Here's what happened when a 'crew' of us Great Harwood Town supporters travelled to Oldham Town to see our heroes in action. The www.greatharwoodtown.co.uk web-site has many more adventures as well as all sorts to do with the club.

AWAY DAY ROBINS OLDHAM TOWN 01-04-03 The latest away day for the Blackburn and Darwen Robins took us to the lost city of Oldham. After our two hour excursion to get there for the Trophy game we took no chances and set off at tea time. First of all it was down to the Superduperfantasticmoneysavingcaringsharing Co-op Superstore on Queen Street where we picked up so many bargains that we'd have to use up the whole of this article just to list them.

As we passed through Haslingden we were stopped by the local Constabulary, possibly because Jimmy had had one too many and was hanging out of the window abusing passers by.

"Excuse me sir, would you mind stepping out of the car?" Asked the young Bobby.

"No problem," I replied sheepishly.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE ROZZER, HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING!" Screamed Billy the kid' Hughes.

"Have you been drinking?" He asked me after giving Billy a filthy look.

"No officer," says I.

"Would you mind blowing into this bag?"

"But I've told you, I haven't been drinking, don't you believe me?"

"Yes sir, I believe you, but I still want you to blow into this bag."

"But why?" I asked.

"Because my chips are too hot!" Came the witty reply.

"Now get on your way and keep the chimps on the back seat under control!"

PHEW! We carried on with our journey, didn't get lost like last time and were there by 6-30 so we had a wander around the town. First stop was a chippy-normally we'd have gone to a pub but we're banned from most of them in the Oldham area.

Up we stepped to the counter, all four of us.

"Right Mush, what do you want?" Asked the Nora Batty look-a-like behind the fryers.

"Fish and chips four times please," said Fat Dave.

"And what do you three want?" She asked the rest of us after eyeballing Dave's belly-Cheeky Mare!

We scoffed our tea down then made our way towards the ground. None of us had a watch so we asked a passer by what the time was.

"Don't know," came the reply.

"I don't live round here!"

Flippin' eck, the locals are all barmy.

We arrived at the ground in plenty of time to have a pint in the club, where almost everyone was from Harwood. When we entered the ground five minutes before kick-off, we were greeted by the players coming out and a torrential downpour which saw some of our brave lads go scurrying back to the changing room. With the biting wind and sub-zero temperature we knew that we were in for a lovely evening.

The game kicked off with ten people in the ground but within five minutes there were about thirty, over twenty of them from Harwood. With the wind and slope in their favour, Oldham took the initiative and the Robins found it difficult to put more than two passes together. It was no great surprise when after about half an hour the excellent Curley put the home side ahead, a goal which was greeted by a huge silence from the home crowd'. The goal seemed to wake up the Harwood players who responded with two tremendous long range shots which both skimmed the crossbar. Then, right on half time the Ref. gave a free kick on the edge of the area for a push on John Eastham. Luckily the linesman was right up with play and signalled that the offence had actually occurred in the box. Up stepped Easty and belted the ball against the post.

With the wind and slope in the second half there was only one team in it as Harwood launched wave after wave of attacks. Eventually some tremendous work down the left by Matt Derbyshire saw him beat several players before crossing into the middle where a great piece of control by Chris Heslop was followed by a turn and shot into the corner of the net.

Harwood really went for the kill and only Curley was able to give the home side some respite with his running and dribbling. As in the Trophy game, Oldham used their bully-boy' tactics in an effort to stop the more skilful visiting forwards. This culminated in an extra-ordinary assault on young Green by an Oldham player who went completely berserk. As the Harwood players tried to pull the players apart, several Oldham players dived in with fists swinging in all directions. The Harwood boys did magnificently in only holding players back and when calm was restored, Oldham were very lucky to lose only the nutcase, as the Ref. could have quite justifiably sent off several of their players.

With tempers very frayed, I'm sure that the Ref. blew the final whistle early just to get everyone off the field before another bout of fisticuffs broke out.

This has to go down as two points dropped but we can't win em all.

Due to the friendly' nature of the locals we decided to hit the road, after all, most of us are up for work not long after 4.00 a.m.

In the thirty odd years or so in which I've been watching football, I've never seen anything quite like it, and I'll be amazed if the League don't come down very hard on Oldham Town F.C.

If you missed it, you missed a real occasion'and if you were there, I hope you enjoyed reminiscing.

Catch up with all the other 'away days' on the Harwood web-site, and remember.......

Rally Round the Robins!

This story is based on the 'truth' (mostly) but has been enhanced by a little poetic licence.