Wigan Athletic review of 2020, with Leam Richardson

Looking back to the start of 2020 - and it seems a lifetime ago - we obviously had a lot of work to do to move up the table.

But, you know what, the performances last November and December had been actually very strong.

All the stats, the xG (expected goals), were positive...we were just being punished for every little thing we did wrong.

Take the Derby game last Boxing Day...we missed a couple of one-on-ones to kill the game, and then they equalise in the 96th minute with a lad who'd never previously scored with his right foot...

At the start of this year, we go to Bristol City, go 2-1 up and miss another one-on-one, and again got pegged back late on...and it was similar at Swansea.

We knew fundamentally there wasn't a lot wrong, and our messages to the players remained the same - more of the same, and a bit less of the misfortune in terms of individual errors.

We still had lads learning the ropes in the Championship - players like Cedric Kipre, Antonee Robinson, Kieffer Moore, Jamal Lowe - and we could just see them starting to gel a bit more.

There was a stat going round where if games finished after 80 minutes we'd have been in the top 10, so that tells you it's only fine margins we had to put right.

So it was no surprise to the staff when the results turned and, once you do get a few wins, you start to see confidence and belief coming back, players start playing as we knew they could, scoring and assisting, keeping clean sheets...most weeks it was a job picking a man of the match!

We had a couple of really big results before the first lockdown - at Leeds and West Brom, who went on to get promoted - and it was more the performances we gave that pleased us most.

We felt we were dominating large parts of every game at that point, and we were probably the last team who wanted the season to be suspended.

Looking back on it, it was such a difficult time for everyone - and we were no different.

We were throwing around ideas about how best we could keep in touch with the players, using FaceTime and stuff, how best we could keep the fitness levels up.

You're suddenly having Zoom calls with 20-30 people, with players doing fitness sessions within their living rooms, using gym equipment they'd had shipped in via Amazon.

The guys were so good in posting their own individual times, but we also used the time to give them a little bit of a break from the season.

You're also conscious of the fact these lads have families, and kids, and you're asking them to do a gym session at home, around lunchtime, when they're surrounded by young children, and wives who've probably got more pull over them than we have!

To then have them come back in groups of four and five to start with, only using certain parts of the training ground...we were very fortunate the lads bought into it so well, right from day one.

And you saw by the way we got back into the swing straight after the restart, starting with the great win at Huddersfield, and carrying on for a good few weeks until the bombshell that changed everything.

As everyone knows, we played Stoke just hours before, and produced probably as complete a performance as we'd put in all season.

We'd looked at it as a management team and felt it was the culmination of three years' hard work, where we'd come up against a good side, full of individual quality, well managed...and not just beating them but, without being disrespectful, we'd beaten them well.

From thinking you'd stayed up, and having the building blocks to attack this year...and feeling really confident about being able to compete at the top end of the table...with the addition of maybe one or two extra bodies...to what happened, it was so hard to take.

From working solely within a solid group, you're suddenly dealing with outside sources, such as administrators who've got their own job to do to the best of their ability.

At the same time, we're trying to hold on to the football club's vision and goals, and align that with those of the administrators.

I've got to say, I don't think anyone could possibly overstate the enormity of the task faced by everyone connected to this club over the last six months.

Somebody told me this would be a really good experience for me to go through...well, I'm still waiting for that to be fair, maybe one day I'll be able to take a step back and reflect on what's gone on.

I've actually decided to write a paper on this for my Pro-Licence...on administration in football...because I don't think many people actually understand what it entails.

Most people's knowledge of it will be the yellow ticker on Sky Sports News, reporting 'Club X' has gone into administration, but that's about it...not why it's happened, and what's going to happen on a daily basis.

This has happened to so many high-profile football clubs, and it's important we have a better understanding of the process to perhaps stop it happening to other clubs.

You've only got to look at some of the other clubs who've found themselves in this situation to know it can get a lot worse before it gets better.

The club I follow, Leeds United, lost all their players, and suffered two relegations...same with Portsmouth.

My mindset from the off was 'can we stop this boulder from rolling even further...can we keep in touch with the rest of the league until better times return?'

I was determined people wouldn't use what had happened as an excuse for going down again, and instead trying to create a siege mentality where we were determined to fight for as long as we could until the cavalry arrived.

We've tried to affect the things we can still affect, and to a certain degree we've managed to do that.

And I have to say none of this would have been possible without the support of so many good people, inside and outside the club.

It's a cliche, but it's true...in times of adversity, you really do find out a lot about yourself - and also a lot about other people.

I cannot begin to describe the level of support we've felt from outside, and in particular from the fans when the donations started to come in to save the club.

It was absolutely mind-blowing, and that gives you all the impetus you need to keep coming in to work, to keep giving your all, because you're doing it for those people, whose football club it is and always will be.

You see people being made redundant, and others struggling to hang on to their jobs, and maybe it would be easy to roll over and accept the disappointment.

But with the support we felt from the fans and the town from day one, it doesn't half make a difference.

Honestly, you think you've seen it all in football - but you've not.

All you can do is keep doing your best, keep working hard, keep fighting...even if you feel like you've got one hand tied behind your back.

But as long as you've still got that fight in you, and you've something worth fighting for - as we have - you're never out of it.

* Leam Richardson was speaking to Paul Kendrick