Phil Yelland looks back on Oldham Athletic's previous visits to Barrow ahead of Wednesday evening's League Two encounter at The Dunes Hotel Stadium.
The Latics were one of our most regular opponents before and during our Football League years and Wednesday evening will see our 42nd meeting in Barrow.
Last season Oldham came to us in November and became the first team to win at Holker Street following our return to the Football League. It was a game in which we led, got things back to 2-2 with a dozen minutes to go and ended up losing 4-3. Our goals came from Scott Quigley (his first of the season), Matt Platt (his first at home for the Club) and Dior Angus.
The very first league meeting between the clubs took place in the Lancashire Combination Second Division in April 1905 at Ainslie Street when we won 4-1, with Bill Eccleston scoring twice and Magee and White adding the other goals.
However, we did not meet here in the Football League until November 1935 after The Latics had been relegated into Division Three North. We won 3-0 on that occasion with a double from Tommy Reid being supplemented by an own goal by Brunskill.
We have scored five goals three times at home to Oldham – the first time was in the Division Three North Cup in January 1939 when we won 5-2. That avenged a defeat in the same competition at Boundary Park two seasons earlier. On that occasion we had five different scorers – Bill Allcock, Cec Davies and Danny Samuel scored from open play with Tom Harris and Bert King adding penalties.
The following season, after the outbreak of World War Two, we defeated them here 5-1 in the North West Regional League with a Tom Harris hat-trick and goals from Davies again and Jimmy Cargill. That was revenge for us as we had lost 8-2 at Boundary Park.
The first full season after World War Two, in Division Three North, we also netted five times in a 5-2 win. Alf Burnett scored twice, there was a penalty from George Forbes and other goals from Jimmy Mullen and Harry Iddon.
Our last Football League meeting here took place over Easter 1971 as The Latics headed for promotion from Division Four and we were rooted to the bottom of the table. It finished 1-1 with our goal coming from Bobby Noble.
Since then, before last season, we had met twice in cup ties.
In November 2001, after a 1-1 draw courtesy of a Steve Housham strike in the FA Cup First Round at Boundary Park, we enjoyed a full house at home for the replay with the visitors winning with an early goal.
In the 2019/20 season in the Lancashire Senior Cup First Round here we defeated Oldham – eventually. The game finished 3-3 and we got home 12-11 on penalties. Our goals that night came from a Jack Hindle double and Morgan Penfold.
And it’s the Lancashire Senior Cup that arguably brings the Club’s happiest memories in terms of a win over The Latics. The 1954/55 Final was played at Holker Street and we won the competition for the only time with a 2-0 win in front of 6,110 fans. Jim Collins and Billy Gordon were the heroes with the goals. Like so much of our history with Oldham, they were to get revenge by winning the 1966/67 Final 2-0 at Boundary Park, three days after we had won promotion to Division Three.
Of the previous meetings between the clubs in Barrow, we have won 28 times, there have been just two draws and The Latics have won 11 times.
Hopefully, we can gain our first home Football League win over them here on Wednesday since 7th October 1968 when a Howard Riley double gave us a 2-1 triumph.