PART TWO: Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'We’re an unusual bunch, our football club is very unique...'

Matt Auffrey:

One step forward. Two steps back. And I’m still struggling to make sense of the events that took place at the Brick last Saturday. Our starting XI was unchanged from Preston, but failed to establish a foothold in the match over the opening 45 minutes.

As unconvincing as the first-half performance was, I wasn’t overly concerned at the break. I remained confident we would either make a substitution or change our shape to some degree in an effort to regain control of the match.

To the disappointment of myself and many others, the visitors remained the sharper of the two sides after the restart, and would slowly inch closer towards breaking the scoreless deadlock. However, with less than 15 minutes remaining, we showed our greatest sign of life yet.

A counter attack saw the ball end up at Callum Wright’s feet in a dangerous position inside the Bolton penalty box. He fired a ball to an unmarked Harrison Bettoni, whose left-footed shot went just wide of goal from eight yards out. We would concede the only goal of the match just minutes later.

Our tactics were ineffective for the entirety of the match. Not a single substitution was able to have a positive impact on our play. Worst of all, we saved, what was arguably, our worst home showing of the campaign for our largest home crowd.

The afternoon was a letdown on all accords. The collective outrage that followed the result was well warranted. I took a large chunk of time to read the post-match reflections of dozens, and gained insight on various areas where our shortcomings were most prominent.

At this point in time, I don’t offer excuses for anyone - from the board, to the gaffer, to the backroom staff, and the players. I recognise we are at a low point in a season that has been topsy turvy since the middle of September.

We immediately followed a winless run of six games with an unbeaten run of 10 games over a three-month span. Yet, the performances remained consistently inconsistent for that 16-game stretch. We seldom played 90 consecutive minutes - yet alone 45 consecutive minutes - of positive, attacking football.

Now, we enter a critical juncture - the final week of the January transfer window - having lost five of our last seven matches. We’ve added Joe Taylor on loan, who arrived last week with an impressive pedigree for a young striker. However, he hardly looked a threat to score during his 30-minute debut off the bench.

Ryan Lowe will have his work cut out for him to not only get Taylor, but the rest of our strikeforce, running on all cylinders, as we aim to improve upon our status as one of the lowest scoring sides in the division. It’s likely our most crucial addition of this window is still to come.

Bolton’s dominance in the middle of the pitch last weekend not only exposed flaws in our set-up, but also the inability of our bench to change the game’s narrative for the better. I maintain we need a well-rounded midfielder and a tried-and-true wingback who both can add value to the squad from day one.

While we have lost bragging rights with our greatest rival for the foreseeable future, there is still much to play for over what will be a minimum of 22 remaining fixtures. We have a very winnable trip to Doncaster approaching on Saturday.

We proved after Cardiff that we can bounce back from a disheartening loss with a vastly improved effort. Let’s put the debacle that was derby day behind us and shift our attention back towards playing winning football.

We’ve faced every team in this division except Reading this season, and should feel confident competing against every single one of them from this point onward. We are not that far away from being a decent side. I still believe in every one of these players. We need the gaffer to get the best out of them. We go again!

Sean Livesey:

It has to change, somehow something’s got to change. We thought that change or rather that progression had finally come against Preston, but the more Saturday went on and the more disgraceful the performance, it felt like we’d left everything on the pitch at Deepdale. Not because it was Wigan Athletic and it was the FA Cup, but because our opponents were the head coach’s former employers.

Saturday was utterly shameful, there’s nothing else to be said about it. We can debate all day long the reasons behind it and, who if anyone is to blame, but shameful it was. We faced a Bolton side that hadn’t won since Boxing Day, and theoretically on the ropes after a heavy defeat at Peterborough the week before. They also had their own transfer turmoil with both of their first-choice goalkeepers leaving the club. One returning to their parent club after being dropped, and one returning to America.

The new goalkeeper Bolton brought in had one training session with his new team before facing us, and hadn’t played a senior game for 18 months. Surely a perfect opportunity for us to pepper that Bolton goal to test him out? Well zero shots on target, tells you how that went for us.

We hadn’t lost to Bolton in 15 years before Ryan Lowe’s arrival, but we’ve managed to lose to them three times in nine months. Worse than that, we’ve lost to them three times without laying a glove on them - and that’s been the case in too many games this season. So it seems that Preston was the exception to the rule, rather than the new standard we had set ourselves.

