Wigan Athletic: The 12th man: 'Let’s keep the pedal to the floor and see how far a fully gassed Believe Bus can take us'

Paul Middleton

Here we are then.

No longer are we not bottom, or on minus points.

Instead, we’re 10 points out of 12, and out of the relegation places.

Our collective wish for a season lacking in mither and mither- related stress looks like being a pipe dream of some magnitude.

At this rate, we’ll be top by Christmas.

That won’t happen, of course. The squad, as good as the first 13 or 14 are, especially in this league, gets a tad thin when you look further down.

Come winter, when injuries start really kicking in, we might be left just trying to tick over instead of actually pushing on.

And that's okay, as it goes. A few weeks ago, I said we had an outside chance of the play-offs, and I’m not changing my mind on that either way.

Look at the table now, and we’re just six points out of those play-off places, with the best goal difference in the league.

That hasn’t happened by accident.

We have a manager who has big plans, and shows all the signs of knowing how to not only put those plans in place, but also seeing them through. I know it’s early days, but this is the type of football we’ve not seen in quite a while.

That alone is, if not exactly a shock, a little something of a surprise.

Players who couldn’t get a look in under previous managers are suddenly front and centre, and performing superbly.

The dead wood has gone, and it has all been replaced with hungry young players who genuinely look like they want to be here.

That, again, hasn’t always been the case in recent years. A big part of the optimism today, of course, is what happened on Saturday.

Beating Bolton at their place, and with ease, is becoming something of a habit, and it will never get the slightest bit old.

I said, last week, that I’d be happy with a point, and wouldn’t even be too disappointed from a pragmatic viewpoint if we lost.

I doubt there’s a single person in that away end on Saturday who expected to see what they saw.

Sticking it to Evatt is always nice, and their fans on Twitter took it all about as well as you’d either expect or hope.

Speaking of Bolton Twitter, I caused something of a stir last week, with some of my comments.

A certain newspaper deputy sport editor took a lot of abuse because of it, and it didn’t matter how often he tried to tell people they weren’t his words, they weren’t having it.

Those fans should look at the upside. At least they can count all the way to four. (As with last week, this is a JOKE......)

Caddy from the 5

"It's happened again,it's happened again, Horwich Wanderers, it's happened again" rang out at the final whistle in a near empty ToughSheet Stadium Saturday afternoon as 4,000 Wiganers celebrated back to back 4-0 wins there - A Maloney masterclass served up yet another thrashing of 'tactical genius' Ian Evatt who's early season ramblings were shown for what they are,just ramblings - take note on how the big clubs just go about their business lad you might learn a thing or two.

An obviously drunk Horwich fan said later "we were better than them in every department just didn't score" yes he actually said that!!

They were made to look rubbish plain and simple and we were magnificent from one to 11 (ask yer dads).

We're still in August and can go potentially 4 points off the top on Saturday, not bad when you've given the rest an eight point head start!!

Harder games will no doubt come against the top sides in the division but we'll keep rubbing their noses in it while we can and I hope the players had a great night celebrating as we the fans did, let's hope they kept their feet off the couch though eh.

On to Saturday and it's our favourite team from Yorkshire visiting, they'll probably want us to pay for their fuel and tickets on arrival and stamps for any more letters to the EFL if there's anything they don't like, I really hope we put these to the sword,nobody likes tell tales and busybodies...

On the pitch Adeeko and Smith are looking prime Gerrard and Lampard but can actually play together and Pearce's left peg should be insured for £100 million.

Wyke and Humphrys 'plus 2 baby' are flying and Super Sam Tickle in goal is getting more confident with every game - I know we're only games in and shouldn't get ahead of ourselves but I hope the Independence is booked for next May...

Have a great week 'tics - these days are what football is all about and after the dark times we've had to celebrate all you want!

Right, I'm off explaining to some random American called Mike Danson on twitter what 'a cow's mouthful of Bow" is…

Matt Auffrey

There are few days as a football fan that felt more rewarding than last Saturday.

We celebrated some emphatic victories in the Championship last season, and an even greater assortment of three-point parties when we ascended out of administration and emerged as League One champions in the spring of 2022.

Few of those memories from the past two seasons produced more elation than our 4-0 drubbing of Bolton in Horwich back in October 2021.

