The Ford revolution gathers momentum

Bill Quinn cracked a funny . . . Mike Ford saw the joke . . . John Chadwick laughed out loud . . . our Sean allowed himself the luxury of a smile.

Yes, it was a good day at Boundary Park last weekend. The sun shone, Roughyeds played some great rugby to hammer their big rivals Keighley 44-6, there were interesting debuts for Riley Dean and on-loan Adam Sidlow, Mo went in for a brace and won the man-of-the-match award against his old mates and there was a big crowd in the bargain.

A crowd of 2,572 might not cause a stir in the Record Keepers Club, but by League One standards it's brilliant. And wasn't it heart-warming to see the paddock on the 'other' side of the ground open for Keighley fans, who came in numbers, thus swelling the crowd but, even more importantly, starting a trend which may continue if only for selected games – namely, opening up other parts of the ground because of demand.

There was certainly demand last week, several people who had cause to be on the pitch pre-match assuring me the Joe Royle stand was full. Later came the official confirmation of the crowd figure – bigger than at least three Championship games, Barrow v Sheffield (1,552), Halifax v Widnes (1,409), and Swinton v Whitehaven (859). Even the clash of the Championship's top two pulled in only around 300 more speccies than we had – and our figures might have looked even better by comparison had attendances been given at the Batley v Dewsbury and Featherstone v Doncaster games, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.

Therein lie several talking points, not least the current trend of some clubs to withhold crowd figures. There was once a time when the RFL insisted on the release of such figures. One understands that times change, but in my view crowd figures are ALWAYS relevant because they tell you so much about how much impact a club is having on its local community at any given time.

You can add IMG into the equation this year and one can fully understand Mike Ford's view that Oldham should be judged on the 18 months the new board has been in authority at Oldham and not the last three years as per regulations. That crowd figure of 2,572 will make very interesting reading in IMG's corridors of power

The Ford revolution is here. It is real, it is happening. One has only to hear people in the town speak of this great club again to realise that, as MD, Ford is achieving what he set out to do – to reconnect town and club.

Last Sunday's attendance showed that. So let's dwell on that for a moment or two. It was 2,572 – the best since Oldham v Doncaster (2,806) on July 17, 2008 if you discount 4,327 on August 30, 2007 for Oldham v Celtic Crusaders when entry was free and the cash raised by sponsorship, including the William Quinn Group, went to cancer charities.

For that priceless. information, I am indebted to Mike Turner of the Heritage Trust, the club's official historian.

Mike came up with another gem. If we top 1,000 in each of our remaining four home games against Midlands Hurricanes, Newcastle Thunder, Cornwall and Workington Town, which we surely will, it will be the first time since 2004 – 20 years ago --that we have hit 1,000 a match in every home game over a full season.

The big revolution is ON, Let's keep it going.