So, you’ll be dead pleased to know that Paul Scharner is one appearance off his half century for the club.  It’s good to see the Official website making more out of these milestones as they show us that Scharner now sits fifth in the appearances table for the club. I’m sure that I wasn’t the […]

Latics 0-1 Liverpool Saturday 29th September 2007 I’m never quite sure whether my lackadaisical approach to deadlines is a good thing or not.  As far as match reports are concerned, it often gets to the stage where I wonder whether it’s worth it at all.  By the time Wednesday comes around, I’ve forgotten the finer […]

Reading’s early season form may have lulled you into a false sense of expectancy but Latics have hardly been sparkling over recent weeks and were looking for a result here to get their season back on track.  In realistic terms this was another game against a team who will be one of our rivals at […]

Latics travel to the Madjeski Stadium this weekend, on that back of a performance against Fulham that was hardly inspiring, but at least provided an improvement on similar games last season.  It leaves Chris Hutchings with plenty of room for improvement but still with something to build on.  Not that he’s got many bricks.  The […]

Latics 1-1 Fulham Saturday, 15th September 2007 However you take your media, you’ll have gathered that the most important part of Saturday’s game was the injury to Emile Heskey. Excusable, I suppose, if you’re tucked away in your Southern home with only Monday’s commute on the M25 and the next England get together to worry […]

Latics res. 0-3 Liverpool res. Wednesday 19th September 2007 The last time I remember watching the reserves, I was still in full time education and Phil Neale was in the Bolton side.  I’d gone because a) it was Bolton, b) I fancied seeing what the view was like from the Phoenix Stand and c) I’d […]

In the bigger scheme of things, I’m a Latics fan first, a football fan second and an England fan last. It’s nothing to do with pride in your country or any of that balderdash; it’s just that international football has never grabbed me in the same way as club football did. Don’t get me wrong, […]

Chris Hutchings has today soothed some of the deadline day pangs by bringing in free agent Salomon Olembe.  The Cameroon international has signed on a one year deal and plays at, wait for it… left back.  The deal is subject to international clearance but, as the player has been without a club since June, that […]

Denny Landzaat’s substitution on Saturday was a bit of a mystery at the time.  Had he been struck by a Teale-esque contact lens injury?  Did he receive a poke in the eye from Alan Smith’s Hoxton Fin?  Ok, so Emile Heskey’s understudy may be sporting a much more sensible barnet than in the last England […]

The other day I discussed Caleb Folan and Henri Camara’s chances of a start at St. James’ Park and they were out of the door before Chris Hutchings got chance to think about it.  Today I’d got three quarters of the way through an article explaining how, even though he may not be a top […]