Former boss Joe Royle was voted as Athletic’s greatest ever manager by the club’s fans. A poll was conducted as part of The Football League's 125th anniversary celebrations. Royle arrived at Boundary Park in 1982 for first job in management and he spent 12 successful years building a dream team. In 1990 he took the team to Wembley for the first time when they were beaten by Nottingham Forest in the League Cup Final. The following year he won promotion to the First Division as champions of the Second Division as well as getting to the semi-final of the FA Cup where they lost to Manchester United. 'Big Joe' took a massive 72% of the votes as the Latics’ greatest manager, well ahead of Jimmy Frizzell, John Sheridan, George Hardwick and David Ashworth.
Andy Ritchie picked up 49% of the votes to finish ahead of Roger Palmer (34%), Bobby Johnstone, Eric Gemmell and Andy Goram as Athletic's greatest player.
The 1990/91 season was voted as the club’s greatest on 49%, ahead of 1989/90 (40%), 1973/74, 1914/15 and 1952/53.
The club's best ever game was unsurprisingly the last day of 1990/91 when the Latics beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 with 41% of the votes. It pipped the 1993 1-0 victory over Manchester United, the dramatic 4-3 win at home to Southampton that clinched survival in 1993, the 11-2 home success against Chester City in 1952 and the 11-0 thrashing of Southport 11 years later.