The excitement was palpable, it was a trip into the unknown. We all knew of its existence as the name appears on the motorway exit signs, but we’d driven past countless times as if it was never there. It was all down to the Greetland Shayman, he’d telephoned earlier to say he wouldn’t have time for lunch before we left, and he ruled out the possibility of anywhere in Ripponden. So, with slight trepidation, we set off on our usual 24-mile journey, but this time with a detour to find a Lancastrian chippy in the town of Shaw.
After taking the scenic route, up hill and down dale, we located a council car park right next to our destination. Inside there was a choice, one room of the shop was a traditional chippy, another room sold multi-storey, sparkly ice creams and optional milkshakes with colourful umbrellas on top for afters. I’ll let you decide who had what, but I thought the chips were good value, especially as we were in Lancashire. Three pounds change after passing them a fiver, surely there must have been a mistake…
We rolled up to Oldham’s Boundary Park to find the Chairman outside the ground with an assistant and an extensive tape measure. In the last few days, the club have announced news of a new £70m sports, education and wellbeing campus at the ground. It’s a significant investment in the town, and perhaps more work than one man can handle, but to give him credit, he was making a start, regardless of fact that it was match day.
With over 1000 travelling Shaymen enroute to the ground, the stewards were in fine form as the first few of us arrived. It was just like being at school, filling up the seats in the far corner of the empty stand first, and only when that row was filled could you sit on the next row. Luckily, nobody mentioned alphabetical surname order, or I’m sure they would have tried that. Soon after as swarms of Shaymen arrived together, it was far too much for any control and everyone sat where they wanted, normality restored.
By kick-off the noise was tremendous. All the available seats in our stand behind the goal seemed full, the drum was banging, and unusual inflatables were being thrown around, it was a right atmosphere. The rest of the ground had a good number of home fans occupying the remaining three sides. It was an attendance worthy of our league position against a local rival.
The first half wasn’t great, the home side were awkward, not really threatening, but stopping Town from getting a foothold in the game. The course of the game changed midway through the half with an injury to the ever-reliable Johnson, he was struggling but wanted to carry on. Oldham took the lead soon after with the sort of shot that he would have saved routinely in any other game. Once the substitution was made, Oldham gave it plenty to force a second, credit to Ford, he came on and stood firm.
In the second half, Town were more threatening. A header across the goal mouth from a free kick gave us a moment of hope. It ended up wide with a Town boot just inches away from a killer touch. Oldham made it two in injury time, perhaps deserved given their control of the game. As we trooped out of the stand at full time, we passed the abandoned inflatables, now deflated amongst the discarded rubbish. It was a day of what might have been…
Next up and it’s a midweek trip to Working. We’ve got a good record there recently too.
C’mon Shaymen.
Miles on the road: 6082. Goals on the road: 29. Points on the road: 33.
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