I Got Hope In My Soul

Last week’s blog aged like fine cheese, didn’t it? I appeal for people to Calm Their Tits, and the game last Saturday starts with a capitulation that would boil the most placid piss and we concede in the opening seconds. I sing the praises of Hallam Hope and confidently predict that he’ll get 20 goals this season, and he’s implicated in a story straight from the scriptwriters of Dream Team. I’d better be more careful what I say this week. For several reasons.

The actual facts that we have are: the club issued a statement on Monday stating that Hallam Hope “was the victim of a vicious assault on Saturday evening” in the staff car park after the Chesterfield game, leaving him with “serious injuries which required hospital treatment” and which will rule him out of action “for some weeks”; Chesterfield then issued a statement saying that “Following an incident which took place after Saturday’s game at Oldham Athletic, we are aware of an allegation relating to an un-named Chesterfield player”. That is all we know for definite. We don’t know which Chesterfield player is the subject of the allegations, we don’t know if there is any history between him and Hallam Hope, and it’s unhelpful – and dodgy, legally - to speculate.

If you are genuinely In The Know, and you’re aware of an actual factual reason why it might have not been be a good idea for Push The Boundary to ask fans to show their support for Hope in the 11th minute of the Boreham Wood game, maybe drop them a message privately to let them know. If however you’re being snarky about it to gain edgelord points, that’s your choice, but I will be muting you, because it’s tedious. If the same people who have been sniping at the Her Game Too ambassadors and spent the Women’s Euros tweeting “don’t care/Latics would beat these” are giving you shit, you can go ahead and assume that you are not the arsehole. Showing support for a player who has been our star performer so far this season after he’s been assaulted and seriously injured – and remember, that is all that we know about what happened at this point – seems like a nice thing to do to me. It isn’t compulsory to join in, and it won’t cost you anything whether you do or don’t.

As it’s turned out, the debate about whether or not to applaud in the 11th minute is now academic, as the Boreham Wood game has been called off, and I have absolutely no comment whatsoever to make about that. I'm not going to say "if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all", because let's face it that'd be the end of me writing any blogs. There's a difference, though, between calling out stuff that needs to be called out, and shit stirring and picking a fight for the sake of it. And don't forget, there are certain people who love seeing our fans bickering among themselves so that they can kid themselves that the takeover is failing and the club is falling apart without them. Don't give Barry something to gloat and bitch about in the next semantic labyrinth he issues via Birkett.

I wish you a speedy recovery, Hallam. And I'm sorry for being so mean about you last season.

Written by Arlene Finnigan. Image © The Oldham Times.