Who knows what would have happened had they won the 1994 FA Cup semi-final. At the time, they were fourth from bottom in the Premiership, a point clear of the team below them, Southampton, and only two points behind the team above, Tottenham Hotspur. Both these sides had played 37 league fixtures in the then 42 game season whilst the Latics had only competed in 35. At this rate, they were on course to survive. Unfortunately for them, they lost the replay, 4-1, and did not go on to win another league game after this heartbreak, finishing three points from safety.
If they had been scheduled to face fellow strugglers, Chelsea, in the 1994 FA Cup Final at Wembley – a team that they had done the double over in the course of the season – then it could have rejuvenated them into shifting away from the drop zone. In turn, an FA Cup win would have brought in some much needed revenue – something that they’ve desperately needed ever since their relegation – and a place in Europe, which could have helped them attract players and hang onto the ones that they had at the time. So with this in mind and with the Premiership expanding its brand every year, it’s interesting to think what could have become of Oldham.
Everyone can talk of ‘what if’s’, but the fact is the Latics were relegated again, this time from the old first division in 1997 and have been stuck in the third tier of English football ever since. They very nearly got relegated to the Football League’s basement division in 1999, only surviving on the last day. And apart from a couple of excursions into the play-offs in 2003 and 2007, they have been the epitome of mediocrity since then. Excluding those two seasons, they have finished 14th, 15th, 9th, 15th, 19th, 10th, 8th, 10th, 16th and 17th. The numerous managerial changes in these years have not helped matters, but they may have just found some stability with Paul Dickov, who has done well in difficult circumstances. It took their most successful manager, Joe Royle, nine years to haul the Latics out of the old second division into the big time, guiding them to a League Cup final along the way. So it would be nice to see Dickov given plenty of time to stamp his mark on the club.
It’s a shame that I didn’t get into football until the latter part of the 1994/95 campaign, the season after the relegation of Oldham and Swindon, which means I didn’t get to witness their glory years. I missed out on something special because, from what I’ve seen and been told, they were exciting times indeed. Could the reaching of the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in four years and a potential final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy be the stirrings of another revolution at the club who, after their heroics in the late 1980s-early ‘90s, are still many people’s ‘second’ team? I hope so.
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