PART TWO: Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'September shouldn't feel like March. You shouldn't be studying the table...'

George Arkwright:

Firstly, I think it’s important to address Kevin.

The show of support from both our fans and staff, as well as Wycombe’s, was truly moving. To lose someone so suddenly, and with so much left to give, is a tragedy in itself, but to know that Gary had brought him up to the Brick from Exeter only a few months previously shows just how highly regarded and well respected he was by our manager.

His reaction in the post-match interview showed that Kevin was not simply a colleague, but a close friend too. My thoughts go out to everyone affected, and Wycombe’s travelling contingent did themselves proud. With this in mind, there is much that can be forgiven about our performance this week.

A loss to Wycombe was not ideal, but perhaps understandable after such a turbulent and emotionally draining period. Unfortunately, however, the same patterns are repeating themselves in almost every game this season.

We simply cannot score. On occasions, we seem unable to even create chances. I am still willing our striking contingent to come good. I desperately want Sonny Perkins and Dara Costelloe to come up with the goods and prove me, and so many others, wrong. Frankly, I need them to.

I need Scott Hogan to roll back the years and Christian Saydee to return to the fold with the ferocity so many of us feel he can muster, yet so few of us have actually witnessed. If they don’t, I fear that even if we address the other issues, our season could become a write-off.

Without goals, we are incapable of winning games, and without wins under our belt, we are destined for the drop. Unfortunately, in this instance, hope and belief are two different things.

Do I hope we will find the answer to our striking woes? Yes. Do I believe we will? I think the answer is probably no.

Costelloe and Saydee offered precious little in front of goal before the introduction of Joe Taylor last season. Between them, they managed just five league goals across more than 4,000 minutes of football - roughly one every 860 minutes.

Those numbers are damning. We are yet to see Christian return to action this season, while Costelloe, despite his efforts, has so far shown little to suggest a dramatic improvement is imminent.

Then there is Scott Hogan. The experienced striker has managed just 10 league goals across his previous three seasons. Eight of those came during his first year with MK Dons, followed by just one in 20 League Two appearances last season. He didn’t even manage a touch of the ball on Saturday despite being on the pitch for roughly 20 minutes.

Fitness, I’m sure, is something he will benefit from, but I struggle to see how, short of a remarkable return to form, Hogan becomes the answer to our problems.

And Sonny. A player with so much potential and so much of his career ahead of him, yet every time I see him play I am left wondering whether he currently has the confidence or physical ability to impose himself at this level.

Saturday was by far his worst game. I hope, for his sake and ours, that he can use the next two weeks to take stock and come back refreshed, mentally and physically, for our games in October.

I truly wish all of them nothing but success. Lord knows we need it. Yet our problems in front of goal were not the only issues to emerge from Saturday’s defeat.

A profound lack of confidence and a strange choice of formation left many of our players looking as though they were wondering where we go from here. On multiple occasions, players seemed reluctant to take shots when opportunities presented themselves on a silver platter.

Max Power, who only weeks previously had scored from a similar range, shifted the ball onto his stronger foot 20 yards from goal, only to look for a sideways pass instead of the bottom corner.

Reggie Walsh, Charlie Gray, Fraser Murray and others all seemed far more concerned with finding a team-mate than finding the target.

Especially at this level, potshots have been known to go in. Sometimes you simply have to make your own luck.

Morgan Fox, meanwhile, looked increasingly exasperated by the lack of options as he continuously attempted to play out from the back to little avail.

Ahead of him were huge swathes of empty space, vacated by wing-backs who had pushed forward to sit on the shoulders of the last man - wing-backs who were themselves grossly outmatched in a physical battle against Wycombe’s imposing back line.

Jon Mellish as a forward simply didn’t work, while Murray being man-marked out of the game by a player twice his size seemed an obvious area in need of change. Yet, for the vast majority of the game, nothing changed.

As I mentioned initially, this week can be forgiven and forgotten. We have all lost someone close to us, and there is little chance of your mind being completely on your work at a time like this.

The fact that the team had to play in those circumstances is impressive in itself, and I commend each and every one of them for stepping up and being counted.

Especially given the position we find ourselves in, I can only imagine how heavily the pressure is weighing on these young men.

But the facts remain. We cannot continue on this trajectory. We simply cannot. If something doesn’t change, we will be relegated.

Whether that comes down to a mismatch in ability, a lack of investment in more potent players or managerial shortcomings remains to be seen.

Whatever the problem, however, it must be solved. And fast.

Shaun Houghton:

How bad can this get? There are football defeats that leave you angry. There are defeats that leave you frustrated. And then there are weeks when football suddenly feels almost irrelevant.

This has been one of those weeks for Wigan Athletic. The sudden death of Kevin Miller at just 57 years old has left everybody connected with the club reeling.

Miller had only arrived at Wigan in the summer, but he had already become a hugely respected member of Gary Caldwell's staff and, more importantly, a close friend of the manager.

And then came Saturday. Another defeat. Another blank. Another game in which Wigan failed to score. Another afternoon where you walked out of the ground wondering just where this team is going.

Forget football for a minute Before anything else, Kevin Miller deserves to be remembered. The former professional goalkeeper enjoyed a career spanning almost two decades and more than 700 appearances before moving into coaching. He had worked alongside Caldwell at Exeter and followed him to Wigan this summer.

