Wigan Athletic: The 12th Man - 'Are we going to fight our way out of this, or are we going to sleepwalk...'

Matt Auffrey:

If we’ve learned anything about this club over the past few seasons, it’s that the Saturday-Tuesday match combo will often give us two different 90-minute performances and match results, coupled with enough talking points to keep any Latics-related conversation going all the way until the very next kick-off.

This past week was no exception, as a well-earned win against Reading was followed by a topsy-turvy performance at Oxford.

While we’ve done enough to snap our recent goalless and winless streaks, we still remain bottom of the league and approach what may be our toughest away trip of the season with far more questions than answers.

The most glaring positive from the past two matches has been Christian Saydee's return in his new ‘super sub’ role.

For a team that has lacked many positive attributes in the final third of the pitch so far this season, the 24-year-old striker has been a breath of fresh air - his physicality, work rate, and eye for goal led to two moments of brilliance that produced our most recent goals.

Major credit should also go to Joe Whitworth, who was undoubtedly my man of the match against Reading, and has arguably been our most consistent performer since taking the reins as our number one between the sticks in early September.

While we can thank that duo for their contributions at opposite ends of the pitch, we have still witnessed quite a bit of instability in just about every other position.

Between dealing with injuries, young starlets still finding their footing in men’s professional football, and some key players being out-of-form, there should be some understanding as to why Gary Caldwell has struggled to get a tune out of this group over 90 minutes more often than not.

We have not only failed to score in the first half over nine out of 10 league matches, but have also failed to score before the 69th minute over that same amount of matches.

We have frequently been punished for starting games too negatively, and no team may be better equipped to inflict additional damage than Huddersfield on their home pitch this Saturday.

To no Latics fan’s surprise, Joe Taylor has already scored eight league goals over 10 matches since returning to his home club and is surrounded by accomplished team-mates who will aim for nothing less than automatic promotion by spring time.

The good news is that we have the recent memory of a mid-September draw against an in-form Sheffield Wednesday side of a similar stature at Hillsborough to hold onto as we make the trip to West Yorkshire after a few days' rest.

While most fans would snatch off your hand for another draw ahead of the Huddersfield fixture, we saw how a tepid approach to the Oxford match on Tuesday quickly backfired.

The gaffer will have to find the ideal blend between not playing to the hosts’ strengths while trying to accentuate our own - as few and far between as they may be.

Needless to say, we’ll need more players to step up their game, aside from Saydee and Whitworth, if we are going to have any chance of a positive result.

We took one large step forward against Reading, only to take a considerable step back against Oxford.

No matter what Saturday brings, we cannot afford to witness the same lengthy dry spell between goals and wins that we endured over the early stages of this season. We need some type of response this weekend.

Shaun Houghton:

Have We Learned Nothing?

After the Oxford game, I honestly felt like I was watching a Ryan Lowe side all over again.

For one game, against Reading, there looked to be a bit of life about us.

There was energy, there was intent, and for the first time in a while it felt like the players were actually prepared to take the game to the opposition. It wasn't perfect, but it gave supporters hope that maybe, just maybe, we were turning a corner.

Then came Oxford. And we were right back in the Lowe era.

Flat. Lifeless. Passive. No urgency. No aggression. No desire to get on the ball and make something happen (until Christian Saydee had a go from halfway and what a goal it was). It looked like a team simply going through the motions.

As fans, we can accept being beaten. We can accept mistakes. We can accept having less quality than the opposition.

What we cannot accept is watching a Wigan Athletic team that looks like it doesn't care.

That's the most frustrating thing. There was no fire. No hunger. No willingness to roll your sleeves up and have a proper go.

I'd genuinely rather watch us lose 8-0 while throwing everything at the opposition than sit through 90 minutes of what we witnessed on Tuesday night.

At least then you could walk away knowing the team had tried. Right now, it feels like we're beaten before we've even stepped onto the pitch.

