Dave’s chapter of mishaps

START ’EM YOUNG . . . Dave Moore signs his book for four-year-old Max Anderson.

AUTHOR Dave Moore was lucky to make it to the Chronicle office to sign copies of his book “Oldham Athletic: On This Day” (Pitch Publishing, £9.99).

Moore arrived only half an hour late following an horrendous journey from his home in Canada.

Moore was delayed by two hours in Vancouver because of snow but, after eventually catching a connecting flight in Phoenix, he missed another in Philadelphia by 15 minutes.

“It meant I had a day in Philadelphia waiting for another flight and the journey took 20 minutes short of two full days,” he said.

Moore, who missed a book-signing session at Athletic’s shop, grabbed a hire car at Manchester Airport and headed for the Chronicle.

The book, which has taken Moore a year to complete, saw the author trawl through every other publication about Athletic, while some of the research was undertaken on a visit in the summer during which the club allowed him access to their private records.

After being hit by the literary bug, Moore says he is currently a third of the way through a second book about Athletic entitled ‘Miscellany and Trivia.’

Moore initially left for Canada in 1987 on a one-year teacher exchange, but decided to emigrate in 1990 before the exploits of the “pinch-me” season had happened.

His departure came two weeks before Athletic played Nottingham Forest in the final of the Littlewoods Cup, which left him facing a conundrum.

He said: “I had always maintained I would never go to Wembley until Athletic played there, and there was no way I was going to miss out.

“Before I left I went to a travel agents in Lees and asked them to book me a return flight from Canada to England which had the staff puzzled!”

At his home in Surrey, British Columbia, Moore runs a Canada branch of the Latics Supporters Club.

There are 40 members, most being ex-pats, although some are Canadians who have been converted to the cause.