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Royle Helping Oldham - Ipswich Town News

Town boss Joe Royle is set to lead out one of the teams at Oldham as the crisis-hit club stage an All-Star Latics Survival match on Saturday July 12th .

Royle's Wembley Wizards will face the Millennium All-Stars in the game which aims to raise funds for the beleaguered Latics.

Former Town keeper Jon Hallworth is amongst the Wembley Wizards side. Wembley Wizards:
Andy Rhodes, Denis Irwin, Andy Barlow, Nick Henry, Paul Warhurst, Roger Palmer, Rick Holden, Frank Bunn, Andy Ritchie, Mike Milligan, Neil Adams, Gary Williams.

Millennium All-Stars: Jon Hallworth, Neil Pointon, Mike Flynn, Paul Jones, Paul Bernard, Tommy Wright, Neil Redfearn, Graeme Sharp, Iain Dowie, Tony Philliskirk.

Oldham supporters are calling on fans of other clubs to help them out in the hour of need. The piece below was sent to TWTD by Jack Scott (kjskot@hotmail.com) from our sister site www.jklatics.com

Save Our Club

Oldham Athletic, 108 years old is in imminent danger of going out of business. NOW, not next week, or the week after but within the next couple of days.

Administration is not an option for Latics as in the case of a lot of clubs. Latics have already disposed of their ground a number of years ago to service previous debts and now have no assets whatsoever to convince a judge to grant an administration order.

It's so grave that if the players wages are not paid by Friday 27 June, they can give notice and walk away. The club shop has had to close it's doors, the bank account is frozen and there remain to be paid Inland Revenue monthly bills from 19th June which could result in the Revenue serving a winding up order at any minute.

At that time, Oldham Athletic Football Club will cease to exist. There looks like being no last minute reprieve such as has happened at other clubs. Talks with potential new investors broke down when the size of the debts became clear.

A Supporters Trust has been set up and we are hoping that money raised can be used to buy us some time. We need to raise around £250,000 within the next couple of days to pay the most pressing of the debts (Inland Revenue etc) and to pay the players wages to avoid them walking away. After that, we'll have a little breathing space to explore new avenues to survival.

As fans of other clubs, we need your help.

When Bury was in this situation a year or two ago, Latics fans rallied round and turned up in numbers at Gigg Lane to do what we could. The Bury fans in turn have turned up on our message board in numbers offering moral support, as have loads of fans from other clubs and we thank them all wholeheartedly. When you're in this situation you've no idea the boost a simple message of support from a rival fan gives you.

But we need more. A bank account has been set up via the Supporters Trust website and we are asking all genuine fans if they could contribute a few quid via a credit card to help us through this crisis. Please click the Supporters Trust logo at the bottom of this story to contribute.

We'd do the same for you and you could be helping to keep a piece of footballing history alive and at the same time keeping the league intact. Once one club folds, how many more will follow?

There are 92 of our clubs, and no genuine fan wants to see any of them go the wall. We are merely the latest in a long line of crisis hit clubs and we won't be the last.

If we all stick together and support each other in our times of need, we can all survive and with a little better husbandry of the meagre resources available to the vast majority of clubs in the league, we can at least survive, if not prosper. Please give whatever you can.

We'll do the same for you should the need ever arise. Please donate at the link below and thanks a million.

If the donation facility is not working when you click on the Trust Site (www.keep-the-faith.co.uk), you may donate in cash (not cheque - too long to clear funds) at any HSBC branch with the following account details:-

HSBC Holborn Circus
Sort Code 40-03-28
Account Name : Secure Athletic's Future Existence
No. 51715909

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