Wigan Athletic supporters have seen some brilliant teams over the years, but we've also backed some very ordinary ones.

The one thing Latics fans have always demanded is effort.

Run yourself into the ground. Fight for every ball. Leave everything out there. If you do that, you'll get support regardless of the result.

Against Oxford, there was none of it. And that's what worries me most.

I actually feel sorry for Gary Caldwell. Nobody can accuse him of not caring. Look at him during games.

Look at his interviews afterwards. He looks exhausted. He looks defeated. You can see the toll it's taking on him every time he speaks.

The answers are becoming more strained, the body language more downbeat, and he looks like a man carrying the weight of the football club on his shoulders.

The problem is that we've seen this film before. As much as nobody wants to hear it, the similarities to the end of Shaun Maloney's reign are becoming impossible to ignore.

The same frustration. The same excuses. The same lack of progression. The same feeling that everyone can see where this is heading but nobody wants to say it out loud.

I take absolutely no pleasure in writing that. I desperately want Caldwell to succeed. Every single Wigan fan does.

But football is a results business, and right now the performances are arguably more alarming than the results themselves.

From the positivity that followed the Reading game to the complete surrender we saw against Oxford, we've somehow ended up right back where we started.

Right back watching football that lacks energy, lacks identity and lacks belief.

Something has to change, and quickly. Because if performances like Oxford become the norm, then I'm struggling to see this ending any differently to how it ended for Maloney. And that's a worrying thought for every single Wigan Athletic supporter.

The fans are still turning up. They're still travelling the country. They're still backing this club through thick and thin. The least they deserve is a team that looks like it wants to win.

The truth is, supporters are running out of patience because we're not asking for miracles. We're not asking for a team full of superstars.

We're asking for commitment. We're asking for fight. We're asking for 11 players to cross that white line and play like the badge on their chest actually means something. Right now, that passion is nowhere to be seen.

Thousands of fans are giving up their weekends and week days, spending their hard-earned money and travelling all over the country because they love this football club. The players and the owners at the club need to understand that.

Supporters can forgive mistakes. They can forgive defeats. What they will never forgive is a lack of effort.

Oxford wasn't just a bad performance. It was a warning sign.

Because if the football continues to look like it did against Oxford, if we continue drifting through games with no energy, no belief and no identity, then we're heading down a road we've already travelled too many times before (last three or four years in recent times).

And every Wigan fan knows exactly how that story ends.

The Reading game gave us hope. Oxford dragged us straight back to reality.

The question now is simple: are we going to fight our way out of this, or are we going to sleepwalk into another managerial downfall while everyone stands and watches it happen?

Because from where I'm sitting, the clock is already ticking.

Martin Lally:

Once again, it’s been an emotional week. Going into Saturday’s fixture against Reading, I honestly didn’t expect anything at all. Perhaps it was written in the stars. Our recent record against the Royals has been so dreadful that surely, at some point, our luck had to change.

It got me thinking about May 8, 2005 against the same opposition. How can that possibly be more than 20 years ago? And how different it felt to be a Wigan Athletic supporter back then.

There was plenty of emotion that day, but so much of it was pride, exhilaration and the sheer joy of achieving promotion to the Promised Land.

We had players who gave everything for the shirt that season and put us in that wonderful position. When the opportunity came, we grasped it with both hands.

Fast-forward to the present day and, although we’re more than two decades removed from our Premier League miracle days, Saturday’s win was just as important in the here and now.

The goal was beautifully worked from back to front, and I’m absolutely delighted for Christian Saydee. He looks lean and hungry, resembling Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV - that’s how hungry he looks!

The finish from Scott Hogan was superb. He can sometimes be a little understated in his overall performance, but his work rate and occasional touch of class could prove important as we approach Christmas.

Then came Tuesday and another ridiculous away trip, this time to Oxford. When will the EFL learn that it’s hard enough for working-class supporters to follow their team without being sent on a 250-mile round trip on a Tuesday night?

