Category Archives: News

Is par for the course still good enough?

Posted by JJ (Tony) in News, Other, Specials and tagged with , , , ,

Last November, Wigan Athletic were bottom of the Premier League with just 5 points from 11 matches. At present, they lie in 14th place with 11 points, averaging a point per match? If they were to maintain that point rate  through the season, they would end on 38 points, usually enough to stay up. But is staying up sufficient for Wigan Athletic supporters and its management anymore?

Lets look back on the season so far. The team has won 3 league matches out of 11. With the exception of Ivan Ramis and Arouna Kone, this is the same nucleus that won 7 out of their last 9 games last season against stronger opposition. So why have they not done better?

It cannot be put down to Ramis and Kone. Apart from his difficult Premier League baptism against Chelsea, Ramis has been solid, getting better game by game. Despite speaking almost no English he has become the de facto captain in the absence of Caldwell. Given that he was previously captain of RCD Mallorca for several years, it is no surprise. Kone has made an excellent adaptation to English football. Strong, speedy, skilful and unselfish he has already 4 league goals – Moses only scored 6 in the whole of last season. Both are excellent signings. Moreover Martinez has moved on with his tactical formation without the maverick Moses (exciting,  but frustrating) to be able to play with two big strikers and a mobile playmaker.

Over these past years one has seen Wigan Athletic teams that have been either disorganised or short of a real game plan. That cannot be said of the current team, who play within a well-created tactical system that can pose problems for even the finest of Premier League teams. Moreover, the players know their roles and show a high degree of commitment. Roberto Martinez talks about this being the best squad he has had – and given the budget he has to work under, he has done a marvelous job at recruiting the players at his disposal.

So why are Wigan Athletic not at least in mid-table position at this stage? You could blame referees or say they have had some bad luck and there is validity in such arguments. However, so could many other clubs stuck in the lower reaches of the table. Losing at home to Chelsea with their wealth of talent is not going to be a surprise, but home losses to potentially mid-table teams like Fulham and West Bromwich is hard to take. Both matches were characterized by giving away soft goals and a lack of finishing. The old failings continue to haunt. Player-for-player, neither Fulham nor West Brom is superior to what Latics have, except maybe Berbatov for the Londoners. However, what both those teams have is a deep-rooted self confidence, which Wigan Athletic just don’t seem to have.

Roberto Martinez has put together a team that could beat any team in the division on their day – a remarkable achievement. His players are largely international journeymen or players who have come in from weaker leagues. Nevertheless they have the skills to compete with the best. Whether he can instill that kind of self-belief in his players, like those in the higher-placed teams continues to be his challenge. He has done everything else really well – a superb tactical system, motivated players – but is it within his powers to convince his players that they can be as good as those earning two or three times their salaries in the Premier League? Without that, Wigan Athletic are going to be involved in yet another relegation dog fight.

Moses missed as Latics run out of ideas

Posted by Ned in Match Reports, News and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

The Wigan Athletic revival party was put on hold by an exceptionally well organized and opportunistic West Brom side on Saturday. While Roberto Martinez’s choice of “frustrating” was more than apt, the biggest takeaway appears to be that with Shaun Maloney’s impact reduced by a niggling ankle injury (that has forced him out of the Scotland squad this week), Latics sorely missed a player with the ability to unlock a defence — something Victor Moses used to do with some regularity last season.

In fact, the only memorable moment of dribbling skill resulted in Latics’ best chance of an equaliser, when Franco Di Santo skinned his man down the left hand side before Maloney blazed over. Neither Jean Beausejour nor Ronnie Stam, whose return was pleasing, possess the pace to beat their man for speed. West Brom’s centre halves had a field day clearing hopeful crosses from the box. Ben Watson’s long range strikes were the only other real threat Wigan could muster.

The Good: 

Before West Brom scored, Latics had looked dominant and fluid, if not incisive. Ben Watson was playing some beautiful stuff and was unlucky with his long range strikes. The goal was a good response. Ali Al-Habsi was fantastic. Ronnie Stam was an immediate improvement in the attacking third when he came on, although his crosses were not sharp.

The Bad: 

A lack of imagination on this display. West Brom defended in numbers and Latics could not find a way through. It would have been nice to see Di Santo on the ball more frequently, but he didn’t seem to drop deep enough to get on it. With the amount of possession around the box and Shaun Maloney struggling, Jordi Gomez might have been an option earlier in the game. It also appeared to be an ideal opportunity to give Mauro Boselli a runout, as the attacks appeared to be based on hopeful crosses into the box. He came on very late. Also a shame Ryo Miyaichi and his pace were unavailable through injury.

