What now for Oldham Athletic as protests, ticket bans and boycotts mark final EFL fixture

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

If Oldham’s final game of the League Two season on Saturday wasn’t set to be emotionally-charged enough, the club’s decision to impose ‘strong measures’ against supporters planning to attend the game will certainly increase the tension between the club and its fans.

Two weeks ago, Oldham’s anticipated relegation from the Football League was confirmed in sorry circumstances as an impending defeat to Salford was halted by hundreds of supporters who ran onto the Boundary Park pitch and forced the game to be abandoned. When supporters were eventually removed over an hour later, the game was quietly finished behind-closed-doors, with the club blocking the view of fans watching from inside the North Stand with advertising boards. Oldham’s relegation was confirmed with the club again at war with its fans, as they have been all season.

Since that game, relations have hardly improved, despite the news that club legend John Sheridan will continue as manager next season in the National League - Oldham’s first campaign in non-league after 116 years of Football League membership. The club declared that they would issue bans for any supporter identified as taking part in the pitch invasion against Salford, with year-long banning orders issued to multiple fans as a result.

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Last week, at Tranmere, the Oldham team were booed onto the pitch by their defiant following of over 1,000 fans, with Sheridan issuing expletives towards his team at full time before saying the hapless 2-0 defeat was one of his lowest points in his 40-year career. Now, Oldham have moved to restrict fans from buying tickets for today’s final game of the season against Crawley,