With the ever-expanding television coverage, is it any wonder that attendances are under pressure? And when so many clubs are struggling financially, surely the authorities need to consider the cumulative impact of these decisions on the people who keep the game alive.

To be fair, I agreed with Gary Caldwell’s assessment of the first half. We were streets away from the required standard. However, the introduction of Reggie Walsh and Saydee after the break seemed to change the game.

Saydee grabbed his first goal of the season, and what a strike it was! For a moment, I genuinely believed the momentum was shifting. Having taken three points at home on Saturday, even a draw away from home would have represented a decent return from the two fixtures.

But, of course, it wasn’t to be. Fraser Murray arguably had his most disappointing outing in a Latics shirt, and things went from bad to worse when he received what I felt was a deserved early bath.

Then came the inevitable sucker punch: a 2-1 defeat against a side many fancy to go all the way this season. And so, rooted to the bottom of the table, we remain.

Of course, if you choose to look for the positives, just two wins can make a significant difference in a league as tight as this. But optimism is difficult to sustain when you look at what’s coming next.

Huddersfield Town, with an electric, in-form Joe Taylor, await us on Saturday, followed by a trip to Leicester City next Tuesday, where the home side will be looking to build on their own upturn in form.

It’s difficult to look at those fixtures and see anything other than another challenging week ahead. But we keep on trucking.

That’s the thing about supporting Wigan Athletic. The memories of 2005 remind us of what this club can achieve, while the present day tests just how much belief we have left. We can’t live on past glories, but we shouldn’t forget them either.

Because when the going gets tough at Wigan Athletic, it’s the true supporters that don’t walk away. We dust ourselves down, get behind the lads and keep believing. Up the Tics!

Alfie Hurd:

Well that performance on Saturday made me want to retract my whole speech from last week, with the way we played we truly looked like a complete team even without Max Power, who might struggle getting back into this midfield.

For me, Saturday was the true sign of what Gary Caldwell wants to make us do with bodies on the line blocking shots, going for second balls, and dying for the badge - it’s all new to us this season.

More specifically, Christian Saydee looked a game changer off the bench. He looks more agile after his summer diet, and his breath taking touch and cross into the box was a joy to see.

After recent results, the team finally looked good with Brad Burrows and Charlie Gray looking like the best two outfielders, and Joe Whitworth in the middle of our goal with a phenomenal performance.

At full-time we really saw a togetherness within the team, as it looked like a relief to the players and coaches after a very challenging couple weeks.

Tuesday night at Oxford United, however, was a different story. A diabolical first half with a poor performance, the only positive Being Saydee’s wonder goal.

More importantly, there followed the dire challenge by Fraser Murray, who’s been off the boil all year. And its getting annoying, as for me he cost us a good point.

All in all, survival will be a challenge, but I believe in us for some daft reason. Up the inconsistent-and-incoherent-at-attacking Tics.

Tony Moon:

Well, Christmas came (very) early at the Brick this week. Our stocking was well and truly crammed - commitment, entertainment, a decent performance and of course, the result we’ve been craving for.

Who could want for more? You can see what Gary Caldwell and the coaching staff are trying to do...how they’re trying to get the players to play...what they want the team to do in the pitch.

Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. Most of them are young lads - some ours, some in on loan, but technically still ours till next May. As he said at the Fans Forum, this is going to be no overnight fix.In terms of recruitment this season, we seem to have got more right than wrong, and of course let’s also give him credit for getting Jensen Weir to play some of his best football in a Latics shirt.

However, one swallow doesn’t make a summer. It’s very nice all the same, and if we can get a swallow or two every month through to the end of the season, then that should not only see us okay for this season, but also start us off on a great footing for the next one too.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday, it was more suck than swallow. Ah well, at least it allowed a few folk on the message boards to get stuff off their chest which had been festering since Saturday.