ALMOST three decades ago Oldham Athletic became founder members of the Premier League, punching with the heavyweights of English football having earned their place among them two seasons beforehand under the legendary Joe Royle.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea all came to Boundary Park and were conquered.

But for a generation since those halcyon days of the early 1990s, it all seems like a fairytale. Especially now.

Forget thick and thin, there are thousands of fans who have followed the club through thin and thinner and have known mostly mediocrity.

Even so, even to them, this day did not seem real. It still doesn't.

But on the day two heavyweights went pound for pound at Wembley, Oldham Athletic suffered their own knock-out and became the club that was not too big to go down; the first former Premier League club to drop out of the Football League.

What has happened over the past decade - accelerating with frightening speed over the last four years under the Lemsagam regime to this devastating point - has been unfathomable, not to mention unforgivable.

It does not just boil down to this season of course, it has been building for a while, with problems stretching back before Abdallah Lemsagam's involvement. But the club has lurched from one crisis to the next since this season began to reach this tipping point, and that has all been on his watch.

John Sheridan came back to try to pull the club back from the precipice. But even if a third Shezzurection had been executed, without a significant change at the top it would have just delayed the inevitable. Latics would have found themselves in a similar predicament this time next year.

Contractual catastrophes set the tone, with two of their summer signings in goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler and Harrison McGahey unable to even start the campaign because their deals did not meet with the league's requirements. There were strict conditions in place under the terms of their EFL loan agreement, which had already left the club limited to free agents or loan signings and salary caps through not one but two transfer windows.

Leutwiler's absence meant Danny Rogers played with a serious injury that ultimately sidelined him for months.

Simultaneously, Covid struck at the start of the season and left Latics without the likes of Dylan Bahamboula and Hallam Hope for a couple of games, while then head coach Keith Curle had to spend three of the first four games in isolation at home.

By the time he was able to return to the dugout, Latics had lost their first three league fixtures, and after a pre-season in which they showed some potential, they barely recovered from being on the back foot so early on.

There have been costly mistakes on the pitch all season - too many to highlight here. But bigger than them all combined was the hierarchy's decision - be it Abdallah Lemsagam, his sporting director brother Mo, or a combination of the two - to allow Selim Benachour's interim period as head coach to last as long as it did after Curle's departure in November.

Two weary months, eight league games, five defeats, no wins.

By the time change came, with the familiarity and feelgood factor that Sheridan brought, it was too late.

He inherited a side that was seven points adrift of safety. And although it looked for a while that he might pull off yet another Great Escape - what would have been the greatest of them all - his hands were ultimately tied by the club's transfer embargo. Limited to a 23-man squad and a salary cap, Sheridan was unable to recruit the quality and quantity he needed in the remainder of the transfer window.

Consistency of selection helped to build momentum. But when suspensions and injuries hit, most significantly in defence, it hurt them.

Many questioned Sheridan's judgement for coming out of retirement to take on this task, but he did it out of his sheer love for the club and the fans, and it was reciprocated. Supporters stuck with him and the team. Keep the faith, he said. And they did. For as long as possible.

But with Barrow and Stevenage both winning and Latics losing they could take no more. Fury over a foul on Jordan Clarke escalated into all-out rage against the regime. Latics had only been represented in the directors' box by general manager Steven Brown - Abdallah Lemsagam has not been to the club this calendar year, while Mo was conspicuous by his absence - and fans who poured onto the pitch poignantly faced those empty seats and protested. A big banner read 'Get out of our club'.

In the end it was supporters who had to leave after it was announced the game had been abandoned in the 79th minute, with Salford leading 2-1. But, with so much riding on the result at the top and bottom of League Two, once the crowd of 5,752 had left play resumed close to two hours after it had been stopped.

We will never know if Latics could have clawed their way back before the lengthy stoppage. There had been hopeful signs courtesy of Hallam Hope, who was denied a close range header by the crossbar at 1-1, after Davis Keillor-Dunn had converted from the spot to cancel out former Latics striker Matt Smith's opener. Then at 2-1, after Thomas-Asante had been afforded too much space to score a first half stoppage time sucker punch, Hope had a goal disallowed for an infringement.

In the remaining 11 minutes or so in front of empty stands Nicky Adams had a chance cleared off the line.

Three hours and 23 minutes after the game had started, Latics' fate was sealed in silence.

Fans had seen it coming for longer than that, but ultimately they did not witness the end.