From September onwards, apart from a handful of matches, we’ve been second best and haven’t looked like scoring. Let alone the exciting attacking football we were promised. We persist with this system that doesn’t fit any of our players technical abilities, and leaves us exposed at the back while looking toothless in attack.

Against Preston we played on the front foot, we attacked, and we took that Championship side on. Why then do we revert back to how we played on Saturday? Maleace Asamoah Jnr, who had been central to that win at Preston, with driving runs full of pace and purpose was missing from the squad on Saturday. Why? He must have been injured. Surely? No, we just didn’t have space for him on the substitutes bench.

What must that do to the confidence of a young player like that? I’m afraid this all contributed to me losing all will to live against Bolton. Their goal seemed inevitable from the first 10 minutes. It wasn’t that we didn’t get going in the second half, but we didn’t get going for the whole 90 minutes.

Considering the club had made such a big fuss about the head coach 'getting it' made the performance feel even more pathetic than it was. This wasn’t a side or head coach who ‘get it’. If they’d have got it, we would have had at least an effort on target.

Listen I’m big enough and old enough to remember when we were in the depths of Division Four (reference for the yoof there). We have no divine right to success, and this new football club is a totally different prospect from what we’ve been for over two decades previously.

As it is now, we are genuinely facing a relegation six-pointer at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, and I’m not convinced we’re the favourites to come out on top. But with all of that being the case, the minimum we should expect is some fight and pride in the badge.

Whether that comes from the management team or the players, it is the bare minimum of what we should expect. On Saturday, and far too many times this season, we haven’t had that. It needs to change, and it needs to change quick. But who leads that change?

Stuart Cadman:

Having calmed down after the spineless and gutless performance against Horwich, I'm now more convinced than ever that the managed decline is real. The whole aura around the club is stagnant canal water. It comes from the top and rolls downhill gathering pace.

Facing facts, we've an owner that doesn't - and never did - want us. His son has disappeared off the face of the earth. According to some on social media, Gregor Rioch is not overly popular with players and ex-players alike. And the manager is all about himself.

Just look at the difference between the Preston game and the Horwich game. You know which meant more to him. Well trust me, Ryan...beating them from over the hill means far more than an understrength Preston.

I've been pro-Lowe all season, but Saturday was the final straw. Him, the club, and the players talked a great game all week in the lead-up and then turned out THAT performance. It was totally unacceptable from the stands - woeful and tedious springs to mind, from the manager and players alike.

We were second to everything all day and didn't have a single shot on target. I can accept defeat if they look like they're bothered, but that was abysmal and it's all on them and Lowe...hang your heads every single one of you, because when those scruffs are laughing at you, it hurts more than normal.

We as fans aren't blameless in this. It's the most Wigan thing on earth to be apathetic - just look at our crowds. We're very good at turning up when things are going swimmingly, and the worst for turning our backs when it's not.

When we are there, the stadium is rotten...I doubt it's had a lick of paint - including hospitality - for 20 years. There's still flyers in the toilets for the Stockport game in August last year! It's tired and uninspiring, and that sums us up as a club right now.

We are drifting down the Leeds/Liverpool canal at a steady rate into oblivion and, until we cut ties with Mike Danson and the stadium, it's not going to get any better. Will this happen? I seriously doubt it. Who wants us? They weren't queuing out the door last time, were they?

We've all got hundreds of questions and no answers at the minute, so it's onwards and downwards. Anyway, on the upside at least, we've a day out at Arsenal to look forward to I suppose...and you wonder why I drink…

"All together now..."..

John Walker:

Do we really want to go down the same path as teams like Notts County, Stockport County, York City, Wrexham and Chesterfield? Because under this ownership and management, that’s the place we are heading. It’s a rudderless ship I’m afraid to say.

The ambition from the top is next to zero. Yesterday, not one member of the Danson family was in the directors box, so I'm told. That’s shameful. For the biggest game of the season. I was never convinced as to the real reason Mr Danson wanted to save the football club, and nothing has changed my mind since. No matter what level you play, you need ambition. And we have an owner with zero football ambitions. He never has and never will.

