Wanderers directors should not be offended if there is no red carpet reception when they arrive at Oldham on Sunday.

Latics do not stretch to such refinements these days, but the welcome in the Boundary Park boardroom will be a warm and friendly one from a familiar figure from the past.

Barry Chaytow, a Wanderers chairman of the 1980s, is now chairman of the board at Oldham and, although he left Burnden Park in controversial fashion 16 years ago, he bears no grudges against the men who forced him out.

Some have moved on themselves, making way for the new Reebok regime, but there are a still three directors who famously refused to back Chaytow's attempt to sack Phil Neal, prompting the chairman to quit in protest.

It seemed an unlikely turn of events at the time but the fact was that, although chairman for almost two years, Chaytow only held around nine per cent of the shares and was comfortably out-voted by his fellow directors, who preferred to back rather than sack Neal.

"I felt at the time that the club was going nowhere," he said, reflecting on his departure in February 1989, when Wanderers were 18th in the old Third Division, without a win in nine games.

"With all due respect to Phil, I didn't think he was doing a good job and I wanted to bring in a new manager. But nobody else on the board would support me.

"But I still have fond memories of Bolton. I still see Nat Lofthouse regularly and I can look back with a lot of pleasure on my time there.

"I won't be rolling out the red carpet on Sunday but that's only because we haven't got one! I'm looking forward to the game. It's going to be a big occasion for us."

Chaytow, who was chairman of Wanderers when they won promotion from Division Four in 1988, maintained his links with football after leaving Burnden, spending seven years on the Carlisle United board as vice-chairman under the flamboyant Michael Knighton - the man who was within a whisker of buying control of Manchester United for a mere £10 million in 1989.

It was Chaytow, a successful Whitefield-based businessman whose company manufactures England international caps, who introduced Knighton to the then United chairman Martin Edwards, paving the way for the takeover bid which, had it been successful, would have been the sale of the century.

Yet it was a deal that might never have seen the light of day had Knighton's earlier attempt to buy into Wanderers not been dismissed by the Bolton board. Legend has it that, in a bizarre overture to his famous pitch-juggling antics in front of the Stretford End, when he was prematurely unveiled as the new owner of Old Trafford, Knighton similarly tried to impress the Burnden directors with his footballing "credentials".

He was not invited back.

"I didn't know Michael at the time but he wrote to me the day after I left Bolton, saying he wanted to invest in the club," Chaytow said. "I just told him to contact the directors but nothing came of it.

"Then I set up the whole thing with Manchester United, introducing him to Martin Edwards, and he almost bought them for just £10 million - incredible."

One takeover that did come off, however, was the one that saved Oldham from closure last season. Losing £50,000 a week, they almost went into liquidation before being rescued by a £7 million cash investment from three English businessmen, who had made their fortunes in America and have put the club back on the straight and narrow.

A new stadium is planned and results have improved considerably - a testimony to the management skills of Sam Allardyce's old boss, Brian Talbot, steering a team featuring four loan players and the youngest back four in the business to the Northern Final of the LDV Vans Trophy.

"We were literally minutes away from going out of business," Chaytow said, looking back on the dark days.

"But there's optimism now and these are quite exciting times.

"The club is going forward again and Brian is doing a great job."

The FA Cup has added spice and, after beating Manchester City in the third round, Oldham are hoping to take a second Premiership scalp.

"I'm not sure what Sam Allardyce will make of the game, in fact I think he will be a bit more careful than Kevin Keegan was," Chaytow said, expecting a more committed approach from Wanderers.

"But we definitely fancy another win. Why not? We beat Manchester City, we're on a fairly good run and I don't think Bolton will relish coming here."