A faith that knows no Boundary

English FA Cup Third Round: Behind Oldham manager Brian Talbot's FA Cup pragmatism is the belief that 'strange things happen', writes Stephen Bierley

Winston Churchill, who cut his political teeth in Oldham, once remarked that the only way to face morning in the town was with the aid of the best part of a bottle of scotch. Yesterday at 8am, with the rising sun making a barely perceptible flicker above the cloud-wreathed Pennines, Brian Talbot stuck to coffee.

The temptation to consume something more Churchillian will doubtless overwhelm most Latics fans this afternoon if Oldham Athletic, 11 months out of administration, were somehow to put one over their up-market neighbours, Manchester City. It has been quite a turn-around.

"A year ago the question was whether we could exist as a club. Now we are playing a game against a Premiership club that the fans think we can win," said Talbot, the Oldham manager, who between 1978 and 1980 appeared in three consecutive FA Cup finals, becoming the first player to win in successive years with different clubs - with Ipswich in 1978 and Arsenal in 1979.

The memories of his Wembley achievements remain as vivid as ever but not ones he will be reminding his players of this afternoon. "They would soon get fed up if I kept telling what I did or didn't do," he said. "'Get in the real world, you're an old bastard now,' they'd tell me. All I have said to them is that in your career you probably only get 10 goes at the FA Cup, sometimes a lot less. So make the most of them. When you come off the pitch you want to come off with no regrets."

Talbot knows the chances of winning today are slim, although a draw would suit them very well indeed, with money remaining desperately tight.

"They told me in April when I signed my three-and-a-half-year contract that I hadn't got a penny to spend. But it doesn't bother me in the slightest. The challenge is turning Oldham back into a First Division (now Championship) club, which is a harder task than the City game."

He rates his side's chances today no better than 100-1. "Before the Premiership started you got more upsets. If Manchester City play well and we play well, we'll lose. If they play badly and we have a lot of luck, we can win."

"Keep the faith" has been the motto up in the Lancashire hills - a faith that does not stretch back to some dim and distant past when cotton was king and mills the size of cathedrals towered over the back-to-back terracing. Just under 15 years ago Oldham, managed by Joe Royle, reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, were runners-up in the League Cup, then played alongside both Manchester clubs in the inaugural season of the Premiership in 1992-93.

Yet such has been the overwhelming financial change in the game in little more than a decade that to stand outside the red-brick entrance to Boundary Park beggars belief that it could have happened at all. And at the same time it underlines the near certainty that it will never happen again, here or elsewhere, unless current economic certainties are stood on their head.

"It's probably impossible to do what Wimbledon once did," said Talbot. "My old club Rushden would have done it if those boots (Doc Martens) hadn't stopped selling and we had to stop buying players."

Which, of course, is to ignore that Rushden's rise came about directly through one man's cash injection - the Dr Martens tycoon Max Griggs - whereas the success of Wimbledon and Oldham was a collective effort of will.

However, this is not to say that Talbot simply bought his way to success at Rushden; the financial parameters are different at Oldham but Talbot pursues this latest cause with the same energy that he did in his playing days. And he knows Kevin Keegan's side will travel east this morning with a certain degree of apprehension.

"As a big club you know you are on a banana skin, a hiding to nothing. Everyone expects the Premiership sides to win in the third round. But on a given day strange things can happen and there will be a few City players who might be thinking as they enter the ground that they wished they were playing at home."

Talbot, whose family home is in north London, watched City draw 1-1 at Highbury this week. "I was pleased I could see them play, then at the end I was a little bit disappointed because they were so bloody good. They deserved a win. They surprised me. They were better than I realised. Afterwards I thought 'Christ, I wish I hadn't have come now' but I did speak to Kevin and said 'we'll be trying to beat you'. I just hope they don't play as well here."

Not that he considers today's match his biggest challenge. "No, that was establishing myself as a manager. Just because you have been a reasonable player doesn't mean you can coach or manage. It's a myth. And changing from player to manager is hard, going on the other side. Some people can never accept it. You can't keep playing forever - unless your Eyresie."

David Eyres, the oldest outfield player in the League, will be 41 next month but Talbot has surrounded him with young legs, including the 19-year-old Neil Kilkenny, on loan from Birmingham City, and described, albeit affectionately, by Talbot as an "arrogant little sod" who can "win a game with one flash of brilliance".

And how players and fans alike would love to send City scuttling back down the hill to Manchester with a reverse Churchillian two-fingers waving about their collective ears.