Oldham away preview

[Sweden Stag]

Following the impressive 4-0 rout of Morecambe on Good Friday, the Stags now want to maintain their promotion push when travelling to Oldham Athletic and Boundary Park for a league fixture for the first time in sixteen years on Easter Monday. And incredibly enough, our home fixture against the Latics earlier this season followed on another 4-0 mauling with Northampton Town on the receiving end.

In the League, the Stags and Oldham have only faced each other on three occasions during the last half-century after having played against each other very frequently from the second post-war season up to the Stags’ FA Cup quarterfinals campaign in which Oldham were relegated to basement for the first time, albeit the Latics did not qualify for the new third a decade earlier.

Following relegation in 1968-69, it took Oldham two seasons to climb out of the basement. In the 1970-71 season, Oldham scored left right and centre a total of 88 League goals, and their final basement game to be for 47 years was a 1-1 home draw against Stockport County.

That was at a time when the Stags faced Oldham quite frequently in League fixtures, as the sides were promoted together in the Stags’ first-ever promotion season in 1962-63, the Stags in fourth position and the Latics in second as both sides were in the promotion reckoning all that campaign with the sides winning one home game each. The game at Oldham in October 1962 was watched by nearly 24000 who saw Oldham win 3-2 at Boundary Park. The game at Mansfield on March 9, 1963, was the Stags’ first FL game at all for over three months due to the severe winter conditions then. The Stags went on to win 4-2 thanks to three goals from Wagstaff and one strike from Hall.

Oldham later went on to play seventeen straight seasons at second level and therefore faced the Stags in their one season there 40 years ago. Then, the sides won the away games, Oldham 2-0 at Mansfield and the Stags by the only goal at Oldham late that season.

Oldham, who were one of the 24 founder members of the fourth tier, were also to be one of the 20 PL founder members but were ever-present at third level from the 1997-98 up to the final twenty minutes of last season and played the Stags in the 2002-03 season. The Stags’ trip to Boundary Park on September 14, 2002, was one to be quickly forgotten. A 6-1 rout after one of the Stags' worst performances that season. The home game at Field Mill on March 1, 2003, was one of poor refereeing. Just read through the Stagsnet report of that fixture to understand why. Three red cards, referee rating 0 and a late converted Oldham penalty were things that very well summed up the Stags' most recent season above the basement division.

The Stags’ latest home victory against Oldham in League fixture was in the third level on February 5, 1972 to a 2-1 scoreline with Wignall and Fairbrother as Stags scorers.

In the FL, the Stags and Oldham have previously been playing together during 24 seasons, starting in 1935 with a 1-0 Stags home win on August 31, 1935. The sides were promoted together from the basement division way back in 1962-63, Oldham in 2nd position and the Stags in 4th, and also clashed in the Stags' so far solitary season at second level in 1977-78 with the sides winning their away games then. Oldham did play 21 consecutive seasons at League One level, a record for consecutive campaigns at that level. During that time, the Latics did change bosses almost every season. And none have lasted three full years since the reign of Joe Royle between 1982 and 1994. His predecessor, Jimmy Frizzell, also lasted twelve years, from 1970 to 1982 and was Latics boss when the Stags last beat Oldham in league fixtures. This season has also been one of Oldham management instability, despite beating Fulham at their place to a 2-1 scoreline in the FA Cup third round earlier this year. Their manager then, Pete Wild, left one month later to be replaced by Paul Scholes, once recent Manchester United great. But Scholes lasted only one month at Boundary Park, and Pete Wild returned into the Oldham hot seat, which have seen over twenty different names since our latest FL visit in September 2002. It was quite different when the sides played at second level in 1977-78. The Oldham boss then, Jimmy Frizzell, lasted twelve years from 1970 to 1982 as did his successor, Joe Royle, who also managed the Latics for a short time a decade ago.

The game at Mansfield earlier this season was the first-ever goal-less one. At Oldham, also only one game has finished without goals, and that was early on in the 1966-67 Division Three campaign. And after the 1-1 draw at Field Mill on September 2, 1967, Oldham played 29 consecutive league fixtures without a single draw.

In the 1960's, Oldham dumped the Stags out of the FA Cup twice in three seasons. Oldham player at that time: Billy Dearden, later to boss the Stags and was manager when the sides clashed in the League Cup a decade ago. John Thompson, later to play for the Stags, starred for Oldham then and played in that game which ended in a 4-1 defeat for the Stags.

