PART TWO: Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - ‘Football...a reminder we are all part of something greater...’

Matt Auffrey:

Our month-long winless streak has finally been snapped. Tuesday’s 2-1 home win over Huddersfield ended our longest run of the season without a victory (across all competitions), which came to an official close at the 31-day mark. More importantly, the result was accompanied by a magnificent team performance that saw Latics produce two well-taken first-half goals amidst some other brilliant scoring chances over the opening 45 minutes. Dale Taylor pulled off a very impressive move to dribble around ex-Latics keeper Lee Nicholls and calmly finish for the first goal, while Owen Dale superbly handled Jonny Smith’s cross before blasting in our second goal from short range. Huddersfield made things interesting by pulling a goal back early in the second half, but a composed defensive effort allowed the home side to comfortably hold onto the lead and end the night with a deserved three points.

In his post-match interview, Shaun Maloney insisted we were due for such a satisfying comprehensive performance after our recent displays leading up to Tuesday evening. We showed plenty of attacking impetus at Crawley and resolutely defended against a top Wycombe side. However, we were still in desperate need of goals having only scored a total of three over the past six matches. The midweek efforts of our new dynamic duo 'Dale-squared' (until a better nickname emerges) delivered a massive lifeline for a fanbase that had reached wit’s end with our pronounced lack of clinicality. As much as there is to celebrate from Tuesday’s victory, the greater question remains: ‘Can we follow-up one strong performance with another?’ If the squad is really gelling to the degree that Maloney has suggested, then we will surely answer the call against a tough Reading team on Saturday.

While battling through what appears to be a never-ending ownership saga, our weekend visitors have largely persevered over the course of another difficult season. They are unbeaten over their past five fixtures, earning a total of nine points to sit just three points off the play-off positions with a game in-hand on sixth-place Leyton Orient. While the win over Huddersfield looks commendable on paper, the team we faced was quite injury-riddled, short-handed, and a shell of the side that had worked their way up to fifth position in the league table. Reading are not only in good form, but have received a recent morale boost by the news of the club entering a period of exclusivity with a promising potential buyer. They beat us decisively at the Select Car Leasing Stadium earlier this season, so they should be more than confident in their game plan as they head into the Brick.

We did well to create some separation between ourselves and the relegation zone with Tuesday's win. However, there is still much work to do before this season can end on a satisfactory note. We will need more clean sheets like last Saturday and more multi-goal performances like Tuesday. Yet, above all else, we were given reason to go into this weekend with genuine hope and belief. A third of our league campaign still remains. There is plenty of time to build on the success of this past week and create a worthy foundation for the foreseeable future.

George Arkwright:

Football, the great leveller. A pastime that binds and builds communities, celebrates diversity, and reminds us that, on the pitch and in the stands, we are all part of something greater. Whoever you are, you are welcome; regardless of your creed, culture, sexuality, race or gender; football is a beacon of diversity and a unifying force across the world. So to hear suggestions we have been culpable as a fanbase for racist abuse is quite frankly, disgusting. It has no place in our game, our ground, our town or our club, and to hear it coming from us, with such a richly diverse, historic cast of heroic players from all over the world, it's shocking and unacceptable. It is not what football is about, and I hope I speak on behalf of the entire Wigan Athletic fanbase when I say that if you harbour those views, then you do not represent us and you are not welcome.

To business. A week that could very well have made or broken our season. After a spirited but ultimately disappointing draw against Crawley, we were facing a period in which we were coming up against some of the league’s biggest hitters. I think it is fair to say that many did not see this period ending well; a vaguely positive result against Crawley is one thing, but to follow that with anything of note from the second and fifth-placed teams in the league seemed like a step too far. Especially for a team that has not been able to score goals regularly all season.

The first of these two games came against Wycombe, sitting pretty in second place having gone on an unbelievable run of 20 games unbeaten in the league earlier in the season. At the start of the game, if you’d said we’d have walked away with a point, most reasonable people would’ve bitten your hand off. However, at the time it was difficult to decipher exactly what a result like that meant for us. On one hand, we evidently defended well. To hold a team like Wycombe to a ‘bore-draw’ is an achievement, and I think we can thank Sam Tickle for yet another stellar performance in which the opposition should probably have walked away with something more than they got. However, this does imply a degree of luck. But I suppose luck is sometimes what you need, and it seems we had it in abundance on Saturday. Both Jason Kerr and Maloney echoed one another when they deemed this game to have been unwinnable a few weeks previously, and although I didn’t see much in the way of anything different from our performance week in, week out, they probably see the minutiae more than us in the stands, so I’ll take their word for it.

I don’t think it’d be a surprise to anyone that I was going into the second game feeling disheartened and not particularly positive that we would come away with a result. How wrong I was! Huddersfield had no answer to us; playing abject, panicked passes into midfield, struggling to keep up with the pace of our play and not finding an answer to our dominance. For example, both of our wingers were being played in behind to serious effect as their defence pushed further upfield, with Will Aimson yet again providing excellent delivery in the form of arching through balls from deep, and a second goal came on a counter just before the break courtesy of the latest in a string of Smith’s crosses, which barrelled straight through their defence and found Owen Dale, who controlled neatly and finished with a volley across the keeper.

The second half proved less clear cut, however we still looked the more commanding of the two teams. Huddersfield had immediately gotten their eye in, and scored on 50 minutes with an excellent ball slicing across the 18-yard box which our defenders failed to deal with. However, outside of that, we still looked the much more assertive team for the most part. Understandably, Adeeko’s energy and thus impact did diminish, and we become slightly sloppier with our passing, leading to some unforced errors which were fortunately tidied up well by our defensive line, but generally we did more than enough to stem any Huddersfield attacks, and controlled the game well until the final whistle which was blown during a brief cameo from Harry McHugh, who had broken down the wing and held the ball up excellently in order to win a free-kick. He continues to impress with his game IQ and technical ability, albeit in short bursts.

