Not just one of the best in the league, but quite possibly the strongest Wigan side anyone in the Championship will play this season. Can easily see them losing two or three players before the close of the transfer window. Bad luck getting them on the first day. Thought we were reasonably competitive for the first half, and it's unfortunate that they scored when we were having our best phase of the game. We just didn't get in their faces enough and their class told as the game went on. Blackpool next week is a good fixture to try to bounce back with, and I don't think Charlton are as good as many pundits seem to think. I'm hopeful we can get 4 points from the next two games. U reds.
At this level I've seen a lot of teams over the years who don't give you a sniff at the back, but are lacking a bit of skill and guile going forward. Or they'll tear you apart going forward, but they have a soft centre if you get at them. Or they'll boss the midfield, but if you play it down the channels you can get in behind them. Wigan were strong everywhere. The defence was like a brick wall, they swamped us in midfield and ran us to death going forward. I thought we gave a really good account of ourselves in the first half, but we were at our maximum, while Wigan were playing within themselves. We couldn't keep up that level of performance for 90 minutes in that heat, so when Wigan stepped it up, we wilted. IMHO the importance of money in the championship is often overstated. Give me a good manager and a highly motivated team over an extra 3 or 4 million on the budget any day. I thought we showed that last year when Flitcroft took over and we certainly showed it in the mid 90s when Wilson and Winstanley moulded a team of journey men and also rans into a unit that believed they could beat anyone. But Wigan haven't just got a few million more than us, they've got tens, if not hundreds of millions more than us. That sort of money counts. And the team and the club are not in disharmony like many ex-Premier League teams that have visited us in recent years. They're a good club, all pulling together with a vast amount of resources thanks to the parachute payments and a team full of class players. I wonder how many individuals in the Wigan side yesterday had a weekly wage that eclipsed the combined wage of all our 11 players on the pitch. I honestly don't know how we're supposed to compete with that.
what pissed me off about them was that they are well good enough to win games without the pushing the diving and intimidation/manipulation of the officials!
There were certainly plenty of Premier League tactics being employed. There was one free kick in the first half that should never have been. The linesman gave it as Wiseman was persistently blocking the forearm smashes of the Wigan winger with his face. This caused the Wigan player to fall down, so an obvious foul to them. Anyway, as the cross was fired in to our penalty area half the Wigan attackers were throwing themselves to the ground, while the other half were kicking the **** out of our defenders. There were at least 8 fouls to us, most of which deserved a yellow card for either simulation or foul play. The ref gave us nothing, while our defence looked shell shocked.
Couldn't agree more. And still people think that Sky haven't ruined football. It such an unequal competition in the Championship because of parachute payments, and with the payments going up from this season it's only getting worse until it becomes almost a closed shop at the top end. It wouldn't surprise me to see, fairly soon, a few years on the bounce where the top 3 in the championship are the previous season's relegated teams. A club has to be run spectacurlaly badly with those sort of resource advantages to not bounce back to the PL in 2 seasons.
The folk who think that Sky haven't ruined football are, by and large, people who have Sky and haven't attended a sporting venue in years.
Jay I don't often agree with your comments and we will agree to disagree over the red card but the above is an absolute spot on posting, it's in my head but no way could I have put it better. Perfect fella
