Oldham Athletic

Paul has always had a soft spot for Oldham. He explains:

In the spring of 1990, at age 23, I was backpacking around Europe and found myself in a London pub watching football highlights. One guy near me turned to another, they both shook their heads, and one of them said, “Look at Oldham!” I asked what about (and really, what is) Oldham, and he said, “They’re in the quarterfinals of the Cup, mate! Oldham!”

I didn’t know what any of that meant, of course, but it was my first glimpse of football beyond Liverpool and the World Cup, my first sense that in this game, little clubs could do big things that people all over the country talked about.

Turns out I had brushed up against Oldham at their all-time high point. I bet you didn’t know that little Oldham Athletic, currently in League Two and not above the third tier since 1997, was a founder member of the Premier League in 1992.

Sure, it was only their second season in the top tier after 70 years outside it, but they were on a high. Two years before, just after I was in that pub, they had taken Manchester United to a replay in the 1990 FA Cup semifinals, losing the second leg to an injury-time goal. The same season they lost the League Cup Final to Nottingham Forest, 1-0—first only game ever at Wembley. In 1991 they won the Second Division (now Championship) title with a last-minute winner of their own, a penalty by Neal Redfearn at home against Sheffield Wednesday. (I mention his name so you can ask your seat neighbor if they saw that goal.)

That got them into the top tier, which in 1992 became the Premier League. That year, they needed to win their last three games to stay up. First they won at second-place Aston Villa, ending their title hopes. Then they beat Liverpool at home. Then they beat Southampton, 4-3, and stayed up. Look at Oldham!

They crashed out the next season, spent the next three in the second tier, and that was that. They bounced between the third and fourth tiers after that.

Financial trouble came in the early 2000s, culminating with their relegation to League Two in 2018. They faced “winding up” orders that could have sent them into administration late in 2019 and early in 2020, and in 2022 they became the first former Premier League team to go out of the Football League–in their case, after 115 years there. The game that sent them down was interrupted by pitch invasions and fan protests.

It’s the National League for the Latics now, but a local businessman bought the club in 2023, and he bought the stadium back for the club. Then, in May, on their second-ever trip to Wembley, they scored two goals in injury time to shock Southend United and got back into League Two for this season. Look at Oldham again!

2024–25 SEASON: 5th in National League (promoted via playoffs), 2nd Round FA Cup

2025–26 SEASON: League Two (promoted in 2025)

This area of Lancashire is just a nest of football clubs. Rochdale, Salford City, and both the Manchester clubs are within 10 miles of Oldham, and half a dozen more are within 20 miles. Rochdale are the most disliked, with Bolton and Huddersfield Town just behind them. None of them are in the same league as Oldham now.

Oldham Athletic Women’s FC were founded last season and play in the Great Manchester Women’s Football League. Home games are at Chapel Road.

Oldham comes out to “Fanfare for the Common Man,” which doesn’t seem to get people too stirred up. Could also be it was freezing cold and an FA Cup tie with Burton Albion when we visited.

Boundary Park holds 13,513, all seated, and is famous for being on top of a hill, which in Lancashire during football season means cold. One former manager referred to it as “Ice Station Zebra.” We visited in December on a sunny day that was just above freezing with a stiff breeze—to which the locals reacted with borderline glee that it wasn’t raining.

Home rowdies will be behind a goal in the Chadderton Road (“Chaddy”) End, with visitors opposite in the Rochdale Road End.

It’s all so small-time and homey that when your author was walking around before that FA Cup tie, admiring the coaching staff ’s two parking spaces right up against the Main Stand, he heard a big shout come from inside and wondered what it was. A few minutes later, Twitter blew up with notifications of a spectacular goal in another FA Cup game; the shout was the Oldham players in their dressing room watching the game. That’s the kind of place Boundary Park is!

TOURS: None

GETTING THERE: The nearest Metrolink stop is Westwood, on the Rochdale line from Manchester Victoria; it’s about a 20-minute walk from there to the ground. If you’re going into Oldham’s center first, that’s a 30-minute walk from the ground, but you can take bus 409 to Royal Oldham Hospital and knock most of that time off.

PUBS: There is really nothing by the ground. In the center, the Town Hall looks newer and a bit brighter than the more traditional Old Bank, which had more people in it.

GRUB: Parliament Square looked a proper café, and there’s an old-fashioned sit-down fish and chips place called Lever’s. There’s a historic marker at Tommyfield Market, which makes a bold claim: that Oldham invented the fried chip, thus fish and chips, and thus pretty much the entire fast-food industry. We will not wade into this particular debate, but the fish was good. There’s also a traditional dish in the area called “rag pudding,” which is meat and onions wrapped in a suet (basically lard) pastry and cooked in cheesecloth. Apparently, British cuisine didn’t have enough variations on meat and onions in a pastry.

But we need to talk about the chicken places. England has this (to us) eternally fun habit of naming fried chicken takeaway places for various North American locales. Presumably you can’t use Kentucky, but it seems everything else is up for grabs. And for some reason, between the tram ride and a few-minutes walk in the town center, one can spot chicken places named for Toronto, Virginia, Orlando, Montana, Florida, Arizona (two locations) and Michigan. For kicks, they threw in a Havana Burgers, because nothing says Cuban food like a burger. And you can top it all off with a nice cup of Rhode Island coffee. What is going on in Oldham?!

AROUND TOWN: It’s a nice enough place, and the people are friendly, and there’s a chance you could get fried chicken from a place named for your hometown. The Dove Stone Reservoir looks nice, but you’d need a car or a taxi to get there. And Stonerig Raceway looks like fun for kids who want to race model cars or drive simulators. But let’s be honest—you’re coming out on a day from Manchester, if at all, right?

The thing to do in Oldham, then, is get something to eat, have a pint, and go up to Boundary Park. With a jacket.