Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'Produced our most dominant home display of the season...'

Matt Auffrey:

Tuesday night at the Brick produced our most dominant home display of the season against a Rotherham side that was completely done and dusted by full-time.

We bossed the game for the full 90 minutes, and the lads looked like a group that had been running on all cylinders for quite some time. Yet, it had been seven months since our only other 3-0 victory of the campaign. We beat Doncaster on September 13 at the Brick to rise to eighth in the league table. You would’ve been hard-pressed to convince a single person in the stadium that day that we would drop to 22nd by mid-February, having lost five consecutive games while going winless over the past seven.

Better yet, if you told those same fans that by early April, we still wouldn’t have won consecutive league matches, nor have earned a penalty kick, the overwhelming majority would likely assume that we had sunk to the bottom places of the table and were on the fast track to relegation.

Needless to say, the events that filled those seven months between our two 3-0 victories at the Brick have given us some massive highs and some sobering lows. There were unforgettable results at Wimbledon and Preston, coupled with equally disappointing days out in Horwich and Cardiff.

We also went through a spell of two-and-a-half months where we did not win at home.

The decision to bring in Gary Caldwell will hopefully pay dividends for a long time. Rotherham were one place below us in the league table in 23rd position on the eve of Caldwell’s first match in charge against Luton. We both had earned 31 points on the season, and the Millers had a game in hand on us. However, Rotherham would continue to struggle and not sack their own manager until March 18. At that point, we were out of the relegation zone, and Rotherham were six points adrift from safety.

Fast forward four weeks to this past Tuesday evening, and the gap between the two clubs’ trajectories only widened. Our midweek victory put us at 55 points and 13th position in the league table, while Rotherham’s defeat solidified their status in League Two for next season. For only the fifth time over the past 13 seasons, the two clubs will not ply their trade together in the same division come August.

Rotherham are living the worst-case scenario that many of our own fans vehemently feared for ourselves several months ago. Even with safety still not mathematically guaranteed ahead of Saturday, we have as many reasons to be grateful as we’ve had at any other point in a long time.

Three weeks ago, I presented a goal for the squad to hit 60 points by season’s end. Given our upturn in form and the winnable fixtures ahead, we should absolutely aim to not only hit that mark but surpass it.

Ending this season on not just seven matches unbeaten, but also a six-match winning streak would mark a phenomenal end to a topsy-turvy campaign. We’ve clearly turned a corner over the past several weeks, but there is still work to be done. Let’s deliver another three-point party to the travelling fans at Port Vale this weekend.

Tony Moon:

What a diff'rence a couple of months makes. Just eight long weeks and a day – but what a change in our play, and in our points total, too.

Under Lowe it was blue, dear. Now everything’s new, dear. We top the form table too dear (nearly), since we got Gary and Perks.

Lord, what a diff'rence some confidence makes – the players have blossomed before us. They’ve played along to the chorus of ‘we are staying up’, so we can all now cheer up.

It’s heaven when we play so well and carefree. What a diff’rence a little time makes. Caldwell’s blue ‘n’ white army.

Martin Lally:

After the past week, even this grumpy and fatigued Tics supporter would now struggle to land the argument that Wigan Athletic are anything less than status secured in League One next season, despite still requiring one more point for absolute certainty.

So why am I grumpy? I’ll tell you why. When the writing was on the wall against Blackpool at home with the one thing we don’t talk about, some decisive action and the earlier instalment of Gary and Perks, in my humble opinion, would have at least seen us sitting over 60 points to the good, possibly five or seven points from the final play-off position as we stand today. It certainly would have made that last day at Stevenage very interesting.

There are no guarantees in football, ever, but it’s been remarkable to see the same players from three months ago transform into a promotion-chasing side from the shambles that we witnessed at Peterborough.

So the fans’ forum has been re-announced. Call me a cynic (I am), but it’s much easier now to deal with it than it was back then. Work takes me to London on that day, but despite the coy smiles that we may see, surely the first question must be ‘why on earth didn’t you see the requirement to change sooner?’ Because we all did...

There is no money for Joe Taylor, and it’s heartbreaking. But the form of the team has depicted that a change sooner may have led to a shot at the higher level, and with that comes a whole new emphasis for an owner… Perhaps I’m pie in the sky, but the last few weeks have cemented what we all knew. We were never a bad team nor had bad players – they just needed the correct leadership and direction, which they certainly now have.

Mansfield were tidy in their own way, good balls into the box from the wing position and played off the scraps, but once again, we dealt with them with quality and top players in good form.

Rotherham – a sad story. I actually don’t mind them, apart from the fact that they laughed loudly at us in tough times. Well, back at you, because you have some job to do to get that squad in shape for a tough League Two campaign. I will miss the trip to the New York Stadium, but I’m sure our paths will cross again soon.

Now onto Port Vale, who will be on their third game in five days and possibly, depending on Thursday’s result, the chance to relegate a second team in a week and fully cement our place in League One for next season. It’s never an easy place to go, but as it stands, it’s hard to see us lose a game, which is crazy after this roller-coaster of a season.

My final thoughts for this week... How on earth are we not offering Matt Smith some form of contract extension? He is clearly head and shoulders above the opposition sometimes, and it will be a sad day if he is allowed to leave without some form of offer. In the end, it will come down to a test of ambition.

Up the almost there Tics!