Oldham’s latest home fixture was a 2-2 home draw against Swindon last weekend. Incidentally enough, Swindon were relegated together with Oldham from the Premier League way back in 1994.

Played for both sides: Eric Betts, John Bingham, Paul Black, Alfred Brown, Joel Byrom, Giles Coke, Craig Davies, Zander Diamond, John Dungworth, Ben Futcher, Alex Iacovitti, Jake Kean, Ged Keegan, Brian Kilcline, Bob Ledger, Adrian Littlejohn, Scott McNiven, Jacob Mellis, Neil Moore, Kenneth Murray, Christopher Ogden, Keigan Parker, Martin Pemberton, John Ryan, Arthur Sharp, Chris Staniforth, Steve Taylor, Stuart Thom, John Thompson, Matthew Tipton, Paul Warne, Steve Whitehall, Jonathan Worthington.

Stats on league games:

Home stats: P 25, W 12, D 5, L 8, GF 45, GA 36.
Away stats: P 24, W 2, D 9, L 13, GF 23, GA 46.

Season Home Date Away Date

1935-36 1-0 1935-08-31 1-4 1935-12-28 Div 3 (N)
1936-37 1-2 1936-11-14 1-1 1937-03-20 Div 3 (N)
1947-48 1-1 1948-01-03 1-1 1947-08-30 Div 3 (N)
1948-49 3-2 1948-09-18 0-4 1949-02-05 Div 3 (N)
1949-50 3-1 1949-12-26 0-1 1949-12-27 Div 3 (N)
1950-51 3-1 1950-12-26 0-2 1950-12-25 Div 3 (N)
1951-52 2-1 1952-02-23 3-5 1952-05-03 Div 3 (N)
1952-53 0-2 1952-12-27 0-1 1952-12-26 Div 3 (N)
1954-55 1-3 1955-01-29 1-1 1955-01-08 Div 3 (N)
1955-56 2-0 1955-09-05 1-1 1955-09-12 Div 3 (N)
1956-57 2-4 1956-09-22 1-1 1957-02-02 Div 3 (N)
1957-58 4-4 1957-11-02 1-1 1958-03-15 Div 3 (N)
1960-61 1-2 1961-04-03 1-3 1961-03-31 Div 4 (old)
1961-62 2-0 1962-03-26 3-2 1961-11-15 Div 4 (old)
1962-63 4-2 1963-03-09 2-3 1962-10-20 Div 4 (old)
1963-64 1-1 1963-11-23 0-1 1964-04-04 Div 3 (old)
1964-65 4-1 1964-08-29 1-2 1964-12-19 Div 3 (old)
1965-66 1-0 1966-02-21 1-1 1966-03-05 Div 3 (old)
1966-67 2-4 1966-09-04 0-0 1966-09-27 Div 3 (old)
1967-68 1-1 1967-09-02 0-1 1967-11-14 Div 3 (old)
1968-69 4-0 1968-09-07 2-2 1969-03-28 Div 3 (old)
1971-72 2-1 1972-02-05 1-2 1972-04-08 Div 3 (old)
1977-78 0-2 1977-11-26 1-0 1978-04-08 Div 2 (old)
2002-03 0-1 2003-03-01 1-6 2002-09-14 Div 2 (Current League One)
2018-19 0-0 2018-10-02 (at Mansfield) League Two

Cup games:

FA Cup:

1947-48 1-0 1947-12-13 2nd round at Boundary Park
1963-64 2-3 1963-11-20 1st round at Boundary Park
1965-66 1-3 1965-11-13 1st round at Field Mill
1997-98 1-1 1997-11-15 1st round at Boundary Park
1997-98 0-1 1997-11-25 1st round replay at Field Mill
2013-14 1-1 2013-12-07 2nd round at Boundary Park
2013-14 1-4 2013-12-17 2nd round replay at One Call Stadium
2015-16 0-0 2015-11-07 1st round at One Call Stadium
2015-16 0-2 2015-11-17 1st round replay at Boundary Park

League Cup:

2007-08 1-4 2007-08-14 1st round at Boundary Park

EFLTrophy:

2016-17 2-0 2017-01-10 EFL Trophy 3rd round at One Call Stadium

Expect a tight game on Easter Monday. Come on Mansfield!

[KirkbyStag2]

Stags last away win at Boundary Park, April 1978, in which is now the "Championship"

Johnny Miller scoring the winning goal, 1-0.