CHARLES GRAHAM: Latics fans desperate for some good news

I felt physically sick when that unfairly awarded free kick spawned the Fulham equaliser which made the difference between Latics’ valiantly staying up despite the 12-point deduction, and facing the further misery of relegation despite one of the best runs in the Championship since the early spring.

Even as it stands, there’s a fire sale of players going on which could set the club back years; manager Paul Cook himself quit this week; and it is only to the credit of adoring supporters that the team got through their final games of the season just gone due to remarkable fund-raising efforts.

There has been much sympathy from a lot of quarters, whether it be footballing legends or senior politicians, and that is hardly surprising given how deeply unjust this whole crisis for the 2013 FA Cup winners feels.

Players, backroom staff and fans always suffer when their clubs go into administration and you can only feel sorry for them, looking in.

But usually clubs themselves decide to take that route while accounting the 12-point chop.

In Wigan’s instance though the board had no wish to go into administration. Why the heck should they? The club wasn’t in the red and didn’t have creditors banging down the door. It was only the owner who wanted to do this and summarily appointed some extra directors in order to force the measure through.

There has been criticism levelled at the English Football League, suggesting it did not properly scrutinise the takeover that led to this catastrophe. But the EFL has only been enforcing rules that professional clubs like Wigan backed in the first place.

More of an issue is whether the deduction should be deferred because, if there had not been a Covid-19 interruption to the season, they would have completed their matches before the administrators moved in (unless of course there is some truth in Filipino bets on Wigan being relegated, in which case might the plug have been pulled sooner?)

Tomorrow an appeal is lodged against the deduction (although an immediate verdict is said to be unlikely) and we might have a clearer picture as to who might be running the club.

All those who love Wigan Athletic really do deserve some good news.