Conclusions: 

No cause for panic, but this match was crying out for a player willing to run at the WBA defence and force errors. It will go down as a missed opportunity. Players like Jean Beausejour and Shaun Maloney, usually excellent, have failed to convert scoring opportunities in recent matches. Ronnie Stam’s introduction suggested Emmerson Boyce’s attacking play has been acknowledged as sub-standard in recent outings.

Player Ratings:

Ali Al-Habsi: 9 — Despite hurting his shoulder in the warm-up, he was at his very best. One save from Romelu Lukaku in the second half stands out. Top class.

Ivan Ramis: 6 — No errors, but a bit of a wobbly performance after several excellent ones.

Gary Caldwell: 5 — Unlucky with his own goal, but was run ragged by Shane Long and eventually substituted.

Maynor Figueroa: 6 – Almost gave away a goal in the first half with some casual defending. Otherwise, not a bad match.

Emmerson Boyce: 6 — Offered little in attack. Better when dropped to the back three.

Jean Beausejour: 6 — Nice ball for Koné’s goal. Had a good first half, but his worst second half since joining the club with misplaced passes and a spurned opportunity.

James McCarthy: 7 — Strong in midfield, wish he had been able to get forward more often.

Ben Watson: 8 — Probably the best outfield performance, he was the most positive attempting through balls and shots. Gave the ball away frustratingly a few times, but if anyone deserved a goal it was him.

Shaun Maloney: 6 — Quietest performance in a while. West Brom identified him as the main man and marked him heavily, but he was also apparently carrying an injury.

Franco Di Santo: 6 — Also quiet. Only really got on the ball to good effect once or twice. No shots or goal attempts.

Arouna Koné: 6.5 — Did well to stay onside for his goal. Held the ball up well but had little space to operate in, and not much service either.

Subs:

Ronnie Stam: Saw a lot of the ball and put several crosses in, all well defended. A welcome return.

Jordi Gomez: Not enough time to make an impact.

Mauro Boselli: Came on for the last 8 or so minutes, by which point Latics had lost the bulk of possession and were restricted to hopeful crosses — none of which reached him.

Latics out to prove relegation battles are behind them

Posted by Ned in Match Previews, News, Other and tagged with , ,

Following an exceptional result at White Hart Lane and convincing home success against West Ham before it, Wigan Athletic are starting to answer the question many of us spent the summer pondering: can the performance levels from our season-saving run of form be matched when the pressure is off?

Back in April and May, the intensity and tenacity of Latics’ defensive play at times seemed superhuman. The harrying, chasing down, selflessness — surely this was an attitude borne of need, the will to survive and fight another day. Over the summer, doubt intensified. Without that full commitment, would Wigan lose its edge?

Early season results did little to clear things up. A couple weeks ago, after some strong performances and one or two rotten ones, the general consensus was that a lack of sharpness at the decisive ends of the pitch were costing the club points. Wigan was stuck in the all-too-familiar bottom quarter of the table. Forward to present, and Roberto is a win away from the top half. What changed?

Despite a history of starting slowly at home in the Martinez era, I would argue that home wins are catalytic to the club’s good form. The players enjoy an unusually close relationship with the support, and the good feeling brought after a convincing win breathes not only confidence but urgency into the team. If anything, the last minute consolation goal by James Tomkins strengthened that resolve. A reminder that whilst the victory was more-than-warranted, a lead is a fragile thing that you have to fight to protect.

It was with this urgency that Wigan approached the Spurs match. All for one, and one for all. Ben Watson, eventually the match winner, put in a defensive shift we didn’t know he was able to. There was unity all over the park. Finesse in attack, real steel in defence. It was on par with the wins over Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool last season. And one notch below the 4-0 hammering of Newcastle, only due to missed chances to increase the scoreline.

And so what would have been viewed as more of a must-win home tie against West Brom when fixtures were announced, has become a real opportunity. Instead of the trepidation that accompanies these home matches we “should” win, there is real excitement that Wigan have rekindled the form that gave us so much joy earlier this year — and may deliver us three wins in a row and a place in the top half of the table.

But West Brom are not to be underestimated. In fact, they took advantage Wigan’s good work against Spurs and leapfrogged the London side into fifth place when no one was looking. Steve Clarke appears to be doing terrific work with an odd group of players, who seem capable of pulling off big results but never really look all that special. They’ve had two fewer days of rest, but will hardly have needed them after beating Southampton very comfortably indeed. The match should find two sides in decent form with few injuries to complain of — Latics’ main doubt is James McArthur, but Ben Watson will have earned a recall if there is any doubt about the Scot’s fitness.

