PART ONE: Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - ‘My Wigan Athletic four-box matrix. Take my test and find out where you fit!’

Martin Tarbuck:

As a fanzine editor, I like to gauge the mood of the fans, so with that in mind, I think it’s time I re-introduced my Wigan Athletic four box matrix. Take my test and find out where you fit!

Fan 1: Ultra positive and is always supportive of the club and manager whoever he is.

Fan 2: Ultra negative, moans about anything and everything, hates the manager whoever he is, uses football as a vehicle to project his/her (but usually his) constant misery. Now forget about those two types, they are easy to spot and even easier to psycho-analyse.

Fan 3: Likes the manager if he has a previous affinity to the club and plays a patient possession-based style of play. Doesn’t like primitive long ball, and is suspicious of managers with no prior connection to the club.

Fan 4: Hates a patient possession-based style of play and constantly complains that we’d have sacked the manager who implemented it months ago if he hadn’t played for us. Wants us to employ Steve Bruce (again) and play two up front.

We’ve already established that Fan 1 & Fan 2 are fairly straightforward specimens, but I find the dynamics between the other two fascinating. It’s a couple of weeks into the Ryan Lowe regime, and Fan 3 and Fan 4 are already at each other’s throats on social media every day, each equally accusing the other of pushing 'an agenda' if they disagree with it, also known as 'expressing an opinion' if you do agree with it.

I consider myself a bit of a Fan 1 but also a Fan 3, and although occasionally Fan 4’s call me brainwashed, stupid, deluded and driving an agenda, well it’s not as if I don’t write enough words here and elsewhere where I intend to support and justify my opinions (Fan 4 'I’m not reading all that').

As a Fan 3, I didn’t want Maloney sacked. However, I think much as I support him, there may well have been an argument for him going in the summer. For two reasons, firstly the bloke looked mentally drained and way too emotionally involved. And a second, conditional reason would be if we’d slid down the table from 14th place to getting relegated or almost relegated. But there was no evidence of this happening, given we hadn’t been in the relegation zone all season.

Despite the Fan 4 protestations that 'he’s going to relegate us', it would also be an equally valid opinion to say 'we’ll probably finish in mid-table'. We could go on and on about the polarised opinions on style of play, substitutions, player recruitment and who was responsible for it, and whether what Maloney did to convince Mike Danson to actually buy the club earned him the right to more time than the average manager, but it’s all in the past now.

Personally, despite the disappointment that Maloney was relieved of his duties, I have been quite happy we have brought in Ryan Lowe, as realistically the best manager we could get. It is clear, though, that we can’t quite move on from Maloney yet, and neither Fan 3 or Fan 4 wants to. Fan 3 points out that changing style and personnel before we are safe from relegation could potentially be a recipe for disaster. Fan 4 of course will continue to blame Maloney long after he’s gone for creating a mess, and of course if we did go down, it would all be Maloney’s fault if we drop from 14th to 21st in the remaining games.

Fan 3 has been cheekily pointing out we wouldn’t have lost against Bolton had Maloney still been in charge. There’s probably some merit to this – the similarities between him and Roberto Martinez are uncanny in the ability to pull off a one-off big result, along with an inability to perform like that consistently.

The Fan 4’s are too busy telling us how performances have vastly improved since Lowe came in, and personally I’m not buying this one. It was losing to Bolton that made me finally lose patience with Uwe Rosler, and I can’t say I was particularly happy with Tuesday either.

Some Fan 4’s are claiming we were supposed to walk away from Tuesday night’s game happy because performances have vastly improved. I can assure you, when we lose to a late winner against our local rivals for the first time in a decade, saying 'yeah but I’m happy because the performances are vastly improving' (they aren't by the way) then nope, I’m not having it.

It is pure 'Emperor's New Clothes' from those fans who clamoured for Maloney's removal. Both teams seem to have moved from the possession style play that their previous managers’ advocated to an ugly, long ball approach, and they were a bigger side and better at it than us.

I am however, not so entrenched to a style that I won’t accept alternatives if they work. For example, I was very happy when Leam Richardson won League One, and I was too busy enjoying us winning to moan about his supposed industrial style of football.

Fan 2 (ultra negative) will have hated it - and perhaps hardcore Fan 3’s, but I’m not that hardcore - and if Ryan Lowe can build his style and deliver effective, attacking football next year, then you’ll hear no complaints from me. However, the football was terrible on Tuesday night, we could barely string two passes together for large parts of the game. We got it forward quicker but it was mainly long channel balls, head tennis, and aimless flick ons.

I saw this with my own eyes, even though the Fan 4’s will claim this is me as a brainwashed member of the Maloney cult. See, I'm not that stubborn, had we hung on a few minutes more and secured a 0-0 draw, I’d have been delighted with Lowe’s evening’s work. It is clear that for this way of playing to evolve, we are going to need a complete squad overhaul in the summer, and we’ve also got a little bit to do to get there first with the existing squad.

In the short term, I remain unconvinced this change was needed at the time it was made, but I also take comfort in the long term, that the club have managed to attract a manager like Lowe, with a decent track record and have presumably made assurances that he can build a squad suitable for his needs and ours.

