“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.”
Tony Robbins.
I confess that every time someone mentions Wigan, I think of Eddie Waring and generations of tough Northern women scrubbing their doorsteps. I knew some such women when I was at college. I never knew whether it was some kind of initiation test or a curious form of masochism. In these days of diversity and woke thinking, I probably shouldn’t admit to that. Wigan have only been in the league since 1978 but, thanks to the generosity of Dave Whelan, they have a huge stadium, spent some years in the Premier League and won a Cup Final. Life has not been so easy in recent times. A financial crisis has resulted in greater emphasis on sustainability and less fanciful ambition. Nonetheless, 700 Wigan fans came to the Abbey, optimistic, as we all are, of a return to the big time. Three signings this week, following a big money sale, may have encouraged many of their fans. They are a work in progress however, and an unknown quantity. I suppose we are too, but our signings look to be top quality.
It was great to bump into William Arnold and his girlfriend, who’d come all the way from China to get me to sign my book. They may have come to watch the match too. In fairness, the first league game of the season is unmissable for most of us. It’s always wonderful to meet old friends, see the familiar sights, including the CFU Cabin, an essential part of the Abbey experience. I don’t know what I’ll do or how I’ll feel when watching the U’s at Marshalls. I ramble. What we all wanted was a win, an indication of how the season might progress and some good football to watch. We got all three and I had an opportunity to yell encouragement at the Referee too.
We started well. One opinionated, and fairly miserable, Habbinite started to complain about Appere, as he did most of last season. Later he had to eat his words…
We might has scored and then we did. After a beautifully worked free kick routine, Kell Watts lashed in a loose ball. How delighted he was….as were we. After 34 minutes Heath broke from the halfway line before finding Appere. His control and finish were sublime. We have quite a player there. What he needs most is game time, encouragement and maybe a big, ugly bloke to play alongside him. Wigan were neat and classy on the ball but toothless. If this is League One standard opposition, we’ll be ok. Maybe Wigan won’t.
At half time we were talking about Notts County at home last season. Wigan were there for the taking. All we needed was a third and we were home. Were we top of the league already? We have over 3,000 season ticket holders and over 7,000 in the ground. Dom Ball was dominating. Jobe and Watts were pure class, and Zak Bradshaw was playing as well as we know he can. Heath scored a third after 52 minutes, many Wigan fans left and we settled back and waited for the rout. Except we didn’t get it. After an hour we settled for what we’d got and sat deep. Were we tired, complacent or just not ruthless enough? Suddenly we looked tired and lethargic. Wigan scored twice within a minute and we started to fret. Surely they couldn’t? They brought on subs and changed their shape. We didn’t adjust and brought on subs a bit late perhaps. The Referee didn’t help, not that he was responsible for our bewildering Sean Derry tactics.
Call me naïve ,but when you are at home, cruising and 3-0 up, you go for the throat and definitely not into your shell. What would Big Ron have said? Their first goal saw us defending like statues and their second should have been disallowed for a blatant push on a defender. If Wigan had a sense of purpose or more determination, they could have made it hard for us to hold on. But they didn’t or couldn’t. Was Jobe fully fit? Should we have brought on Bauer earlier? Neil Harris obviously felt that some of his players weren’t working hard enough and allowing Wigan too much time and space. He hooked Knight, who hadn’t done much to excite us for once, for not marking properly but I’m not sure that it was the right move. The best way to take the sting out of a game is to give your opponent’s defence plenty to think about. To relieve your defence, you need an effective out ball. With Knight using his pace to chase long passes out of defence, Wigan would have had to keep men back. Lavery worked hard but Mpanzu looked a bit off the pace. We need our injured players back and KaiKai fully fit, otherwise we will really get tired. We could do with a couple of signings, I think. A Luke Berry like midfielder and a natural goalscorer. Anyone know one? We have enough quality to survive but our squad is a bit small. Perry and Heath are really good signings so we are obviously doing our homework properly these days. We have time to do a bit more business and new investment coming in soon. We can be a power in the land.
I wouldn’t want to comment on the Referee too much. He was ok most of the time and let play continue when he could but, irritatingly, he seemed to reward theatrical falls and to miss blatant pushes in the back, something Wigan resorted to too often. It’s sad that some people see this as somehow more “professional”. Brian Clough fined his players for cheating and for being booked. Maybe managers should start doing this again? Sadly, I suspect that some coaches actually train their players in the dark arts. Fans can see it, but for Referees close to the action it can be much more difficult. We need to think of harsher punishments for cheating before it gets out of hand and we all play like Argentina or American forwards.
United fans went home happy and slightly relieved. The atmosphere on the Wigan coach going home would have been a lot more sombre. Now let’s beat amiable giants Bromley like we should have done last season.
Andrew Stephen-An entirely unbiased Habbinite.