It’d be fair to say that a lot changed over the next 22 months - much more so for us than our rivals.

We entered last weekend’s match as decisive underdogs against top of the table opposition. Bolton had gotten off to a flying start over the season’s first few weeks with a squad that was as close to ‘putting it all together’ as ever before.

Latics had scrapped and clawed their way to an unbeaten start as well, but were expected to be on their back foot with a group still feeling itself out on the pitch while also featuring a sizable contingent of young players.

The events that followed at the Toughsheet Community Stadium could only be described as a Latics masterclass.

From the very first touch of the ball, Latics made it a point to be the best in every aspect of the game that mattered most.

From the intensity of their press, to how they challenged for 50/50 balls, to their organisation of their defence, to how they finished their scoring chances - the lads were intent on executing our game plan exactly as it was laid out by Shaun Maloney.

Every player who touched the pitch knew their role and carried out their responsibilities in a selfless manner.

We looked like anything but a team that had only been playing competitive matches together for a couple of weeks.

There was not a single person who watched that match and could honestly say that the final 4-0 scoreline wasn’t deserved.

The jump from minus two points to plus one points at full time was the icing on the cake.

There was not a better opponent to defeat and in turn rise out of the relegation places because of the positive result.

So what does such an inspiring performance mean for Shaun Maloney and the lads? Playoffs? Promotion? ‘Smashing the league with 100 points’? There’s a long way to go before any of those ambitions can truly manifest themselves.

What we do know is that this team in its current state is capable of doing incredible things in this league.

Can Maloney keep this group grounded and focused for every match of a gruelling season ahead?

Can our key players stay healthy enough for the duration of this season to help us reach our full potential as a team?

Will we receive an ‘offer we cannot refuse’ and sell off some of our best talent in an effort to better balance our finances?

There are clearly enough unknowns to make our future very hard to predict for the coming months.

With that being said, all concentration should go towards Barnsley at home this weekend.

They’re a club that hasn’t defeated us in over seven years but one that surely deserves a proper shellacking for their role in ‘kicking us while we’re down’ during our administration woes three years ago.

Barnsley’s unwarranted ‘testimony’ at our EFL hearing to appeal our 12-point penalty during the summer of 2020 will not be forgiven anytime soon.

Taking three points off them at the DW this Saturday and hence jumping them in the league table would mark a great way to initiate ‘payback’.

There’s no reason for our brilliant form to simmer down anytime soon. Let’s keep the pedal to the floor and see how far a fully gassed Believe Bus can take us.

Red Ned

What a weekend, 25,000 of them men belting out "walking down the Manny Rd to see the Burnden aces” at the start of the game and about 250 of them crying into their Carr's Pasty bags at the end of the game.

An absolutely monumental performance from the Latics, that I think even surpasses the 0-4 win at Bolton two seasons ago.

This team made up of free transfers, loans and academy graduates continues to exceed all expectations and the brand of football being played is very pleasing on the eye.

Maloney has certainly got the Latics ticking at the moment. Let's hope it continues, although to temper some of the expectation, it's a long season and we will have to be mindful of the injuries and suspensions that all squads inevitably get.

At this point though, all is looking well for the Latics.

George Chilvers

Carlsberg don't do derby days, but if they did … Well, what a performance.

Yes, Bolton were incredibly poor and just didn't show up, but that doesn't in any way minimise how good Latics were.

From front to back every man played his part.

Even Bolton fans on social media have almost entirely (I haven't heard from Thogden yet though) been grudgingly praising us and the performance.

You can tell how good it all is by the fact that whereas we have always had a scapegoat, or someone who we can criticise for lack of effort on the day or spurned opportunities or lapses in concentration, this season we've had none of that.

Every single player in every single game has been magnificent.

Of course we are going to get a bump to earth one of these days, but now we have got into positive points and out of the relegation zone – and who would have thought that would happen so early in the season – we can look at climbing up the table.

Far too early to be looking beyond just putting some space between us and the teams in trouble.

It's hard to pinpoint individuals but in Charlie Wyke we now have someone who can take on a one-on-one and you'd bet that he would put the ball away.

We haven't really had that in the last few years, and he is on red-hot form.

Matt Smith has been a revelation.

