FORMER Oldham Athletic defender James Tarkowski says "drastic changes" are needed to restore the club.

The 29-year-old began his career with Latics over a decade ago, making his debut in January 2011 after progressing through the club's youth ranks.

Tarkowski made over 70 appearances for the club in League One before joining Brentford for around £150,000 three years after making his Oldham debut against the London club.

The Manchester-born centre half, who went on to sign for Burnley and play for England, has kept tabs on his first club.

And, as they prepare to bow out of the Football League today - hosting Crawley Town in the final game of the season (kick-off 3pm), he admits he has been saddened by the club's dramatic decline.

"It's been awful," said Tarkowski, who noted that a high turnover of staff was not isolated to players and managers, of which there have been 11 in the last four years under current owner Abdallah Lemsagam, but also applied to staff behind the scenes.

"A lot of the people I dealt with over a long time have all gone now as well.

"There aren't too many familiar faces there.

"It's just so disappointing for the fans really, to go from where they were when I left seven-eight years ago to where they are now."

Tarkowski, who returned to Boundary Park with Burnley to face Latics in a pre-season friendly last summer, believes there is hope for Latics though, and that they are capable of bouncing back from rock bottom fighting their way back out of non-league, having become the first former Premier League club to be relegated from the fourth tier.

However, he warned it may not be straightforward.

"I think a drastic change is needed and hopefully they come back up through the leagues in no time," he said.

"Hopefully it (relegation) sort of shocks them into life a bit and something happens."

Meanwhile, safety officials are hoping that Latics' season and Football League finale "passes off without incident".

A fans' protest has been planned, which will take place outside of Boundary Park's main entrance from 2pm on Saturday, and measures have been imposed within the ground to avoid a repeat of the pitch invasion which disrupted the previous home league game against Salford City, after which relegation was confirmed.

There were fears that the incident would lead to the Crawley fixture having to be played behind closed doors. However, following a meeting of the club's Safety Advisory Group it was decided to withdraw matchday ticket sales, with purchases needing to be made before midnight last night, ticket sales for the North Stand were also suspended on Wednesday, while there is an alcohol ban inside the ground.

A spokesman for the Safety Advisory Group said: "The members of this group have never said that the game should be played behind closed doors.

"We have been in contact with the club constantly over the last few days and are satisfied with the measures they have proposed, which include the match being all ticket and no alcohol being sold on the day.

"Everyone hopes the game passes off without incident."