PART TWO: Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'I've absolutely no problem with all this. However, here comes the 'BUT'…'

Caddy from the 5:

Well the kids are back at school for a few weeks - being a teacher must be the easiest job in the word, they've more time off than Darren Anderton! - but I digress. And the early report card on the mighty Tics is in...and it's not good reading. First of all, yes I know 'we've still got a club', but where is it headed? When the season tickets were released, the chairman gave us a rousing letter on where he, and I guess Mike Danson, wanted the Tics in the future. Sustainability, moving towards Championship football, and eventually back to the Premier League. All by living within our means - boom and bust was gone. I got fully on board with this, as that's the way forward for a club our size, surely? We've the most fickle fanbase in football; being brutally honest, our attendances aren't good; and a Wiganer won't part with his money easily, as all the owners from Dave Whelan onwards have found out. So we've got to generate our own income, and sell our young stars when the time and money is right. I've absolutely no problem with all this. However, here comes the 'BUT'…

When Mike Danson bought the club, we'd had record losses of £17 million-plus - unrealistic debt without Whelan bankrolling us - and the new ownership firmly said it wasn't going to continue. Fast forward to the end of the season - one where we stayed up easily, despite starting on minus eight points - and then reality kicked in. The big earners were shipped out very quickly, leaving us very thin on the ground, and had Shaun Maloney basically starting from scratch. Admittedly, actually getting paid and only having to concentrate on footballing matters...the Tics were back!! Maloney then said he wanted 90 per cent of his squad in before the season started...a fair statement, that never came to fruition for whatever reason. He and Gregor Rioch had been given a budget that, in hindsight, simply wasn't tenable to building a team for the Championship - your words, Mr Chairman - and in came loan after loan after loan, sandwiched in between getting Jason Kerr, Will Aimson and Callum McMamanan on board.

All solid additions, but it's far too early to say if the loanees will be decent - bar Luke Chambers, who we know is quality. But my biggest bugbear - and I suspect this goes for a lot of Tics fans - is the forwards. Now I'm not digging out any of them personally, but starting a season with Joe Hugill and Dale Taylor - loaned in after similar spells at Burton and Wycombe respectively - along with the unproven Chris Sze and Josh Stones was suicide for a team wanting to challenge at the top. Again, YOUR words, Mr Chairman. It would be easy to sit here and blame Maloney, but that's far too simplistic. He's had his hands tied for much of his reign and, when they finally come off with Danson, they're put straight back on. He only got a percentage of the Charlie Hughes money, and basically spent the budget on wages of the loanees, not buying players. The lads we've got in are the nucleus of a half-decent side - just look at the Birmingham game - but then we get Morecambe. A different team, yes. But with injuries (and international call-ups), that IS our team. What I'm getting at, is what does Mike Danson actually and REALLY want with us in reality? To do what he said requires an outlay? And yet again, I know what he's already forked out, but he knew all this when he bought us. We can't just keep peddling 'at least we've got a club'...it's tiresome. I'm not saying he should throw money about willy nilly, but at least give Shaun a chance. Dear me, he certainly deserves one after everything he's been through with the club.

I honestly think a lesser man, who didn't care so much for us, would have walked a long time ago. The uncertainty of where we're actually going among the fans is growing game by game, and some reassurance from the owner would be welcomed. Anyway, it's international week so there's no game at the weekend...maybe a couple of free agents could appear by next week? We can only hope. It's never straightforward watching the Tics, but we need to keep faith with Maloney and the players we've got. No-one said it would be easy! Right, I'm off scouring European football for leads on any 40-goal-a-season free agents that'll play for next to nowt... I'm not really, I'm going to the pub. UP THE TICS!

Matt Auffrey:

Our last two matches heading into the first international break of the season saw us face off against two teams in completely different financial situations. Last weekend’s opponent, Birmingham City, have quickly cemented their status as the highest-spending team to have ever graced the third tier of the professional pyramid. Yet, just three days later, we welcomed Morecambe to the Brick for our first match of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy competition. Morecambe’s ownership situation has been in limbo for several years now and has left the club in a state of financial peril. They not only lost their first five matches of the season across all competitions, but also failed to score a single goal. Latics would go on to lose both matches by a 2-1 scoreline and the collective response to both results spanned a spectrum so wide that it could mimic the difference in spending power between Birmingham and Morecambe themselves.

Despite conceding a stoppage time winner at St. Andrew’s last weekend, there was a consensus that Latics’ 90-minute effort was commendable and encouraging. We were hard done by Steven Sessegnon’s late injury exit that forced us to play with 10-men for the final stretch of the match - which gave Brum just enough time to exploit that man advantage on a late set-piece. As disappointing as it was to battle in the manner we did, and still lose, a sense of optimism that had been absent all season slowly started to permeate its way into our fanbase. The positive feeling ended up being quite short-lived. Eight changes to the starting line-up on Tuesday set the stage for a disjointed performance. We had 81 per cent possession for the evening, but could hardly muster a half-chance in the Shrimps’ final third. A Joe Hugill second-half goal from the penalty spot briefly put a bandaid on a dire attacking performance. That bandaid was quickly ripped off when Toby Sibbick slipped and gave the ball away in our own box to allow Morecambe’s winner just moments after our equaliser. The few fans that managed to keep their rose-coloured specs on at full-time noted the team we put out included many fringe players who won’t regularly feature in our starting XIs going forward. However, not even Shaun Maloney could hide his immense disappointment with the performance during his post-match interview.

