This weekend Bristol Rovers visit Boundary Park to face an Oldham Athletic team looking to bounce back from a 1-0 defeat at Carlisle. The Rovers' Management team will be anxious to get a first win on the board, despite continuing the fine undefeated run from last season they have yet to collect full points from either of their League games.

The latest news from Oldham is that 31-year-old Lee Hughes, former West Brom and Coventry striker is set to resume his football career with the club. Oldham have agreed terms with Hughes, who was at Featherstone Prison near Wolverhampton. He left prison on Monday after serving half of a six-year sentence for killing a father-of-four in a car crash. He has maintained high fitness for the prison team and is said to be relishing the chance to get his career moving again

"We have every sympathy for the families concerned but we are hopeful now he can get on with the job he knows best," said Oldham director Barry Owen. His fitness will be monitored before a decision is made on when he will be selected.

At the other end of his career is Chelsea defender Ryan Bertrand has joined the Latics on loan until January. The 18-year-old, who is a regular in the Blues reserves, had a spell with Bournemouth last season.

"I can't wait to go out there and play league football and show people what I can do," he told Oldham's website. "I know Oldham are a good side and just missed out on the play-offs last time, so hopefully I can help them to do well in the league again."

Looking at the history of Oldham, the club was formed in 1895 and originally known as Pine Villa F.C., changing the club name in 1899. Oldham joined the Football League in 1907-08 and were promoted to the top flight a couple of years later.

Oldham have never won a major trophy, but they did reach the League Cup final in 1990 (losing 1-0 to Nottingham Forest), finished league runners-up in 1915, and were F.A Cup semi-finalists in 1913 (losing to Aston Villa), 1990 and 1994 (losing both times to eventual winners Manchester United). Their most recent spell in the top flight lasted from 1991 until 1994, and on the final day of the inaugural Premiership season (1992-93) they avoided relegation on goal difference after a remarkable 4-3 win over Southampton.

After their formation in 1895, and the attaining of professional status in 1899, the Latics played in the local Manchester leagues before gaining entry into the Football League Second Division in 1907. Unlike many clubs, Oldham adapted to their new league status well, finishing in third position in their first league season, missing out on promotion by only two points and boasting an unbeaten home record. After another high finish the following season, the club gained its first ever promotion, finishing ahead of Hull City by virtue of a superior goal average.

In their first ever top flight campaign the Latics again adapted well, finishing in seventh position. After a narrow escape from relegation during the 1911-12 season, the club recovered to reach the FA Cup semi-final in 1913 and achieve a high mid-table finish, followed by a top four placing in the 1913-14 season. The outbreak of the First World War coincided with the Latics' best ever league season - the club finishing runners up to Everton after losing their final two games of the 1914-15 season.

Unfortunately for Oldham, the outbreak of war in Europe forced the domestic English league to be suspended in 1915, and by the time it resumed in 1919, many of the players who had taken the Latics to the brink of the championship had either retired from football or been killed during the war. From this, the club never really recovered and, after battling valiantly against relegation for several seasons, the inevitable relegation finally arrived in 1923.

Back in the second division for the first time since 1910, Oldham finished around the top half for several seasons before narrowly missing out on promotion by two points in 1930 to Chelsea. Mid-table finishes followed until 1935 when the club finished 21st in table and were relegated to the Third Division (North) for the first time in their history. Successive top five finishes occurred at the new lower level until the outbreak of the Second World War saw the cancellation of the domestic league programme.

Again, the outbreak of war hit Oldham hard and, as with the First World War, the club's results deteriorated significantly when the football league resumed finishing in 19th position in the first post-war league season. Disappointing mid-table finishes followed in the subsequent seasons before the signing of former England international George Hardwick as player-manager in 1950 proved the catalyst to a promotion as Third Division (North) champions in 1953.

Hopes were again high at Boundary Park but the Latics slumped to relegation after only one season back in the higher tier. Only 25 points were gained from 42 games and 17 of 21 away games ended in defeat. Back in the Third Division (North) after only one season, Oldham found themselves established in mid-table in the division until 1958 when the club's 15th place finish meant that they became founder members of the new nationalized Fourth Division, two years later having the embarrassment of having to apply for re-election to the Football League with only Hartlepools United finishing below them.

The arrival of Ken Bates as chairman during the 1960s saw an upturn in the club's fortunes and promotion to the Third Division was achieved in 1963 under the management of Jack Rowley. Despite chairman Bates' financial ability to purchase players, narrow escapes from relegation occurred in 1965 and 1966, before the inevitable relegation back to the basement division finally occurred in 1969. With this, Bates left the club, and the result was a poor financial situation and a low finish in the Fourth Division in 1970.

Scottish defender Jimmy Frizzell took on a player-manager role during the 1969-70 season and, against all odds, led the Latics to an emphatic promotion the following season. Back in the Third Division, a mid-table finish was achieved in 1972 before the Latics missed out on promotion by just three points the following season. An incredible run of ten consecutive league wins during the 1973-74 season (still a club record to this day) laid the foundations for Oldham to win the Third Division title and find themselves back in the Second Division for the first time since 1954.

Frizzell did an excellent job of keeping the Latics away from relegation danger at this higher level, despite tighter finances and lesser gates than many of their rivals. It was therefore a shock that, in 1982 after twelve highly successful years in charge, the popular Scotsman was sacked. He had, however, laid the foundations for what was to come.

