Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'The orange ball was out...it started to come down heavily in the first half in a dull game...a lad I knew vaguely was challenging me and my mates to try and hit the Bournemouth players with snowballs...'

Martin Tarbuck:

It is early days yet for Toure’s Tricky 'Tics, but there are promising signs. It’s going to be a struggle, it always was going to be a struggle, and a lot will depend on what happens in January as to where our fate lies. Although the opponents were poles apart in style of play, I’d liken Saturday’s game to the one at Swansea. A tough away day at a play-off chasing side, and we took the game to them in large patches. We were also on the back foot for quite a while, but that inevitably happens when you are away from home at a tough place, whether they try to pass you to death or kick you to death. It goes back to the habitual point as to why we don’t attack the opposition. The fundamental flaw with this strategy is they are also simultaneously trying to attack us, and they usually have better players than us. A useful point gained nevertheless. Time for a little festive diversion, and you may have noticed it is a little cold out there. So it got me thinking about the coldest I’ve ever been at a football match, and several examples stood out. The first is a game which will spring to mind to anyone over a certain age - not for the weather, but for the performance of one Kevin Lynch. I was late to this game, probably only got on for the second half, as I was at college till 8.30pm. I’d managed to sneak into the stand just after it started and the first thing I noticed was the pitch was an icy white colour. It was that cold there was no green on it, it literally resembled an ice rink. The second thing I noticed was, despite there being a game in play, there seemed to be a noticeable absence of footballers on the pitch. It seems those absent players had decided to warm themselves up a bit by knocking seven bells out of each other. Four Bristol Rovers players saw red, and the notoriously shy and quiet Graeme Jones went for an early, and presumably, very welcoming early bath on this freezing cold night. Latics won 3-0. Another occasion, I think, took place in March 1987, and it was again a home game, against promotion-chasing Bournemouth. It was a dry Saturday morning, I know this as I went to Trencherfield Mill because they were filming 'Saturday Superstore' and I wanted to see Keith Chegwin, Sarah Greene and pop sensation Westworld perform their hit single 'Sonic Boom Boy'. However, as morning turned to afternoon, the snow began to fall and had started to stick when we arrived at Springfield Park, and the orange ball was out. It started to come down heavily in the first half in a dull game, so a lad I knew vaguely was challenging me and my mates to try and hit the Bournemouth players with snowballs. Funnily enough, he didn’t seem to be throwing any himself, despite his encouragement towards us gullible youngsters. By half-time, the conditions had turned blizzard-like and any attempts to play a cultured passing game - as if such a thing existed back then - were facing problems, as the ball would simply stop in the snow. Any aerial balls would remain nestled in a snow drift and refuse to bounce. Match abandoned at half-time at 1-1, I think, and title-chasing Bournemouth won the re-match 2-0. I feel an article like this can’t happen without a mention of Boundary Park, although it wouldn’t necessarily be festive, as it’s freezing in August there. I must mention the time we played them on Boxing Day, and my fancy dress choice of Superman wasn’t the best idea, on a freezing cold day. A bit of padding could have been useful, say no more. There’s also many occasions when I’ve played a game in freezing conditions because the ref wasn’t prepared to waive his £15 match fee. One Sunday League game at the notorious Chequer Lane springs to mind, when the home team entered the field and six of them had decided to play wearing tracksuit bottoms and bobble hats. I’m not actually sure if it is against South Lancs League regulations, but even that was too much for one of our Skem opponents, who saw red midway through the second half for a clumsy challenge, and proceeded to bare his buttocks at the ref in sub zero temperatures in a dirty protest. A pulsating game finished 0-0. It does sound like it will have warmed up a bit by the time Monday comes, and we can only hope we get a performance that will warm our cockles even further. It will be hard against one of the top teams of the division, Sheffield United, and the lads will need all our support behind them. So you know what to do if there’s any snow left……

Statto:

The new era has started and a point away at Millwall is always a good one. Now we have to build on that against Sheffield United, and thanks to Sky we are being made to wait until Monday night. We are getting a lot of good press for the appointments we have made - but good press doesn't get points on the board. Unfortunately, with the weather and being on telly and a Monday night, the crowd will be hit for Kolo's first home game, but let's get behind him and the team. Stay safe.