The visible dejection in Maloney’s face and voice was crystal clear within the first few seconds he appeared on our screens. It was obvious his despondency was not the byproduct of one bad one-off performance, but rather a collection of let-downs that had piled up to a troubling level. While the fixture disruption caused by international breaks is often met with a feeling of annoyance, it’s widely agreed our squad desperately needs this current hiatus from play to regroup and reset. There will be additional time for injured players to gain fitness without missing matches. We should ideally return to action next weekend with a stronger squad than what we have now. The most important person at the centre of this current international break will be the gaffer himself. Our approach over these opening weeks of the season has seen us fall short in five of our six matches thus far. For all the talk we’ve heard about playing the ‘Wigan Way’ over the last few months, we know negative results hold far more weight than an attempt at a positive style of play. Maloney has to make the necessary adjustments to make us more competitive on the pitch - especially in attack - where we have been nothing short of awful. However, despite all of the disappointment that's plagued the last four weeks, I am still in Maloney’s corner, and want to see him persevere alongside the rest of the lads. I hope he, in particular, can take a few days to refresh and recharge with his family and attack our next set of fixtures with renewed vigour. We've taken several steps backwards since the start of the season, but a couple positive results over the next month could quickly get us back on track. The waters are rocky now, but we're still too early in our journey to abandon ship. Let's stay the course for a bit longer and see where we end up come the end of September.

Stephen Unsworth:

I’m one fan with an opinion. My opinion is my own. Admittedly, I’m biased in my early day assumptions - going back to when Shaun Maloney was appointed. He came to us after a dismissal at Hibernian where, after a run of one win in 13 games, he left them in a relegation spot. Ping to today. One win in all competitions so far. We sit fourth from bottom of League One (Division Three in old money). I’ve watched two wingers failing abysmally, a talented creative midfielder now in a defensive role, and a defensive midfielder playing in the gap like a second '10', but doing it badly. We have a '9' making runs into the wrong channels, leaving the spine of our team fractured and not functioning. Easily by-passed. At what point does our board think ‘what is the cut-off point to still give us a chance of survival ?’ Our squad, without exception, seems lacking energy, motivation and ideas. Those things come from lack of leadership and management, and that can only sit with the chap in charge. I’ve bought my Bristol Rovers away tickets, but it’s only out of desire to support decent blokes wearing my teams’ colours. It isn’t out of any expectation.

Sean Livesey:

‘They never said it was going to be easy…' Well, some did, but anyone under the impression this season was going to be a walk in the park, will have had their expectations well and truly tempered after Tuesday’s BSM/Pizza Trophy tie with Morecambe. Let’s have it right, an EFL Trophy match featuring the second string during an international break does not make or break a season. If it did, a lot more than the paltry 1,500 Wiganers in attendance on Tuesday night would have been there to witness it. But all of that being said, a defeat - and especially a defeat in that manner - was the last thing that was needed with a long 10 days until the next league match. From a competition point of view, four points is usually enough to qualify, and there’s two matches left to hit that total. So plenty of time to put that right. I got to my first league game of the season against Birmingham on Saturday and was wholly impressed by what I saw. Without an offside goal from a ridiculous referee, and injury meaning we would play over the closing stages with 10 men, I think we would have got all three points. Considering the Birmingham manager ran the length of the pitch to celebrate his sides 91st-minute winner I suspect he thought they weren’t going to get anything out of the match either. Such is our season so far, bad luck combined with not really getting going. Tuesday night followed the well-worn path we saw against Charlton, Barnsley, Crawley and, in parts, Birmingham. Latics dominated the ball and the possession, but struggled to create any real chances of note. It needs to change and quickly, otherwise a slow start to the season can quickly turn into something more terminal.

What’s the answer? I’m not sure. But I’m hoping a clearly exasperated Shaun Maloney can find the answer. He mentioned in Tuesday’s post-match interview that the players - Callum McManaman apart - had disrespected the competition and disrespected Morecambe. With our slow start to the season, you would be expecting those without much game time to be banging on the door...but clearly not. There’s a real lack of experience in this side which is clearly showing now. Josh Stones had another frustrating night, and I’d be looking to get him back on loan to Oldham to see if he can rediscover some of the confidence he showed last season. Injuries have hit us badly at the start of the season...Jonny Smith, who made a real difference in the latter stages of last season, is still unavailable as are Tyrese Francois and Michael Olakigbe. They were the two big captures at the start of the summer so, to be entering the middle of September without us seeing either one of them, Shaun Maloney must be as frustrated as anyone. Joe Hugill has also not got going yet, hopefully his debut goal from the penalty spot against Morecambe can spur him on after the international break. Jensen Weir will provide some added competition in midfield, but we’re still missing a couple of experienced heads...the likes of Jordan Jones and Josh Magennis. What we’d have done to have someone like Magennis available against Morecambe...ironic considering the reaction his selection received last season. We’re not at the write off the season stage yet – despite the noise - but we’re desperate for some good news. Let’s hope for a clean bill of health ahead of Bristol and, more importantly, three points from the Memorial Ground.