One of the most successful and also longest-serving managers in Oldham Athletic's history was Joe Royle, who took over from Jimmy Frizzell as manager just before the start of the 1982-83 season. Royle's first four seasons in charge resulted in moderate mid-table finishes before the first signs of success arrived during the 1986-87 season.

That season the club finished third in the Second Division on their new artificial Astroturf surface, a position which would have been good enough for automatic promotion in any of the previous thirteen seasons. Unfortunately for Oldham, the 1986-87 season saw the introduction of the promotion play-offs, and they were eventually defeated by Leeds United on the away goals ruling in the play-off semi-final. Two more moderate seasons of football followed before the highly exciting and surprising 1989-90 season transported Oldham into the footballing spotlight for the first time in decades, with tremendous runs in both the League Cup and the FA Cup.

The 1990-91 season culminated with the Latics regaining their top flight status for the first time in 68 years. Oldham were never out of the top two in the league all season and guaranteed promotion with a 2-1 win at Ipswich Town with four games remaining. The following season in their first top flight campaign since 1923, the Latics achieved a comfortable mid-table position, never in any danger of being dragged into the relegation battle.

In the first ever season of the Premier League (1992-93); Oldham Athletic gained 49 points from 42 fixtures to stay up by the narrowest of margins. Oldham reached another F.A Cup semi-final in 1993-94, again facing Manchester United. The match, at Wembley Stadium, looked to be going Oldham's way, with Oldham holding a 1-0 lead until Manchester United's Mark Hughes scored a last gasp equalizer in the penultimate minute of extra time. A poor performance in the replay at Maine Road ended Oldham's hopes, and culminated in a disastrous run of results, with the Latics' failing to win any of their remaining seven fixtures. A month later they were relegated from the Premier League after three seasons in the top flight.

Joe Royle was lured to Everton in October 1994 and 34-year-old striker Graeme Sharp was appointed Oldham's player-manager. Sharp was unable to turn Oldham into genuine promotion contenders, despite most of the Premiership era squad still being on the club's payroll and, with another relegation battle looking likely, he resigned in the February of the 1996-97 season. Relegation to the third tier for the first time in 23 years was confirmed three months later following a defeat at Reading.

Now entering their eleventh season at the third tier, the Latics have made the Play-Off's but failed to gain promotion twice in the last five seasons.

Over the years there have been some remarkable matches between the teams. There has been a total of 48 games with 18 Oldham victories, 17 to Rovers and 13 draws. Only 5 of those games have been 0-0 and in one remarkable instance was 4-4.

That 4-4 draw was on 27 September 1997, in front of a 5,990 crowd. A rampant Oldham team raced into a 3-0 lead, within the first half hour, with goals by Barlow (8 mins and 23 mins) and McCarthy (25 mins). 15 minutes later and Rovers had pegged it back to 3-3 with Beadle (30 mins and 33 mins) and Hayles (45 mins) scoring. Oldham retook the lead with a 59th minute goal by Garner but Rovers were not finished, Cureton slammed home a penalty in the 87th minute.

Rovers' last victory at Boundary Park was 0n 26 February 2000 as Rovers raced towards what appeared to be a certain automatic promotion. With goals by Cureton (4 mins and 6 mins, penalty) and Astafjevs (11 mins) seeming to have sown the game up for Rovers within the first 15 minutes. A further goal by Thomson (48 mins) just after half time gave the Gas an unassailable lead and Oldham's only response was a goal by Dudley in the 67th minute.

Oldham won both games in the last season the teams met, 2000-01, 2-0 at the Mem and 1-0 on 16 April with a goal by Carss just after half-time to send Rovers plummeting towards a disastrous relegation.

Speaking after the defeat at Carlisle, Latic's Boss John Sheridan was left frustrated after Carlisle's Danny Livesey was lucky to get off scot-free after he swiped Craig Davies' legs inside the area. "I thought it was definitely a penalty, and so did everyone else apart from the officials," Sheridan said. "I don't understand them -- the referee is looking at his linesman who is 70 yards away when he's only 15 yards away. He can see it, but I can't get involved with referees. I'm best off keeping my mouth shut."

"I don't think we deserved to lose, and we warranted something for our second-half performance," Sheridan continued. "We created chances, took the game to them and dominated after the break to be fair. But the first half was poor -- there wasn't a lot going on and unfortunately we gave a soft penalty away. The only chances they had were through us."

"We looked ordinary in the first half -- there was no quality on either side -- but we can't just stroll around. We have to work hard and take games to the opposition, and we did that after the break."

Sheridan took several positives from the game as he looks to build for the Rovers game. However, he identified one area in which his side are lacking -- leadership -- and challenged his players to become a more vocal and influential part of the side:
"I can take a few positives out of the second half, but I want leaders on the pitch," he explained. I hate losing, and I want to get through to the players that I want three, four or five leaders out there taking control of things."

"It's important we get back to winning. We could have got the draw today or even gone on to win -- Craig [Davies] and Rico [Michael Ricketts] had chances and we had that definite penalty. But that's life -- and we can bounce back with a home game now."

Rovers will need to be on their best form to take the game to an Oldham team who went out of the Play-Off's to eventual Play-Off winners Blackpool. A repeat of the 2000 game at Boundary Park would delight Paul Trollope and GasHeads all around the world.

Written by Gerry Prewett