Blackburn 'where we'd love to be', admits Wigan Athletic chief

Paul Cook reckons the first job his Wigan Athletic side face against Blackburn this afternoon is to combat the ‘eerie’ experience of behind-closed-doors football.
Paul CookPaul Cook
Paul Cook

Latics return to the DW for the first time since March 7, looking to build on last week’s 2-0 win at Huddersfield. Back on ‘home’ soil...but with no supporters behind them.

“It’s strange, it’s eerie, it’s different... there’s a million and one adjectives to describe it,” said Cook.

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“It is absolutely nothing like league football. And that’s from the moment you get out of the car in the car park, with no stewards there, to getting back in your car at the end.

Football is all about intensity, and pressure and passion – and it’s so hard to create when there’s no supporters there.

“We know we’ve got a massive derby game ahead of us against Blackburn.

“And the reality is there’s usually been blood and thunder down the years between the two sides.

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“You look at teams in the division who usually play with intensity, and feed off the crowd... and you’ve not seen that in any of the games so far. Nobody knows what it’s going to be like at 3pm.

“If we’re lucky enough to win the game, we’ll probably come off the field having enjoyed the experience.

“If we come off the field having been beaten by Blackburn, we’ll all be saying how much we didn’t enjoy the experience. We’ve all been dealt this hand, and we’re all having to play it as best we can.”

Rovers can climb into the play-off places with a positive result, and the Latics boss knows all about his Ewood adversary after locking horns numerous times in recent years.

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“Blackburn have had a great season, Tony Mowbray’s a top manager and they’ve got some very good players,” Cook added.

“It was a big win for them last weekend against Bristol City, and we’re under no illusions as to how tough a game it will be.

“We’ve been on a similar journey at times during the last three years, albeit Blackburn have been able to kick on since we pipped them to the League One title.

"They’re currently at the other end of the table to us, where we’d love to be.”