His time at the club was painfully short. But the reaction to his death told its own story. The club described him as much-loved and respected, praising his professionalism, passion and uplifting personality. Exeter and his former clubs also paid tribute.

On Saturday, both sets of supporters applauded before kick-off. Wycombe's Jayden Wareham, who had worked with Miller at Exeter, laid a wreath. For a few minutes, football genuinely didn't matter. And it shouldn't have.

Caldwell looked broken Whatever anybody thinks about Caldwell the football manager, it was impossible not to feel for him. This wasn't simply the loss of a member of staff. It was the loss of a friend.

Caldwell had to stand in front of cameras after an emotionally brutal week and somehow talk about a football match. He spoke of a 'horrific week', and reports from the aftermath captured just how emotional the manager was.

He looked broken. Not beaten by a football match. Broken by life. And anyone with an ounce of decency would understand that.

Nobody should be using Kevin Miller's death as ammunition against Caldwell. Nobody should be demanding that a manager somehow function normally while grieving someone close to him.

But here's the horrible thing about football: It doesn't care. The fixtures keep coming. The points still need winning.

Then came another 0–1 If ever there was a game we needed to win, it was this one. Wycombe arrived managerless. We were at home. The atmosphere was understandably subdued because of Miller, but there was still a football match to win.

And we didn't win it. We couldn't even score. The game was poor. The first half was almost devoid of incident, and although we had more possession overall, we struggled to turn that into anything meaningful.

Then, with 22 minutes remaining, Dan Casey headed Wycombe in front. We had time. Gary made five attacking substitutions. And yet the closest they came to an equaliser was Connor Barrett firing over the bar.

Full-time: Wigan Athletic 0–1 Wycombe Wanderers. Back to the bottom of League One. Let that sink in. Seven games. Four points. Seven league games. Four points. One win. One draw. Five defeats. Five goals scored. Twelve conceded.

And now the feeling among supporters is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. This isn't about panicking after one bad result. This is about the pattern.

Cambridge United: defeat. Leyton Orient: defeat. AFC Wimbledon: defeat. MK Dons: victory. Stockport County: humiliation. Sheffield Wednesday: a point. Wycombe: defeat.

That is not the start of a season anyone at Wigan would have wanted or even thought of. And the frightening thing is that we're barely into September. Are we watching the earliest relegation battle in years?

It's too early to say Wigan are going down. Of course it is. There are still months of football left. There are huge numbers of points available. A couple of wins can transform the mood and completely change the complexion of a league table.

But that's not the same as pretending everything is fine. Because right now, we look like a club already preparing for a relegation fight. And that's the frightening part.

September shouldn't feel like March. You shouldn't be studying the bottom of the table and calculating how many points you need to get clear. You shouldn't be looking at upcoming fixtures and thinking, we absolutely have to win that one. Yet here we are.

There is already talk among supporters of whether this could become the earliest relegation battle we have experienced in League One and we had a -12 start and didn't feel like this.

That isn't a prediction. It's the natural fear created by a team sitting at the bottom after seven games with only four points. Where is the fight? This is what bothers me most. Not necessarily the defeats.

Football teams lose matches. It's the lack of attacking threat. The lack of sustained pressure. The feeling that when we go behind, you aren't watching a team that is going to tear the opposition apart trying to get back into the game.

Against Wycombe, Wigan had 55.9% possession and 12 shots. But only two were on target. Possession is meaningless if you can't hurt anybody with it. And that's becoming the defining problem. We don't look dangerous enough.

Caldwell needs help - and fast. But we all know it isn't going to come from the owners.

The man has just lost a close friend. This week was never going to be normal. Nobody should pretend otherwise but the team is bottom of the league.

The performances aren't producing enough goals. The points aren't coming. And the gap between a difficult start and a full-blown relegation crisis can disappear very quickly.

Caldwell needs his players to respond. He needs leaders. He needs goals. He needs somebody to grab a game by the throat.

Because right now, Wigan are drifting. And drifting at the bottom of League One is dangerous but is that where the owners are wanting us to be? A horrible week - and a horrible warning.

Perhaps the cruellest thing about this week is that nobody really needed another reason to feel miserable. Kevin Miller's death has put football into perspective. Clubs around the country paying tribute to him and coming together.

Gary Caldwell looked emotionally shattered. The supporters paid their respects. Another defeat.

There is no magic button. There is no point pretending that one win suddenly fixes everything. But Wigan need something. They need a reaction. They need goals. They need points.

Most of all, they need to rediscover some belief before this becomes something much bigger than a bad start. Because seven games into a League One season, being bottom isn't a death sentence. But it is a warning.

And if Wigan aren't careful, this season could become a fight for survival far earlier than anybody could have imagined. For now, though, we have two weeks until our next league game. Rest in peace, Kevin.

Alfie Hurd:

On the pitch, it's going terrible with us seemingly sleepwalking to relegation on recent form. I hope to be proved wrong.

Obviously we can't be too harsh on Saturday after the terrible news about Kevin Miller, and I wish everyone who had the privilege of knowing him is doing well. But the divide from fans to the club is ever so present due to the ownership's lack of communication.

This has been made worse by the poor investment in the transfer window, with our highlight striker being Scott Hogan, whom I hope does well. But Lucas danson must come out and speak to us as fans and restore clarity within our supporters and help the ongoing civil war on Twitter.

In my opinion, I'd rather he said something and get a lower selling price or puts up some January spending money in our desperate fight for survival.