Paul Harrison:

While walking out the Brick Community Stadium following the 3-0 home win against Doncaster in September, I made the grave mistake of suggesting I was in danger of actually enjoying home games again. At that point, we looked like a side on the up - unbeaten at home, and safely through the first round of the League Cup.

Then came the calamitous capitulation at the Toughsheet. Since that afternoon, we haven't managed more than a single goal in any league match on home turf! And while I don’t get to as many away games as I once did, it hasn't been much better for the travelling Tics on the road, either. In short—FA Cup run aside—it’s been dire.

While the scoreline wasn’t as wide this past Saturday, the performance in the return match against the lot from Horwich was arguably just as bad. Any 'green shoots' of optimism from earlier in the season have long since withered.

To be clear, I don’t call for a manager’s proverbial head lightly. I didn't reach that point with Shaun or Leam, although I couldn't object too vociferously to their departures given the form at the time. With Lowe, though, it feels different.

Yes, there are similar complaints about tactics. His 'three-at-the-back' system (which in reality has functioned as a flat five on far too many occasions) feels inflexible at best, and completely ineffective at worst. And unlike Maloney and Richardson, who dealt admirably with the club’s horrific financial crises, Lowe doesn't have that reservoir of sympathy to draw upon.

Lowe has also really struggled—or perhaps hasn't even tried—to build a rapport with the fans. Between ill-conceived post-match comments, angry interactions with supporters at full-time, and a perceived lack of engagement with community projects, he has never looked likely to win the stands over.

And so it came to pass, like many others after Saturday’s final whistle, that I took to social media to suggest it is 'time to go'. He is surely on borrowed time. As it happens, Doncaster are up next but, as I see it, even an unlikely repeat of September’s 3-0 win would only be a stay of execution.

Lastly, a word on the owner. While the club can certainly be run more wisely, I cannot get behind those calling for Mike Danson to 'get out'. Labelling him 'greedy' for banking the Thelo Aasgaard and Charlie Hughes money lacks basic logic. Our 2025 financial report showed an £8million loss. While this year’s results should be much improved following the sale of our 'crown jewels', nobody expects the club to turn a healthy profit.

Danson is evidently not making money from the Latics (or the Warriors for that matter). That isn't to say every board decision should be welcomed without question (promoting Gregor Rioch to sporting director is rightly coming under the spotlight), but a certain section of the fanbase needs to gain some perspective given our experiences with the previous two custodians.

Here's hoping for some new 'green shoots' in the latter part of the season. If not, League Two may well be a reality.

Martin Tarbuck:

The 11 rules of managing Wigan Athletic...or should that be managing the fans of Wigan Athletic…

1) Do not lose to 'them men'. This is the first rule of Fight Club, er I mean Latics Club. I have no qualms in pointing out that lot up the road get bigger crowds, have more resources, are more established and have a longer history than us. That is the whole point of it. They love to dismiss us as being not their rivals. Of course, they tell us that their rivals are really Manchester United, it’s just such a shame that nobody told United fans. They are a massive club and we are the little tiddlers if you go back to the 80’s in their eyes. Except if you go back to the 80’s both clubs were also in the same division then, and they were struggling to muster up 4,000 at home some weeks. They have delusions of grandeur, and have had their come-uppance from loads of other clubs in this division this season. But they haven’t lost to us. In fact, we’ve barely competed against them. If we’re going to be fair about this, then...yes, we do actually understand that we might occasionally lose to them men. But when it happens, we expect our team to go down fighting. We don’t expect to watch us roll over and get our belly tickled. Three times in a row.

2) Our fans are special. There may not be many of us, but we are special. I like the word that legendary Twitter user 'The Paris Angel' gave us - 'Disproportionate'. We can be disproportionately good, and also disproportionately bad. Keeping on the right side of us is key. We’re an unusual bunch, our football club is very unique, and it has created a quirky fanbase. I have my theories as to why. We took the less well trodden path in this town, to support the underdog. Back in the day, we used to attract all kinds of oddballs and it has perhaps not changed. Do not mistake our little quirks for lack of passion or an inherent stupidity. Because that’s not us and that’s not Wiganers. Like a hyperactive chihuahua, we are small but fierce.