How did we persuade him to come to us, with our situation at the time he signed, but he is that solid rock we have needed.

Charlie Hughes can only improve with time and plays well beyond his years, and Sam Tickle looks as though he has been our number one for yonks.

And then there's Humphrys who has come back looking hungry, and what can one say about Baba Adeeko?

A brilliant prospect. Huge credit to Gregor for developing this talent, and credit to Shaun for getting them in the team. In the past we have wrapped our potential stars in cotton wool (qv Paul Cook with Joe Gelhardt) and given them limited playing time.

Shaun has thrown them out there, and they have reacted so brilliantly that the future can only get brighter. Early days, but it's hard not to be glass half full.

Tony Moon

BeFOUR I start on this week’s piece, I should FOURwarn readers that this is a FOURthright view of recent FOURay with our local rivals… and a FOURtaste of what the rest of our season looking FOURward might hold.

Bolton were FOURtunate that it wasn’t five (though that would have made a FOURboding task around which to FOURce an article), but let’s FOURgo the greed - the FOURtitude shown to FOURbid them men a goal clearly showed that the FOURmula the manager’s developing is looking excellent going FOURth.

It’s FOURsight completely FOURshadowed anything they had to offer, … they could have played for the next FOURtnight, and still not FOURced a goal.

So, FOURgive and FOURget that they scabbed a draw the last time we played ‘em … they’ll FOURever remember the last couple of results at their place … if only I could remember the score. Oh, and as for the rest of the season … we’re looking quite FOURmidable at the moment, so rather than feeling all FOURlorn after this opening run of games, we can maybe confidently FOURcast that what might be FOURthcoming (though being far from a FOURgone conclusion) might promise more in the way of good FOURtune than FOURaging amongst the relegation places.

Now, FOUR the life of me … what was last Saturday’s score-line?

Sean Livesey

"It's happening again, Bolton Wanderers it's happening again" And arguably it was even more successful than the first time around.

In fact there's no debate about it.

It was definitely more impressive than last time. I had real worries about visiting Bolton so early in the season.

They had started very well, and were sitting pretty at the top of the division.

But then again we had started very well too.

Apart from ten minutes against Carlisle we could have visited the ToughSheet with a 100% record.

Bolton's start to the season had been relatively straightforward.

Though I'm not sure Cheltenham, Lincoln or Fleetwood will be troubling the upper echelons of the division in 2023/24.

So the self declared best side in the league (c) Ian Evatt must have wondered what hit them as Shaun Maloney's side got everything right on Saturday afternoon in Horwich.

Bolton are still favourites to be promoted this season and rightly so.

They've had three years in this division now, getting closer each year with the same manager and the same nucleus of the squad together.

By rights this should be their season, but you would have thought it was Wigan Athletic who were the promotion favourites with how we performed on Saturday.

Latics looked unbelievably clinical against Bolton and that's without even having Jordan Jones and Jonny Smith in the squad.

Latics are well ahead where any of us expected at this stage.

The minus eight deduction, the final reminder of the failed Phoenix 21 project has been smashed and in four matches.

To do it in the style they did at Horwich was amazing and will live long in the memory both this season and in future seasons.

But we can't become complacent, it's been a remarkable start but we're still only four games in.

The aim this season is still survival but no one would blame Wiganer's if they started looking beyond that and Northwards.

All credit goes to those bonafide Wigan Athletic legends - Shaun Maloney and Graham Barrow.

Alongside Gregor Rioch, Stephen Crainey and everyone else involved.

We've been ensured a club to support and maybe the pain of last year will spur us on, spur us on to better things. We've a side full of Wigan bred players alongside some fantastic young talents and we're playing beautiful football.

It's a long way away from John Sheridan the last time we emerged from a crisis.

We've been so lucky. On to Barnsley and those purveyors of social justice and moral values with their "rules are rules" mantra from over the Pennines.

Ironic that three years later we find ourselves in exactly the same position as those loveable Tykes.

Despite their representations to our EFL hearings and the request that we pay for their said representation. Bad luck lads.

Barnsley, like Bolton, have started the season in blistering form.

Devante Cole, formerly of this parish seems to finally be living up to the form he showed a few years ago. It's going to be a difficult game but with the confidence of our young side at the moment who knows what may happen.