There is always the possibility of a flat start, an unlucky deflected goal, a red card or an injury. But if Wigan can match the performance levels of Spurs and West Ham, it will put any lingering doubts to rest. Roberto has brought this club, beyond reasonable doubt, up a full level since this time last season. Relegation battlers simply can’t play the sort of football his team is capable of.

Twin strikers at Wigan Athletic — a trip down memory lane

Posted by JJ (Tony) in News, Other, Reflections, Specials and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

1964-65 : Wigan Athletic 3 Oswestry 0. Harry Lyon gets on to a Walter Stanley cross as Carl Davenport lurks menacingly. Allan Brown looks on from midfield (photo from Wigan World). 

In the late 1970s, my Dad and I would typically go out for a beer on Friday nights. We would rarely discuss things like politics or the weather, preferring to focus our conversations on Wigan Athletic’s progress in the Cheshire League. Among our discussions would be recollections of trips to watch Latics in exotic places like Stalybridge, Mossley and Oswestry. We lived in the south of Wigan, rugby league territory, so the pubs around us were steeped in that kind of nostalgia. One of those was ‘The Waterwheel’, run by ex-Great Britain rugby player, John Stopford. In his heyday in the early 1960s Stopford had been a lightning-fast winger for Swinton. Although he never played for Wigan RLFC, Stopford would draw rugby enthusiasts to his pub. We mostly avoided such places, preferring to walk further afield to pubs that were more salubrious for Wigan Athletic supporters.

One rainy night we succumbed, and tried ‘The Waterwheel’. Upon opening the door and the sight of the scrum surrounding the bar we started to think twice about it. There were some burly men there, faces like boxers, some with arms in slings. We were just about to walk out when my Dad said “Look it’s Harry Lyon over there.” It was indeed my hero from my teenage years. Chatting with Harry was easy. He just made you feel comfortable talking with him. Although he had left the club a decade before you could tell that Wigan Athletic was his first love. He said that it was a wonderful feeling running down the tunnel at the start of a game at Springfield Park, with some 3,000 people urging you on.

Harry Lyon was a great favourite with the fans, Wiganers not only appreciating his incredible goalscoring record, but also loving his commitment on the pitch. I asked him who was the best manager he had worked under – he had 5 during his time at the club from 1962-1968 — his reply was Allan Brown. Brown caused waves in the non-league world in 1964 when he took over at Wigan as player/manager, hiring a swath of full time professionals in a semi-professional league. After training, Brown would sometimes take his players to the town centre restaurant where my mother worked. I would be thrilled when she would bring home players’ autographs, usually written on the backs of serviettes.

Brown’s teams played an attacking 4-2-4 with the manager orchestrating from the centre of midfield. Carl Davenport was Lyon’s striking partner in Brown’s first year. Like Lyon he was an excellent header of the ball. I recall going to the Anchor Ground – aptly named at the time, a real quagmire of a pitch – to watch Latics play Darwen in a cup match. My Dad would recall for many years how Davenport had risen so high that his head was well over the height of the crossbar as he put the ball in the opponents net. Although Davenport was often referred to as an inside forward in those days, he was in reality a twin striker with Lyon. No teams found it easy to cope with the two of them. That season Harry Lyon scored 67 goals!

However, when I asked Harry who was the best striking partner he had played with he immediately retorted: Bert Llewellyn. Unlike Carl Davenport, Bert Llewellyn was only 5 feet 4 inches tall. A headed goal was a rarity, but after joining Latics in the summer of 1965, he scored 49 goals in 39 league appearances over the course of the season. Llewellyn was far from an elegant player, but was a natural goalscorer, sniffing around the penalty box for deflections, toe-poking and scrambling the ball into the back of the net. In his four years at Springfield Park, Llewellyn scored 140 goals in 185 appearances in all competitions. Remarkably, he outscored Lyon in his time at the club. Check out this wonderful article on This Northern Soul on Bert Llewellyn.

Since that era there have been lots of twin striking partnerships at Wigan Athletic. What a pity that wonderful pairing of Jason Roberts and Nathan Ellington was broken up when Latics reached the Premier League. How refreshing that Robert Martinez has adjusted his tactical system to play with two big strikers this season. The interplay between Arouna Kone and Franco Di Santo is a joy to watch. It is almost like turning back the clock.