I think even the most reasonable fans on either side can acknowledge that flip-flopping everything a dozen games before the end of the season is pure madness, but so long as we get there by scraping out another win or two or a few draws, I quite frankly don’t care right now.

Ultimately we can argue till the cows come home about the sort of manager, and footballing style we need but your answer is in the above paragraph. The owners make the decisions, not the fans. We are going to see a massive overhaul during the summer, and a supposedly bigger budget which presumably they trust Lowe with more than they did Maloney.

It may answer some questions that lie above all this, or it might not: What if the recruitment team is the problem and not the manager when it comes to finding new players? What if the injuries aren’t down to the sort of player we sign, but due to changes in medical personnel or practices? What if crowds continue to decline or don't improve (and to put the blame on Maloney for midweek games in particular was a scathing and wholly inaccurate accusation, the blame lies with these broadcasters, across the board)?

I put these questions out without knowing the answers, but ultimately have to trust the club knows what they are doing. And despite my disappointment with Tuesday night, I look forward to watching Lowe shape his team up to bring the good times back over the coming seasons.

Only trouble is, with him not having a prior affinity to the club, if he does do a great job, he’ll be off like a shot, like when he left Plymouth to join PNE. But again, I don’t even care about that, if that means he has delivered success to our club.

Let’s get over the line this year, and then let’s see what the next couple of years bring….and maybe we can all relax if we finally pick up a win in the next few games.

Mick Aspinall:

Well what a few weeks it’s been. My last submission was immediately after Shaun Maloney’s departure and, having been out of the country for a couple of weeks, I’ve been watching the developments from a distance.

Firstly, above and beyond all matters, the tragic disappearance and passing of Darren Orme quite rightly overshadowed all footballing matters. Much has already been said, and will continue to be said about Darren and his love of Wigan Athletic.

I didn’t know Darren at all, but there aren't many of the 40-plus years I’ve been watching that I don’t remember seeing Darren at the games. To say that he was somewhat of an institution at Latics games is not in any way an understating of the fact.

There’s been many occasions that we Tics fans have been made to feel proud. Getting into the old Fourth Division after years of non-league football. The 1986/87 FA Cup run. The Whelan years. The Premier League. And of course, the FA Cup win in 2013. I know we’ll all have our own memories and moments, but they will all be football-related.

The way the supporters, the club, the town, and so many more people and groups who helped out over the terrible period, all paid tributes to Darren was absolutely awe inspiring. That should be up there with all our proud moments.

All those memorable footballing achievements, matched by the unity shown in paying Darren the tributes nobody would honestly have wanted to pay, but sadly had to do so, should stand side by side with all our most historic achievements.

In respect of the actual football, I think Ryan Lowe is a good appointment. This week's two games were very different, but I think we can see that his intention is to play more quickly from back to front, take a few chances, and defend like our lives depend on it.

I thought we looked good against a Barnsley team who, although not in great form, can still cause any team some problems, and we should’ve maybe got more from the game. For what it’s worth, I’m with the ref on the possible sending-off of Jason Kerr. Another 10 yards and yes, I may have been thinking differently, but that’s football sometimes, and we may have got the rub of the green on this occasion.

The Bolton game was very different, and we had to defend a lot more against possibly the worst Wanderers team I’ve seen in recent years. That said, I thought they looked the most likely to get something the more the game progressed.

It’s early days in the manager's tenure, there is absolutely nothing proper to assess just yet, and nor should there be for some considerable time. He’ll be able to sign his own players to the squad, assess the current squad, get a full pre-season in to fully impress on the squad his style of play, and hopefully have a full season to get us as high as possible in this league.

The cheery naysayers will still find something to moan about, blind to the fact we may be having our third consecutive pre-season squad rebuild. But hey, what do any of us really know!

Let’s (try to) stay positive, get behind the team and cheer us on to the end of the season. You never know, we might only be a Leyton Orient away win from having nothing to play for, for the rest of the season! As ever, stay classy, Tics.

Tony Moon:

Bugger. No bounce then. I suppose it had to come eventually, losing to them men - and oh my, how chuffed were they to have scrawped a win against a team peering over their shoulders, worriedly eying their relegation battle rivals. Ah well, good luck to 'em.

As for the game, as hopeful as I was after (parts of) Saturday's match, I was left more confused by how we played on Tuesday night. It was good to see Maleace Asamoah Jnr given a start up front, as he’s proven he has pace to burn. So why oh why weren’t we trying to play through balls to him, rather than try and place a cross on his threep’ny bit shaped head? His impression of Julius Agahowa was truly impressive, though.

As for the rest, well, there was nowt to shout about either way, was there. Nobody superb, nobody awful. But then again, nobody really leading from the front (I might be being harsh on a few there, but I’m pretty sure they have suitably fitting caps).

Poor ref again, but that’s to be expected maybe, no such thing as a homer these days. And being a founder member of the Football League surely has to have some benefits, especially against an opposition who definitely aren’t big rivals...and even more so when those non-rivals have walloped 'em every time since before Covid was a thing.

Ah well. We have to remain positive, don’t we? Let’s just hope the red card for Ryan Lowe isn’t a sign that the pressure’s starting to tell already with our new mon...three managers in a season YET AGAIN would be just absolutely crazy.