Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'It still begs the question as to how close we are to legitimately pursuing promotion again'

Matt Auffrey:

The ongoing trend of inconsistent performances continued over this past week as we deservingly took three points off 10-man Leyton Orient at the DW, only to fall short at Wycombe just three days later. Latics had the better share of chances in both matches, but still found themselves on the winning and losing ends of 1-0 scorelines. With over 80 per cent of the season now behind us, the varying results should surprise no-one who has closely followed this team. Yet, the defeats are no less frustrating now than they were earlier in the campaign. Shaun Maloney and the lads have done well to put the eight-point deduction behind them, as they’ve slowly climbed out of the relegation zone and into the comforts of the league’s mid-table positions. Although since recently achieving this feat, their form has seemingly plateaued. Through the highs and lows, the fact remains our squad is still one of the youngest and least experienced in the division. Many of our older players are holdovers from the Leam Richardson era, and have dealt with their own unique challenges playing under Maloney for the past 14-odd months. This season has greatly lacked rhythm and flow. On our best days, we’ve looked like a team ready to turn the corner towards being promotion contenders. Our poorer performances have generated concern we could slide our way back into the relegation dogfight. An interview with midfielder Matt Smith several weeks ago produced a quote where he stated the goal for next season was to push for the league title. As ambitious as that may sound at the moment, it still begs the question as to how close we are to legitimately pursuing promotion again? A strong end to the season would go a long way towards building momentum for next season, especially if our success is built off the contributions of players who will remain at the DW beyond this spring. Defeating a playoff-chasing Blackpool side at the DW this weekend would serve as a big step towards ending this season with a string of positive results. The Seasiders have made great efforts to turn their poor away form around with back-to-back wins away from Bloomfield Road, and will surely bring a large away following on Saturday. The match represents the type of occasion that has brought out the best of our team over the course of this season. Blackpool have beaten us five times over our last six contests, so we are clearly due to turn the tables in our favour. Safe travels to the dozens of Joseph’s Goal walkers who will be making the trip from Blackpool to the DW on Friday and Saturday to raise critical funds for NKH research. May the players on the pitch take inspiration from their efforts and make it a winning day from start to finish. Eight matches remain. Let’s make every one count.

Charlie Keegan:

So 720 minutes of League One football remain for Wigan Athletic this season, with 24 points still up for grabs across those eight games. Win them all and we can finish this season on 71 points but, of course, that will not happen. However, if Latics are still up for the challenge, I would love to see us secure at least 12 more points to take us up to 59. Realistically, our season is done and dusted with no real threat of relegation, and nothing to fight for looking up. It does make a change to be sitting twiddling my thumbs in mid-March, rather than preparing for a nail-biting run of final games. But I am more than happy with this being our reality. That does pose the question, though, of ‘what do we do now?’ While I would love to see us stick with a consistent squad selection and try a few experimental gameplans in preparation for next season, in reality we don’t have some of the players available who will hopefully be key for us then. Josh Stones would be a perfect choice to start up top for these final eight games, but he won’t be back until pre-season. Sean Clare is out, Steven Sessegnon won’t be back until after the international break, Chris Sze took a whack to the face and will probably be out for at least 10 days, and Jason Kerr has a new injury along with Callum McManaman. Unfortunately, I don’t think Shaun Maloney will have the freedom to try what he might want to. It is clear Latics have plenty of work to do on and off the pitch from now until the first kick of the 2024/25 season, and I hope we are progressing nicely with the plans that should be in place already. Word is Maloney and Gregor Rioch are going to be meeting Mike Danson over the international break, where hopefully they outline recruitment plans and gain more clarity on what the immediate future looks like in terms of rebuilding the club infrastructure. I am looking forward to seeing how Maloney constructs our squad for next season, and I feel we as fans will need to show a lot of patience with that process. While we have seen plenty of drab performances this season that are fully worth critiquing at times, we have also seen glimpses of how brilliant we can be. Yes, Latics have been consistently inconsistent far too often, but our home record has been brilliant, and I don’t feel that we are a million miles off being a really competitive League One side capable of pushing for a play-off position. Who would have imagined saying that this time last year? Wycombe (a) was poor overall - it was like watching two boxers fight with jelly arms - but we had our chances to steal a point. Blackpool (h) will be incredibly difficult, but we have a record of playing better against the top sides. Regardless of the scoreline, my focus is on next season, and I am looking forward to just watching these final 720 minutes without the anxieties we usually are presented with. Up the Tics.

Ed Bazeley:

After a decent win against a strong Leyton Orient side on Saturday, followed by a somewhat disappointing defeat at Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night, it would be very easy to write a similar 12th man piece to that of last week, whereby I discussed the repetitive matters of Shaun Maloney’s men winning one game, and losing the next, and how it’s okay to be a mid-table League One side having started the season on minus-eight points. However, in the grand scheme of things, last week’s announcement that Wigan Athletic are establishing an official women’s team is a more important matter, as it symbolises International Women’s Day genuinely had an effect on the progression of women’s sport in the north west last week. There were three examples of such progress being made by north-western sporting institutions last week. Both Latics and rivals Bolton Wanderers made plans for official women’s teams while, down the road in Merseyside, St Helens RLFC revealed they will be paying their women’s side this season. The fact these sorts of things are happening is great to see and, from a borough of Wigan point of view, it could now genuinely be the case that the next Ella Toone could play for Latics rather than Manchester United. Furthermore, Wigan Warriors have an established and successful women’s Super League side, so it is great to see Latics have now established an official footballing counterpart. On the other hand, in my opinion, it was sad to see the club severing ties with the current Latics Women set-up, and are creating a separate official side rather than opting for some sort of amalgamation. It seemed the Latics Women - in their current incarnation - had picked up a great deal of momentum of late, having recently competed in a tournament over in Las Vegas, as well as reaching the Lancashire FA Challenge Cup semi-finals, where they narrowly lost 3-2 to Wythenshawe, having held a 2-0 lead at Ashton Athletic’s Brocstedes Park. But as a Latics supporter, I hope to see the new women’s side achieve as much success as possible. Meanwhile, as far as the men’s team are concerned, it’s an absolutely massive game on Saturday against Lancashire rivals Blackpool. The Seasiders have been going well of late, and could earn themselves a play-off spot. But as proven by the victory over Bolton a couple of weeks ago, the potential to earn local bragging rights is motivation enough for Shaun Maloney and co.

Tony Moon:

Goodbye to you my once loved Tics, I’ve followed you since I was five or six, and at times it’s been a blast; but now my love is failing fast, cos I remember nowt of t’past. We’ve beat Citeh, we’ve beat Skem, we’ve had eight seasons in the Prem, but the joy didn’t last cos Uncle Jack ran out of cash. Goodbye my Tics it’s time to cry, just like we allus do when points run dry; and cos we’re not top of the pile, and haven’t been so for a while, so t’ manager gets all of our bile. We’ve got loans, kids and frees, we’ve got owd uns on their knees; but we’ll moan though we’re skint, cos we haven’t spent a mint. Goodbye to thee, ah’m gooin ner moo-er, cos this football stinks just like a sewer; we can’t win two games on the bounce, so it’s time that I announce, that I am going to have a flounce. No more joy, no more fun, no more seasons in the sun, but then joy never lasts, (well that’s what t’ wife sez, ah’m just fast). Sung by Terry Jacksitin...