Matt Auffrey:

Our performance at Millwall last weekend wasn’t remarkable by any means. We didn’t dominate any particular component of the match and dropped points from a winning position, as we’ve done many other times this season. We have now found ourselves back in the bottom three after the league’s midweek fixtures. Yet, if one were to look several layers beneath the surface, they would find many more positives than negatives from the events in South London. It was clear based on the familiarity of the starting line-up that Kolo was not going to reinvent the wheel during his first match in charge. However, from the first kick, it was clear the new game plan called for a different style of play that saw us keep the ball on the ground much more than what we were accustomed to under Leam Richardson. What resulted was a mix of encouraging playing spells in addition to an assortment of growing pains. A 1-1 draw at the break felt like a fair scoreline. Millwall started the second half as the sharper of the two sides, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only viewer who felt a sense of inevitable doom coming our way. However, the tides shifted and we got a stronger grip on the match as the second half continued. Contrary to similar situations we found ourselves in prior to the World Cup break, we were not frantically defending for our lives over the final minutes of the match. Instead, we were the team applying pressure and pushing for a late winner. As the full-time whistle blew, a positive feeling slowly started to build inside of me despite our inability to secure the most ideal result. What we had just witnessed was 90 minutes of progress. The point and the performance marked a step in the right direction. Hearing Kolo speak so enthusiastically post-match about his satisfaction with our execution was invigorating. He expressed a clear sense of vision and direction. He gave me confidence he would have the lads well prepared for the upcoming visit of a very tough and in-form Sheffield United team. A Monday night victory for a televised match would show some statement of intent to not just the crowd at the DW that evening, but to an international audience as well. One could argue our next Championship fixture will be the biggest match in the world to immediately follow the World Cup final. It should come as no surprise that such an honour has been bestowed upon the mighty ‘Tics! We avoided disaster with our first match of the Toure era. There’s no reason to believe we won’t raise our game to compete against a legitimate automatic promotion contender. Win, lose, or draw on Monday, we should remain optimistic our club is in good hands.

Ed Bazeley:

Thankfully after some turbulent times at the club, Kolo Toure made a positive start to his tenure as Latics boss. To gain a point at Millwall who haven’t lost at the Den since September is a difficult task for any Championship side, and that’s just what Kolo and co managed. We also bossed possession, which suggests a fairly major shift in playing style compared to the way Leam Richardson set us up for away fixtures. It was great to see James McClean start in his favoured left-midfield position, meanwhile Joe Bennett was deserving of the left-back spot following his performance against Blackpool. In fact the Blackpool clash probably saw Bennett’s most convincing game in a Latics shirt to date. Keano kept his goal tally ticking too, which could be vital for us. The decent result against Millwall also saw us temporarily climb out of the relegation zone. We experienced such dizzy heights for a couple of days before West Brom defeated Sunderland on Monday to leapfrog us. However, if we are to end up in a relegation dogfight, West Brom may not be relevant to us. They’ve looked like the top team they should be since Carlos Corberan has taken the reins. Obviously their Sunderland win was on the other side of a Qatar-shaped hiatus, but they’ve now won four games in a row. That’s far from relegation form. There’s also no reason to think we will definitely end up in a relegation scrap either. As usual, the Championship table is extremely compact. We are just 10 points off the play-off spots, and a fairly uninspiring Preston side, who we drew with back in July (competitive domestic football in July!?). So it’s all to play for and, quite frankly, it’s annoying that external noise has made me feel the necessity to mention the word ‘relegation’ in December! I usually believe the table means nothing until Christmas but, following the break during this unique campaign, the table probably means nothing until midway through January.

Sean Livesey:

The new regime is up and running and, before England’s World Cup chances faded, it hadn’t been a bad afternoon. A trip to Millwall is never an easy one, indeed not for Latics. Our record there is questionable to say the least, but things started off on the right track for Kolo’s tricky 'Tics with a point that initially at least was enough to lift us out of the drop zone. I had to laugh at some of the noise on social media when the team was announced, we varied from asking why we’d sacked Leam Richardson in the first place to blaming everything on Rob Kelly. I’m unsure if people thought Richardson’s departure would suddenly usher in a new squad alongside the new manager, but to blame the bloke at the side of either boss in the dug-out was peak Latics. It reminded me of when Graham Barrow used to get pelters off Latics fans because he had the audacity to be there and try to mop up when things went to pot. Nonetheless, even the dissenting voices must have been happy (well, maybe not) with the point, another goal for Will Keane (his eighth this season) and what seems to be a strong footballing display by the not-quite-so-new-look Latics. We couldn’t face a harder task for Kolo’s second game in charge, with the in-form and in-the-automatic-promotion-places Sheffield United up next. With the Sky cameras in town and a cold night under the lights, it should make for a great atmosphere. Not as good if it was still on the Saturday afternoon as planned, but a good atmosphere nonetheless. It’ll be a massive five weeks since we last took to the pitch at the DW, and it’ll be a completely new look in the dug-out. Although it’s been a decent start for the lads under the new staff, we have to accept there will definitely be bumps along the way. Being able to implement a new brand of football mid-season is difficult enough. To do it with players who’ve been coached and led a certain way for the last 18 months is even tougher. I think we’ll get there and possibly be better for it when we do. And although we’re world champions at it, you have to hope the toys-out-of-the-pram approach when it does go wrong is sidelined in favour of some patience. Roll on Monday and the return of Latics. It’s been far too long.