On this day in 1990, Oldham Athletic booked their place in the club’s first ever major final.
Wembley became a reality for Latics after the full time whistle at the Boleyn Ground as they beat West Ham 6-3 on aggregate in the League Cup semi-final.
On the night, Joe Royle’s men were downed 3-0 but the tie was all but over after the first leg when the Blue’s thrashed the Hammers with a 6-0 win at Boundary Park.
David Kelly, Julian Dicks and Alvin Martin got themselves on the scoresheet for West Ham, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Latics' emphatic result in the previous leg.
Speaking exclusively to the club’s website today, Joe Royle said he was immensely proud of his team: “It was the season that probably put us on the map and in fairness, we generated the cash that took us up the next year.
“We’d beaten top sides on our way to there, Villa and Arsenal to name a couple. There was no shortage of confidence amongst the lads.
“They’d changed the manager in the meantime, Billy Bonds came in for Lou Macari and he obviously fired them up. It’s an aggressive ground to go to anyway and with the home fans behind them, they really set about us, physically as well.
“I do remember coming in after the game, and whilst the players were still bouncing around thinking we’re at Wembley, I had a minor sense of humour failure because we had Everton coming up on the Saturday. So, we had to get back into the right frame of mind for it and I soon got a hold of all that celebration nonsense.
“All the celebrations were done after the 6-0, believe me, and it was hard to say to them then ‘hey, there’s a second leg to come’ when you’re 6-0 in font, but equally we had words and I made sure that all the celebrations diluted somewhat after the 3-0 defeat.
“It could have been more, they hit the bar as well and if they’d have got the fourth goal then it would have been getting hairy. But we always had the three goal cushion, it was never a comfortable night but then again it didn’t get desperately uncomfortable.”