IN the first of a three-part interview, long-serving Latics volunteer Roy Butterworth tells SUZANNE GELDARD why he devotes his time to his club.

IT’S the mid-1940s, a young Roy Butterworth has gained access to Boundary Park for the first time, and he is hooked.

He cannot recall the opposition or the scoreline. He was too little. He was merely enjoying an afternoon out with his father and grandfather. But he remembers the buzz; the noise of the crowd.

Youngsters in those days were allowed to be lifted over the turnstiles by an accompanying adult. But by the age of seven, Butterworth was too big and so got his first season ticket.

He has been paying his way ever since, and not just financially. His biggest donation has been his time.

This season will be the 82-year-old’s 59th as a volunteer for his beloved club.

‘Matchday press officer’ has been his most prominent - and arguably most demanding - role, particularly in the ‘pinch me’ years, most notably when Eric Cantona came to town with Leeds United.

“Our biggest press box was when it was Eric Cantona’s Leeds debut, in February 1992,” Butterworth.

“He was sub that day.

“We had 66 in the press box. Twelve journalists arrived from France and the chairman, Ian Stott, said ‘tell them they can come next week, we’re at home to Queens Park Rangers.

“He gave the Parisian newspapers my office number and my phone was red hot. Different editors from different newspapers.

“I said ‘You can come but you arrive at 2 o’clock and you may have to stand at the back of the press box because it’s full’. We only had 45 seats and one of them was one of mine.

“They arrived at 10am. I was nearly ready but I was still at home. I threw my clothes in the car and was here for about 20 past. I shot down.

“The club made them their breakfast, bacon and sausage sandwiches.

“We said ‘At 2pm you’ve got to come to the press box’.

“Then at 20 to three - in the days before they had proper warm-ups - the chairman appeared in the directors’ box. The journalists should have been on my right, they were in the bloody centre circle.

“I jumped down the steps, out onto the pitch and shouted ‘Non!’.”

Butterworth 1, French sports journalists 0.

A 2-0 win for Latics against Leeds put an even bigger smile on his face that day.

With almost six decades of loyal service the tales trip off Butterworth’s tongue, and when he speaks with such passion and precision memory you imagine yourself there alongside him.

While Oldham Athletic was his main love, the club did not have a monopoly on his affections.

Burnley has a special place in his heart too, having alternated between Boundary Park and Turf Moor every weekend from the mid-1950s to the early 60s.

“I lived in Shaw and it was easier to get to Burnley than Manchester, through Littleborough, Walsden and Todmorden, and park in the side streets,” he explained.

“I went to Burnley from the mid-50s all the way through to starting here in 1963. I did alternate weeks and wrote to Bob Lord (Burnley chairman) and Harry Potts (manager) to get the half-time score for Latics put on at Burnley.

“A fortnight later, when we went to the next home game it was there. The last one.

“They didn’t used to put them on in those days until about 25 to 5 because they had to get them all in. By the time we got in the car we had Eamonn Andrews on, on Sports Report, and that’s how it worked.”

Burnley’s home games never clashed with Oldham’s. If they did, there was no question he would have put his hometown club first.

But Butterworth was mesmerised by the likes of Jimmy McIlroy, who he was to go on to work alongside at Boundary Park.

Three years earlier was when his voluntary work for Latics began.

“It got to about 1963 and Coventry City had started their own radio station. The Sky Blue Club it was. We were the second club to have one.

“We played Coventry in the promotion season when they were going up and drew 2-2 in the early 60s.

“I wrote to the chairman, Harry Massey, and he said ‘We’ve got no sewage on the Broadway side of the ground’. I said ‘I only need a plughole’ and the supporters’ club bought me a second hand tape recorder from the second hand shop in Oldham, and Discland, which was the record shop in the centre of town, gave me the top 10 every match and I recorded them and talked over it by turning down the music.

“Ken Bates arrived and put a new speaker system in throughout the ground because they’d put private boxes along the front of the main stand.

“My long-time hero Jimmy McIlroy became manager and I got very friendly with him.”

They say you should never meet your heroes, but Butterworth was not to be disappointed.

“He was one hell of a nice man,” said the Latics stalwart, who turned down the chance of his own transfer to stay with his beloved Latics.

“I could have gone to Manchester City to be press steward but there would be a clash. I couldn’t go down Broadway when Oldham were at home.”

n TOMORROW: The highs and lows of life with Latics.