Phil Yelland dips into the archives to find out how The Bluebirds have fared on previous trips to Oldham Athletic ahead of Tuesday’s encounter at Boundary Park.
Tuesday night sees us make our first visit to Boundary Park since November 2002 when we travelled there for a First Round FA Cup tie. We were in the UniBond Premier Division at the time, whilst the Latics were in League One.
We made a sensational start thanks to Steve Housham’s second minute goal and, whilst Scott Duxbury levelled for the home side, we thoroughly earned our replay backed by a large and noisy band of travelling fans. Sadly, we lost the replay 1-0 on home soil.
Our first ever visit to Oldham took place in March 1905 when we met them in the Second Division. On that occasion we won 2-1, with the goals coming from Lucas and Bill Eccleston.
Over the years our record at Boundary Park had been poor, with only eight wins and four draws in 37 previous visits. Our last win came in August 1969 when we triumphed 1-0 with Mick Hartland finding the net. We went on to complete the double at Holker Street a couple of months later when two Howard Riley goals helped us to win 2-1 as, with Colin Appleton in charge, we briefly climbed to the top of Division Three.
Our best win at Boundary Park came in Division Three North in August 1949 when goals from Johnny Leach, Eddie Miller and a Bell own goal gave us a 3-1 win. By contrast, our worst defeat at Oldham came in the North West Regional League in May 1940 as football continued in war time. We lost 8-2, with goals from Jimmy Cargill and Richard McIntosh scant consolation in a hammering. We got revenge three months later at Holker Street when we won 5-1, with Cargill again amongst the scorers.
Let’s hope that on Tuesday night we can start life under Rob Kelly with our ninth win at Boundary Park.