After Crawley, I truly was beginning to believe that a relegation scrap was inevitable. Teams around us were picking up points and we seemed incapable of stamping our mark on games where we held dominance. However, after four points gained against two top-six sides, our future is looking far brighter, and this was reflected in a supremely cheerful Shaun Maloney post-match, where he took the time to pour adoration over our fans for sticking with him through what has been a very tough period. I can’t be the only one that is eager to see him succeed, and with this week’s results under his belt, I hope this can be a catalyst for him to really build this team into a force to be reckoned with. With our defence as stalwart as ever, the return of our best midfielder, and the jump-start of our forward line, we could not have picked a better time to teach a group of Yorkshiremen not to cross the Dales…

Mick Aspinall:

Well, what a difference a week makes! I thought the performance against Huddersfield was up there with our best football of the season, certainly in a whole game, as opposed to a good half, or half hour. I thought the defence was as solid as could be, and in midfield we made life so difficult for a team in fifth position. I have said previously the team, and especially the January signings, are starting to look more comfortable with each other, and that showed in midweek. The celebrations after the second goal, I believe, show how together this side is. I won’t hold my breath for the tidal wave of positivity on the socials, but I did see some of the usual naysayers adopting an air of positivity, so you never know!

The stats say that’s three games unbeaten. They also say we’ve only won one in three! We all know which angle the week will be viewed by social media doom mongers, but to be fair, that’s the thing with stats. They can be genuinely manipulated to suit a narrative, and we know a few negative nelly narratives pushed on Shaun Maloney, who will go with that angle 70 per cent of the time, and the other 30 per cent, say nothing, (note, according to a study conducted by the Wigan Institute for accuracy, 62.4 per cent of all statistics are made up). So instead of stats, let’s have a look at some facts...and I spell that f.a.c.t.s not o.p.i.n.i.o.n. Now I have no issue with opinion, so long as it’s portrayed as opinion, not gospel.

So, these facts. Firstly, we are still only a little over 18 months on from our second brush with going out of business in the last few years. We were in a lot of debt, player wages were unsustainable, and we had an experienced/aging squad. We were not allowed to pay transfer fees for players for a whole season. The high earners - and don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have seen a couple of those players stay - left one by one. This season, although being able to pay fees, we sold two of our biggest assets. We have brought in, since the end of last season, by my reckoning, 21 players. Outgoings, I reckon around 15, not including last season's loans going back to their parent clubs. We’ve had changes in the coaching team, and boy have we had some injuries...Tyrese Francois, Matt Smith, Baba Adeeko, Dion Rankine, Silko Thomas, Maleace Asamoah, Will Goodwin, Joseph Hungbo, James Carragher, Jonny Smith, Luke Chambers...I’m sure I’ve missed some too. All the time in the background, with all the disruption, the ownership have been attempting to strike a balance between cutting our debts, and improving our playing staff...a task I wouldn’t want for all the tea in Tesco! The manager also has stoically continued to strive to get the best from the players.

None of this is opinion and, with all that going on, we’re currently the 14th best team in the league. FACT! I mentioned last week that our budgets seem to be expanding as each transfer window comes and goes and, although it may not be increasing by gargantuan amounts, it seems to be going the right way. I heard a snatch of gossip/rumour in midweek, from someone I have no reason to doubt, that our efforts to sign players for next season are well underway, and why wouldn’t they be? This is a professional football club, run by professionals from top to bottom, and in my opinion there are signs of encouragement, sprouting as we enter spring. So come on people, let’s be positive, accept we’re not perfect, embrace our flaws, and support the club as we continue to move onward and ever so slightly upwards! And stay classy, always!

Sean Livesey:

I told you they'd eventually drag us back in! Two draws and a win from Crawley, Wycombe and Huddersfield would be seen as a good return for a side that had struggled in February. But in true Latics fashion they up-ended that to win against Huddersfield as opposed to Crawley. In fairness to Latics, the last three performances have been very good. Especially as Darcy, Dale and the other January signings settle in. It's a completely different side than which we started the season with, and one can only wonder what we may have achieved if we had started the season with some of those lads.

Owen Dale bagged his first goal on Tuesday night and was central to everything we did. In stark contrast to some of the comments about him on deadline day, he's clearly a key component of what Shaun Maloney wants to achieve, and although it's unfair on a young lad like Silko Thomas - who worked hard for us - it's definitely an upgrade on what we had before. And what more can be said about Dale Taylor that hasn't already been said? Maloney revealed in January and again in midweek that they had tried to sign Taylor permanently last summer. His signing and that of Dale on permanent deals must be a priority in the summer. Now one of those may be easier to achieve than the other, if Taylor keeps putting in performances like he has for us this season he may end up putting himself out of reach. But that's a debate for a different day.

Ronan Darcy is another quickly settling in to his new surroundings. He's never going to be Thelo Aasgaard, but his all-round energy and creativity will quickly see him as a fan favourite, just as Crawley fans told us he would when his signing was met with less than muted appreciation in WN5. A word as well for 'Big' Toby Sibbick, who's made that right-back spot his own, and his performance on Tuesday was that of a player full of confidence.

This week has seen some much needed positivity visit the Brick. The key now is for Maloney and his team to get some much needed consistency to ensure we carry on putting as much space between ourselves and the bottom four. Reading are next up at the Brick, a real crisis club but who like us last season are upsetting the odds. It won't be easy but if we carry on Tuesday nights performance then who knows.