Post by JoeLatics on Jan 15, 2010 21:47:31 GMT
2) Oldham 6-0 West Ham (agg: 6-3), first leg, 14/02/1990
Supporters of Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest in particular might disagree, but Oldham were the team of the 1989-90 English season by a mile. The other three got the domestic trophies, but Oldham got something more important: glory, and in industrial quantities. At club level at least, they were the coolest neutral's favourites there ever was. They were simply magnificent: swashbuckling, unassuming and youthful. Their plastic pitch, on which they went unbeaten for 38 games, added a sense of the unknown and altered the parameters of what we could reasonably expect from giant-killers – although their cup performances away from home obliterated the niggardly myth that they were only winning because of the plastic pitch.
Before that season Oldham had not beaten a top-flight side for 66 years; then came what their manager Joe Royle called the "pinch-me season". They didn't just beat their superiors; they hammered them, all the while playing high-class football. The splendid Andy Ritchie, who even made baldness look cool, enjoyed the brightest of Indian summers, including two marvellous goals in the 3-1 defeat of the champions Arsenal; Rick Holden, a shambling maverick who looked like a roadie for a particularly rubbish indie band and who was actually Phil Brown's best man, would terrorise right-backs and send over a relentless stream of huge, booming crosses; Mike Milligan was a midfield bumblebee whose inability to reach the very top is hard to fathom; Earl Barrett (lightning fast) and Paul Warhurst (even faster) were at the centre of a formidable defence that also included Denis Irwin. Of their best XI, only Ritchie and the evergreen Roger Palmer were over 25.
Their season was full of what Dan Turner described as "merciless gianticide" in When Saturday Comes. On the way to the final of the Littlewoods Cup and the semi-final of the FA Cup, they beat Aston Villa, Arsenal, Everton and Southampton – who would respectively finish second, fourth, sixth and seventh in Division One – yet in many ways their most famous victory was an extraordinary demolition of Lou Macari's West Ham, who were also in the second tier, in the first leg of the semi-final.
Oldham played an extraordinarily offensive 3-4-3 formation, with Barrett the only orthodox centre-back, and a decent West Ham side – which included Liam Brady, Phil Parkes, Alvin Martin, Julian Dicks and Alan Devonshire – were embarrassingly helpless. With the game played on 14 February, it was inevitably dubbed the St Valentine's Day massacre. It all sounded so good on Radio 2 that nerdish 14-year-olds with school the next day gave their parents no choice but to let them stay up past midnight to watch the highlights.
Neil Adams scored the first, slamming a long-range shot in off the post, and West Ham crumbled. The splendid Ritchie scored for the seventh consecutive League Cup game that season with the aid of a deflection, and goals from Barrett, Holden, Palmer and Ritchie again sealed a devastating victory.
Oldham lost the second leg 3-0, not that it mattered, and were beaten by Forest in the final and Manchester United in a taut FA Cup semi-final replay. The overload of fixtures almost certainly cost them a play-off place, but they would get it right the following season, achieving promotion to the top flight for the first time since 1923 and winning the Division Two title in extraordinary circumstances. Many an Oldham fan cites that as the zenith; to most neutrals, however, any thoughts of Oldham will always lead to the amazing season of 1989-90.
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Now those were the days that modern day pros should be made to watch on video to get the fire in their bellies!
Imagine a League and FA Cup that was like what it used to be, massive cupsets against full strength teams?
Of course, following the Leeds result, maybe this kind of Cup could be creeping back in?
We can only hope...
Supporters of Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest in particular might disagree, but Oldham were the team of the 1989-90 English season by a mile. The other three got the domestic trophies, but Oldham got something more important: glory, and in industrial quantities. At club level at least, they were the coolest neutral's favourites there ever was. They were simply magnificent: swashbuckling, unassuming and youthful. Their plastic pitch, on which they went unbeaten for 38 games, added a sense of the unknown and altered the parameters of what we could reasonably expect from giant-killers – although their cup performances away from home obliterated the niggardly myth that they were only winning because of the plastic pitch.
Before that season Oldham had not beaten a top-flight side for 66 years; then came what their manager Joe Royle called the "pinch-me season". They didn't just beat their superiors; they hammered them, all the while playing high-class football. The splendid Andy Ritchie, who even made baldness look cool, enjoyed the brightest of Indian summers, including two marvellous goals in the 3-1 defeat of the champions Arsenal; Rick Holden, a shambling maverick who looked like a roadie for a particularly rubbish indie band and who was actually Phil Brown's best man, would terrorise right-backs and send over a relentless stream of huge, booming crosses; Mike Milligan was a midfield bumblebee whose inability to reach the very top is hard to fathom; Earl Barrett (lightning fast) and Paul Warhurst (even faster) were at the centre of a formidable defence that also included Denis Irwin. Of their best XI, only Ritchie and the evergreen Roger Palmer were over 25.
Their season was full of what Dan Turner described as "merciless gianticide" in When Saturday Comes. On the way to the final of the Littlewoods Cup and the semi-final of the FA Cup, they beat Aston Villa, Arsenal, Everton and Southampton – who would respectively finish second, fourth, sixth and seventh in Division One – yet in many ways their most famous victory was an extraordinary demolition of Lou Macari's West Ham, who were also in the second tier, in the first leg of the semi-final.
Oldham played an extraordinarily offensive 3-4-3 formation, with Barrett the only orthodox centre-back, and a decent West Ham side – which included Liam Brady, Phil Parkes, Alvin Martin, Julian Dicks and Alan Devonshire – were embarrassingly helpless. With the game played on 14 February, it was inevitably dubbed the St Valentine's Day massacre. It all sounded so good on Radio 2 that nerdish 14-year-olds with school the next day gave their parents no choice but to let them stay up past midnight to watch the highlights.
Neil Adams scored the first, slamming a long-range shot in off the post, and West Ham crumbled. The splendid Ritchie scored for the seventh consecutive League Cup game that season with the aid of a deflection, and goals from Barrett, Holden, Palmer and Ritchie again sealed a devastating victory.
Oldham lost the second leg 3-0, not that it mattered, and were beaten by Forest in the final and Manchester United in a taut FA Cup semi-final replay. The overload of fixtures almost certainly cost them a play-off place, but they would get it right the following season, achieving promotion to the top flight for the first time since 1923 and winning the Division Two title in extraordinary circumstances. Many an Oldham fan cites that as the zenith; to most neutrals, however, any thoughts of Oldham will always lead to the amazing season of 1989-90.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now those were the days that modern day pros should be made to watch on video to get the fire in their bellies!
Imagine a League and FA Cup that was like what it used to be, massive cupsets against full strength teams?
Of course, following the Leeds result, maybe this kind of Cup could be creeping back in?
We can only hope...