Wigan Athletic: Five things we learned from Morecambe (a)

1 Sweet 16!

The victory at Morecambe extended Latics unbeaten run to 16 matches. Albeit across three competitions, the run is effectively more than a third of the regulation league campaign, which underlines the remarkable consistency being shown. Latics last had their colours lowered back in October when Lincoln won at the DW. To have stayed unbeaten for the best part of three months is credit to Leam Richardson, his players, staff – not to mention the fans who’ve backed them all the way.

2 Away-day delight!

Despite having more games in hand than you can shake a stick at, Latics have won more points away from home than anyone else in the country. Their 31-point haul is three better than even Manchester City. Since losing their opening fixture of the campaign at Sunderland, Latics have won 10 of their 11 matches on the road. And that draw, at Cambridge in November, saw Callum Lang having a late goal controversially disallowed for a foul in the build-up. While away teams sit back at the DW, they tend to open the game up and attack Latics on home soil – which clearly does them no favours in the long run.

3 Scoring streak!

Incredibly, that’s not the only stat table Latics are top of at the moment. They also hold the longest scoring streak this season in UEFA’s top five leagues plus the EFL – which stands at 23 matches. That’s two clear of Inter Milan, four clear of Bayern Munich, five clear of Liverpool and six clear of AC Milan. Not bad company to be in. Going back to last season, it’s 30 games in total. The last opposition side to stop them scoring were Portsmouth – including a certain Jack Whatmough and Tom Naylor – last April.

4 Getting the Hump!

Great to see Stephen Humphrys popping up at the end to notch an important first league goal for Latics. It’s been a frustrating campaign to date for the ex-Rochdale man, who was arguably Latics’ best performer in pre-season. By his own admission, he’s not hit his straps on his first-team opportunities to date. But hopefully that goal will give him all the confidence he needs to kickstart his Latics career.

5 Games in hand or points on the board?

Opposition fans have been quick to use social media to point out Latics’ games in hand would prove to be their undoing. Early days yet, admittedly, but Latics are continuing to deal with every challenge thrown at them. They now have points on the board AND four games still in hand over most of their promotion rivals. With the Morecambe game marking the midway point of their league campaign, the 51 points accrued means they are still on course to smash the century target David Sharpe imposed four years ago. Leam and Co will surely settle for matching the class of 2017-18 in falling just short of that tally – but lifting the League One title.

Get 20% off our sports subscription package and stay up to date with all the latest Wigan Athletic news with a year’s subscription to WiganToday for less than 9p a day. Use promo code TRANSFER20