Bird’s eyes on plotting successful future

peter bird . . . six decades of experience in local amateur football

FOOTBALL:

PETER Bird, one of local amateur football’s most loyal ambassadors, is back on the scene at 71 years of age as chairman of Lancashire and Cheshire League side AFC Oldham 2005.

And Bird’s main aims in his latest role are to see the progression of younger players to first-team level and the continued development and opening of the club’s new base at Manor Flats.

Bird said: “In all my time in football, I have always found it gratifying to see younger players coming through the ranks and getting established in the first team.

“I have found that there is then a much greater affinity within clubs and this can be the case with AFC Oldham. Peter Marshall is doing a wonderful job as manager of the first team, but I would like to see the club develop their scouting system so that progression becomes an ongoing theme.

“Even though I became chairman at the start of the season, I have not really set my seal yet, but I am working with a good bunch of people. This is a progressive club, but to become more successful we all need to be singing from the same hymn sheet.”

Bird’s involvement in amateur football spans 60 years and it is this experience at grass-roots level which made him a target for AFC Oldham.

He was a popular coach with Oldham Soccer Coaching Association for many years in the 1970s, making his mark in the annual and well patronised soccer coaching courses held mainly on Clayton playing fields and Westwood Park — the latter is now the site of B&Q — in the summer months.

Bird played for a host of amateur sides in the local leagues of the time, before turning his hand to management at clubs such as Clarksfield and Hollinwood in the 1980s.

He was also the inter-league manager for the South-East Lancashire League and the Ashton Sunday League for lengthy spells.

More recently, he was secretary of the Ashton Sunday League before the competition’s untimely demise.

The first team of AFC Oldham, who run no fewer than 16 sides at all levels, including one girls’ team, play their home matches at the Tameside Stadium while the development of the Manor Flats site in Greenacres takes shape.

Bird said: “Progress on this front is ongoing, but I envisage it to be another couple of years or so before we can call it our home. David Giblin is doing a great job on the fundraising side and generally raising awareness of the development of the site. It will be great to have our own facilities and we see it as a potential springboard for the future development of the club.”

Giblin was chairman of AFC Oldham for many years, but his work commitments allied to his club activities meant he had to step down from that role. On the playing front, the first team of AFC Oldham are fourth in the Premier Division and are handily-placed to launch an assault on the title.