This is what Mike Ford said in a two-page special in the booklet covering our 2023 Awards Evening and a reunion of the Roughyeds’ 1990 team which turned the Theatre of Dreams into the Theatre of Amazing Comebacks:
“First of all a huge thank-you to everyone who has turned up tonight at this sophisticated local venue to celebrate principally everything the players have achieved this season and to recognise the huge task that faces the new board of directors as we look to the future while never forgetting the past, what made us the people we are today and where we came from. I came from Oldham and I’m proud of it — proud of my roots, proud of my home and family, proud of Saddleworth School, proud to be back in this area and, most of all, proud to be back at Oldham Rugby League Club.
“Given time and togetherness –that’s everyone pulling together; not just the players; not just the backroom team and coaching team but EVERYONE, with our supporters to the fore – we can do a Leigh Leopards and get a large share of our 250,000 people in our metropolitan borough talking rugby league again, itching for game-day to come round each week and generally showing a big interest in Roughyeds. We’ve got to reconnect with the town again and we believe we have already made a huge impact in that regard by moving back lock, stock and barrel to Boundary Park, thus providing the RFL with one of the best stadiums open to it for hire, with one of the best playing surfaces and one of the most easily accessible grounds in the country.
“There’s a whole raft of other things to look forward to as well so these are exciting times to be a Roughyeds fan, as witnessed by tonight’s Awards Dinner in smart surroundings. The best deserve the best and we’ve spared nothing in putting on an evening to celebrate and to record for posterity the 2023 season and, as I said earlier, to link with our glorious past by recalling one of those brilliant days and brilliant wins — a reunion to beat all reunions — and remember the day we staged that remarkable comeback to beat Hull KR at Old Trafford in the Second Division Premiership Final on May 13, 1990.
“We trailed 29-6 at one stage early in the second half. But we then threw caution to the wind, took the view that we had nothing to lose and ran in 24 unanswered points to snatch it 30-29 near the end, culminating in a young Tommy Martyn winner and then that famous cartwheel that will go down in the annals of Oldham Rugby folklore.
“The team on that May day nearly 35 years ago lined up like this:
“Duncan Platt; Richard Irving, Gary Hyde, John Henderson, Paul Lord; Brett Clark, Mike Ford; Leo Casey. Andy Ruane, John Fieldhouse. Paul Round, Charlie McAlister. Richard Russell, Subs: Tommy Martyn, Keith Newton.
“Look at that pack and see the perfect balance of ball skill, strength, size, mongrel, work ethic and hands fit for a magician. We finished third in the Second Division, behind Hull KR and Rochdale, but we pipped the East Hull lads at Old Trafford to win the Premiership, we clinched promotion, reached the third round of the Regal Trophy, the final of the Lancashire Cup and the semi-final of the Challenge Cup.
Among our victims were St Helens (away) and Wigan (home) in the Lancashire Cup and who will ever forget our 16-4 win at Widnes in the third round of the Challenge Cup when the Chemics, as they were known back then, paraded a star-spangled side that, only a few months earlier, had beaten Canberra Raiders at Old Trafford to win the World Club Challenge. They always say that the best games seem to be over in a flash for the players and I must say I don’t recall a lot about the Premiership Final other than being well down at half-time and listening to what Tony Barrow, our coach, had to say.
“It’s all a bit hazy, but I think Rovers scored first in the second half to add insult to injury. I think most of our tries in the comeback were scored on the last tackle, which suggests two things; we completed well and on the back of that we put them under a lot of pressure. A few of the lads from that team are here tonight and I rather think it will be both a joyful occasion and an emotional one when we recall the old days and that Old Trafford game in particular. Brett Clark, who lives in Australia, and Charlie McAlister (New Zealand) won’t be here but when we toast absent friends they will be top of the list, as will John Cogger, who also lives in Australia. He didn’t play at Old Trafford for whatever reason, but he was a key member of a side that played 43 games that season and won 36 of them.
“John Chadwick, who was chairman, summed up the season thus: ‘We did the Second Division proud.’
You can say that again, John! "
