 60% rise in the number of fans watching women’s football this season. However, this only seems to be affecting the Women’s Super League.
During half time, ‘Don’t you forget about me’ by Simple Minds blasted through the PA and I took my usual stroll and corner flag photo.
I noticed a
stadium dog that had been enjoying a large bowl of food.
And I found
this sign amusing because it’s the title of a 1986 Bon Jovi Album (minus the caution).
The second
half kicked off; the flood lights came on; a crescent moon appeared above the
opposite stand; and most importantly, Oldham Athletic actually turned up and
gave Burton a game.
Oldham gave
as good as they got in the second half and this woke the crowd. They seemed to get
more animated and angrier at every decision that the referee made. The language was tame compared to most games
I’ve attended as no F-words or C-bombs were dropped.
It was more
like this: -
Fan 1 - ‘Get
up, you stupid Trollope.’ **
Fan 2 – ‘Get
up, you Pansy.’ ***
Fan 3 – ‘Do I
really have to get a tree?’
Various fans
in unison – ‘The referee’s a wanker.’ ****
5 Yellow
cards were awarded in this game.
Penalties and Cards
– Men v Women
Penalties - Men 1
|
2 Women
|
Yellow Cards – Men 26
|
3 Women
|
Red Cards – 1
|
0 Women
|
Despite the increased
support and the much-improved Oldham performance, the game ended 0-1 and I had
a great afternoon at Boundary Park. By the end of the match it had got a little
chilly and I was happy to be home 45 minutes later.
The GKA wishes
Oldham Athletic good luck for the rest of the season and Burton Albion won
£54,000 in prize money.
Prize Money – Men V
Women
Men £136,390
|
Women £2,935
|
Prize Money Leaders
Burton Albion FC
|
£54,000 (2nd Round Proper)
|
Blackpool FC
|
£36,000 (1st Round Proper)
|
Notts County FC
|
£18,750 (4th Qualifying Round)
|
Belper Town FC
|
£11,250 (3rd Qualifying Round)
|
Rushall Olympic
|
£11,250 (1st & 2nd
Qualifying Rounds)
|
Sheffield FC
|
£2890 (Preliminary Round)
|
Litherland Remyca
|
£2250 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
|
Brighouse Town Women
|
£1450 (1st Round Proper +3rd
Qualifying Round)
|
Mossley Hill Ladies
|
£1,035 (1st Qualifying Round+
Preliminary Round + Extra Preliminary Round)
|
Stockport County Ladies
|
£450 (2nd Qualifying Round)
|
Route Men’s
Avro Fc 3
|
4 Litherland
Remyca
|
Sheffield FC 2
|
1 Litherland Remyca
|
Rushall Olympic 3
|
1 Sheffield FC
|
Rushall Olympic 2
|
0 Gainsborough Trinity
|
Belper Town FC 2
|
0 Rushall Olympic
|
Notts County 2
|
1 Belper Town
|
Blackpool FC 4
|
0 Morecombe FC
|
Oldham Athletic 0
|
1 Burton Albion FC
|
This shows a 75%-win
rate for the home team.
** Trollope definition
– a vulgar or disreputable women who engages is sex promiscuously (not a very
accurate description of what happened in the game).
*** Pansy
definition – Wuss, weak or gay (I’ve not heard this term since the 1970s and apparently
back then, it was the ultimate insult to a person’s manhood).
**** Wanker definition
– I’ve not getting involved in this one!
Sunday 1st December
The GKA was
ready on Sunday for the 2nd game of our men’s/women’s FA cup bonanza
weekend.
However, blog guest Mr Tops informed me that the Chorley Women V Brighouse
Town Women game had been postponed due to a frozen pitch. The is the 2nd
women’s game that has been postponed since our adventure began (Mossley Hill
Ladies had a match re-arranged for a water-logged pitch – no men’s games have
been called off so far).
To be fair to
Chorley, it was -2 degrees all day and this dropped to -4 in the evening. They confirmed on their Twitter feed that the
game would be re-arranged, most likely to be next Sunday 8th
December.
The women’s
third Round Proper Draw has already been made as this was broadcast live on
Talk Sport 2 at 11.30am this morning (02.12.19) – Chorley or Brighouse have got
a home tie against Barnsley Women.
In the GKA original
men’s route on Sunday, Northampton Town beat Notts County 3-1.
The men’s
draw for the 3rd Round Proper is on BBC tonight (02.12.19) at 7.00pm.
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