3) Don’t say anything that you can’t back up. They WILL remember it. For example, if you say that we won’t be signing loads of loan players, and that we will sign players who are robust...don’t go and do the exact opposite. Because it will come back to bite you.

4) You don’t need to use the phrase 'DNA'. But please understand that it does exist. Debate rages amongst the fans around what exactly this is. Although Roberto Martinez and Shaun Maloney popularised the terms, we have some fans who were less than keen on their style, and prefer to associate it with Paul Jewell. I prefer to consider it a steel thread that runs right back to 1932. It is punctuated by three major events - getting promotion to the Premiership and winning the FA Cup final are the obvious two biggies, but the third was getting into the Football League in the first place - after 34 unsuccessful attempts - was the most important of them all. Because without that, everything that followed never happens. Adversity, upsetting the odds, an eternal struggle and occasional glory. THAT is our DNA.

5) We punch above our weight, always. We are not the establishment, we are against the establishment. We never settle, we push for progress. Progress with Unity is literally our motto. Maybe there are some unrealistic expectations, but we at least want to see us trying to meet them. Not just accepting that our best days are behind us.

6) You don’t have to have a previous association with Wigan Athletic, but it helps. There is a theory going around that it is 'weird' that we often appoint managers with a previous association with the club. But when we don’t? Well, let’s look at the evidence. On the one hand you have Paul Jewell, Martinez, Paul Cook, Gary Caldwell, Graham Barrow (x 4), Leam Richardson (by proxy as Cook’s assistant) and Maloney (ooh putting that one in will trigger a few folk). On the other side you have Steve Bruce (decent, but ditched us twice) Owen Coyle, Uwe Rosler, Malky Mackay, Warren Joyce, Kolo Toure, John Sheridan and well, I’ll leave it there. That’s not to say we don’t embrace outsiders. Anyone, player or manager, can become a hero here at Wigan Athletic. But it helps if you show a tiny bit of gratitude that you’re glad to be here in the first place….

7) Being humble is a given, and arrogance is earned. We have no divine right to win, but we leave everything on the pitch. Of course, sometimes our fans have developed a streak of arrogance over the years when we’ve encountered success. But when you’ve been bullied and pushed around so much by the football establishment, and the many disruptive forces in our town who were keen to see the back of us, well, you learn to give a little back. We never forget our roots, but they are a reminder of everything we fought for - all those players who wore the shirt who got us where we are today. That humility runs through our DNA. The sum of the parts of this club is greater than the whole, always has been.

8) The West Stand is full of grumpy old men. They are best ignored or humoured. I can say that, because I am proudly now one of them. Probably best not to engage. For some of them, they’ve seen it all and are never satisfied. But never question their loyalty. They might not be bouncing up and down like ES2 all game, mainly because their knees aren’t up to it. But many have been there and done it, from the non-league to the Premier League, and back. They will be moaning until they (I) take their (my) last breath. Of course lots of them (us) talk nonsense, but it’s probably best to laugh, rather than hurl obscenities back. What’s that phrase about wrestling with a pig? You both end up covered in mud but they like it...sorry Professor Sumo, was that one of yours?

9) We come to the games to watch our team play, not the opposition. I’m not about to crack open the can of worms that is possession based football again, but you’ve got to give us something. Unless we are playing Real chuffing Madrid, or Manchester City, we expect to see our players with the ball at their feet, passing it, preferably forwards, and doing this thing called attacking football we keep hearing about. Unless we’re 3-0 up, at which point tippy tapping it around for the rest of the game will result in rapturous 'Ole’s'. We don’t come to games to watch the away team pass it about all game, with the occasional clearance booted up the field, coming straight back at us. Playing on the counter is fine, but it’s called a counter attack, not a counter general hoof upfield.

10) We don’t care what you’ve done in the past. It’s what you can do for us that’s important. Whether you’re a player, manager, fan or member of staff, it doesn’t matter. We have to take a punt on rough diamonds. We need people who are forward looking and have their best years in front of them, who are always looking to learn and improve, who are grateful to be here and desperate to prove themselves, again and again. If you’re good for us, then we’ll be good for you and will always be welcomed back if you give us your best.

11) Don’t lose to them men. Because it needs saying twice.

So there you go. We don’t ask for much, or maybe we ask for way too much. I’ll let you decide.