We would love to hear from our readers – which has been your favourite striking partnership at Wigan Athletic?

Tottenham 0 Wigan Athletic 1: Return of the giant-killers

Posted by Ned in Match Reports, News and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Wigan Athletic made up for their slow start to the season with an away performance reminiscent of the famous victories at Anfield and the Emirates of last term, climbing to 12th in the league table in doing so.

Tottenham’s starting XI — and indeed the thousands supporting them at White Hart Lane — appeared to approach the fixture as a foregone conclusion ahead of a series of tricky fixtures. Much will be criticized about their performance, but it won’t tell the whole story. While Villas Boas shifted and tweaked throughout and his players huffed and puffed in the second half, Roberto Martinez’s men knew exactly what their gameplan was and executed it to perfection.

In fact, so dominant were the Latics before Ben Watson’s breakthrough, they should have gone at least two or three up. While Gareth Bale was clearly the best player on the pitch, you got the sense that Spurs are at present just a team of expensively assembled individuals, while Wigan look an organized and well-oiled machine.

The Good: 

Roberto Martinez. The second youngest manager in the league put on a tactical masterclass for the youngest. This is the second 1-0 win in three away fixtures at White Hart Lane, against Spurs teams that have hardly struggled for goals. If you go back a fourth fixture, you get to the horrific 9-1 loss in Roberto’s first season. Where most chairmen would have panicked, Dave Whelan kept faith, and Martinez has repaid it. The team showed today it is already — this early in the season despite losing Victor Moses and having to bed in new signings — capable of the form shown that kept us up last year. Which bodes very well indeed.

The defence. Gary Caldwell was immense, as he was in the final stretch of last season. Ivan Ramis, next to him, had a brilliant match save one foul on the edge of the box that might have proven costly on another day. He looks comfortable in the league and tactical system, a quality signing. Figueroa had to cope with Lennon and Bale and got the job done, albeit with the occasional mistimed challenge. Emmerson Boyce, whose attacking play was non-existent, must receive huge praise for his defensive work as well.

Attacking link-up play. There are some excellent partnerships developing between the attacking trio. First, Maloney set up Kone. Then Kone returned the favour. Di Santo was quiet today but has been on the same wave length in recent fixtures. Latics created the five clearest chances of the match.

The Bad: 

Finishing. Both Kone and Maloney, when through with just the keeper to beat, shot straight at him. It comes down to confidence and composure. Both played very well otherwise, but you get the sense they each need a goal to get things going again. Ben Watson, who had an odd match — at times rusty, others very effective and ultimately scoring the winner — missed another sitter by blasting over.

Player Ratings: 

Ali Al-Habsi: 8.5 — Excellent. Held onto a couple stinging shots that other keepers would have spilled. Dominant in the air.

Ivan Ramis: 8.5 — Cracking performance from the Spaniard. Strong and excellent with his distribution. The way the back three knocks the ball around these days is a joy to watch. Very rarely is a ball hacked away in panic.

Gary Caldwell: 9 — Man of the match. Didn’t put a foot wrong, he was dominant. His passing out of the back, under pressure, was fantastic.

Maynor Figueroa: 7 — Had a tough time with Bale and Lennon at times, but got a very difficult job done. Lucky not to be given a yellow card in the first half, which was fortunate as he received one in the second.

Emmerson Boyce: 7.5 — Passing was at times poor and didn’t get forward, but his primary function was defensive. He had Bale to watch for most of the match, and defended well on set pieces.

Jean Beausejour: 8 — In good form. Got forward on several occasions in the first half with some quality deliveries. Neat in footwork as always, and put a real defensive shift in.

James McCarthy: 7.5 — Usual energetic, neat performance.

Ben Watson: 8 — Got the match winner. Going from Bradford to Spurs within the space of a few days must have been an adjustment, and his passing was a little wayward at times. But he was very frequently in the right place at the right time to make defensive interceptions, and stuck the ball in the back of the net — which no one else managed.

Shaun Maloney: 8 — Top class in the first half, buzzing about and creating. Should have scored his one-on-one opportunity. Faded as the team retreated in the second half.

Franco Di Santo: 7 — Couldn’t get going in this one, though he held the ball up well when required. Substituted with 20 minutes to go.

Arouna Kone: 7 — Another promising performance full of dangerous movement and skill but no goal. They’ll come.

Subs: 

Jordi Gomez: Played a couple delicious flicks that Kone and Maloney might have been quicker to pounce on. Drew a couple fouls that eased the pressure. Overall, did the job he was sent on to do quite well.