The 12th Man column: 'I may shed a tear when Wigan Athletic play at DW again'

Sean Livesey:

525 days, 525 full days since Latics last played a competitive match.

Despite what was developing throughout the world in March 2020, I’m not sure even the most imaginative amongst us would have predicted it would take nearly 18 months before we could go and watch a league match involving Latics once again.

It’s been nothing short of a dystopian nightmare, but finally on Saturday afternoon we can once again push through those turnstiles.

So much has changed with the world in the last 18 months.

Not least our own football club, everything that has happened with Covid and indeed administration and all the destruction that was wrought amongst our communities makes you realise just how lucky we are.

Bury weren’t as lucky as we were, that town has lost its football club and its identity. Possibly for evermore.

We managed to avoid the doomsday scenario. Somehow.

There was a point last winter where it felt like we may never see those lads in blue and white again.

It felt as though I may never push through those turnstiles again.

I may just well shed a tear on Saturday afternoon. It’ll be a moment I thought may never come.

Thank God it did.

Paul Middleton:

Only at Latics could we have fans moaning about the manager one game into a season that we effectively started with five senior players.

The problem for Leam Richardson is that pre-season went really well, and people assumed we’d be able to carry it through to the real thing.

You’d like to think they now know better but, really, it just gives them an excuse to pick up where they left off in February 2020.

However big a mess of a club that Sunderland might be, it was always going to be one of the hardest games to start any season, let alone one where we’re trying to build a team from scratch.

We were competitive in parts, and looked lost in others, but so what?

As much as we’d all love to go up this year, it’ll take time for things to come together.

Yes, L1 is very low quality for the most part, but I’ll still take anything from mid-table up, come May.

As the man said, lerrum gel!

This weekend will be another test against Rotherham. They may have been relegated last year, but they’ll be no mugs at this level.

I hope we win, of course, and part of me might even expect it, but this Saturday is about more than that.

It’ll be the first time we’ve had Latics fans in the DW in 18 months, and that should be celebrated whatever the result.

Our new pal, Talal, is over and he’ll obviously get the welcome he deserves.

After two years of deafening silence from the Chinese gambler, we’ve got an owner willing to not just engage with fans because he has to, but seemingly because he wants to.

We’ve always been a club where the fans have been a big part of everything, and it looks like that will continue.

We’ll have some loons calling for him to get the cheque book out if we lose another couple of games, but then it wouldn’t be us if we didn’t. Ignore the haters and get on board with what has come out of the last three months; new owners, a new optimism and an entirely new team. If you want to moan do it at someone else, because I won’t be listening.

Matt Auffrey:

Wigan Athletic’s first away day of the 21-22 season produced all of the fanfare and cheer that our 2,000 traveling fans could’ve desired after a nearly year-and-a-half hiatus from watching games in stadiums.

A positive result for Latics at the full time whistle would’ve been the icing on the cake, but Sunderland deservingly left the Stadium of Light with three points. With nine debutants seeing action for Wigan Athletic that afternoon, it was a tall task to expect a team with so many new faces to outplay one of the league’s promotion favorites on their home pitch.

Lucky for Latics, our Tuesday night Carabao Cup fixture at Hull City gave our squad a great opportunity to find their footing against a formidable opponent, and the lads wasted no time getting back on track.

The starting lineup featured eight changes from Sunderland but put on a much more competitive 90-minute performance than Saturday.

I’d be lying if I said I was confident in our chances of advancing to the next round once the match went to penalty kicks.

It had been well over a decade since we won a penalty shoot-out.

Why would our poor fortune change now?

The stars aligned for Wigan Athletic and after eight consecutive conversions, they had done just enough to achieve victory.

Tuesday’s triumph over Hull was surprisingly our first victory against a senior side in a cup competition in over three years.

If you need a reminder of who propelled Latics to their last such victory, Will Grigg would surely travel from across the country to tell you about the events that occurred on a particular Monday night at the DW Stadium some time ago.

It was refreshing to put out a squad featuring Latics veterans, new senior players, and several academy products, and defeat a Championship side in a meaningful match. The result was a great testament to the wonderful work that Leam Richardson and his staff have done to prepare this squad to win against any opponent put in front of them.

The momentum from the Hull victory could not come at a better time as fans return to the DW Stadium for our home opener against Rotherham this weekend. Saturday’s match will allow for our fans to greet the beloved Talal Al Hammad en masse and hopefully witness a three-point performance against a side that was nearly as close to staying in the Championship last season as we were in 2020.

It will be another test in what may serve as the most grueling start to a League One season that few teams have ever encountered at this level.

With our new chairman present, thousands of passionate fans in the stands, and a squad eager to prove a point in this league, Saturday could go down as a homecoming for the ages.

It’s time to send a message to the rest of League One about what they can expect when they enter Fortress DW.

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