Tag Archives: wigan athletic

Latics fans react on social media to Sheff Wed defeat

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Social Media and tagged with , , , , , , ,

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Another narrow defeat against a team vying for promotion. It was a game practically devoid of good football, hardly an advertisement for the EPL in front of a large television audience. There were few moments of general entertainment in the whole game: a header from debutant James Weir that went over the bar and a disallowed goal when Callum Connolly ran through.

Warren Joyce has certainly created a team that can stop the opposition playing. Frankly, Sheffield Wednesday were made to look poor, despite being seventh placed in the division and their large investment in players.

But stopping the other team scoring goals is only half of the recipe for success. The other side of it is to be able to score goals yourself and Latics hardly looked like doing that last night. Once again Joyce had packed his starting line up with midfielders. It was the same eleven that sparkled against Brentford, but this time around the midfielders were preoccupied by their defensive duties, leaving Will Grigg without support. Latics’ attack was not surprisingly sterile.

The debate about playing twin strikers continues. Joyce had the opportunity to bring Omar Bogle on to pair up with Grigg, but chose not to do so. But even if you are playing with a single striker you can still push men forward to support him. Was it the midfielders themselves who were reluctant to push forward or were they following the manager’s instructions?

The quality of football played by Latics was reminiscent of the dark era of Malky Mackay. Now that Joyce has his team able to curb the opposition, will he move on to the next step which involves creativity and movement going forward?

We took a look at the social media following yesterday’s match and came up with a wide range of views. Our thanks go to the Cockney Latic Forum, Vital Wigan – Latics Speyk Forum, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Facebook) and Twitter for providing the media for the posts below to happen.  Thanks go to all whose contributions are identified below.

 

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Paul Rowley @PaulRowleyBBC tweeted:

Worth noting ‘LaticsOfficial have lost 7 of their last 8 league games at the DW. Just 3 home wins all season. @BBCMancSports

Sam Morsy @sammorsy08 talked of fine margins:

Great effort and commitment from the boys today, fine margins cost us today, but we will go again Tuesday, fans roaring us on till the end !

Matthew Taylor @matty123tay added:

Disappointed with that. Thought they were there for the taking really, onwards to Norwich…#wafc

MR Brownbill on the Cockney Latic Forum was unimpressed:

 Wasted 1st half….Never score in a month of Sundays with this bo..ocks Grigg on his own .No surprise he hasnt scored in 16 league games. Totally inept going forward…hit and hope. Final ball ,set pieces, corners dire. Wake up please…he will not budge in his plan….pack the middle with no support hope something drops our way. Bogle on….Grigg off….Ch..t almighty…another single goal di..ing. Jacobs..Power..time to rest em. Don’t give a toss how many players we signed he’ll just swap the midfield personnel and play with an isolated pi..ed off forward.

Martin W @dmartw opined:

No width, no urgency, no pace. Hard to believe that was the same team that beat Burton and Brentford. Slightly better in 2nd half #wafc

Dave Carter on The Boulevard of Broken Dreams commented:

Two thoughts from tonight. One, the disallowed goal was very marginal and we can feel just a bit hard done by. Two, Joyce is incredibly naive tactically. We had no support at all for Grigg and the only time that changed at all was after the substitutions with twenty minutes left. We’re going down unless someone kicks some sense into the manager.

Donnys Page on the Cockney Latic Forum questioned the approach:

Game plan exactly the same as against Utd. No support for either lone striker, lone strikers both looked like Fortune, Boseli, Riera and Delort totally lost. Not even a winger or even a wing back to replace a winger putting crosses in bar Jacobs efforts on the wrong wing with 20 minutes to go. No attacking midfielder supporting lone striker. Strikers forced out wide leaving their position in the box vacant.   It’s going to be a real battle to get out of this mire but we may have to be a little more cavalier to escape the drop. Same team as the Brentford game but different approach. Why?

Power Jacobs Perkins McDonald all ready for a rest for a few weeks and new ideas needed but it may be too late for that. This season was bal.. ed up last June.

JamesSaintLatic @JamesSaintLatic added:

Another Saturday of sitting and praying Burton, Bristol City & Blackburn don’t win #wafc.

Pauvre Jean on Latics Speyk has not lost hope:

It wasn’t for lack of effort we lost, it was the same old reliance on playing one badly out of form lone striker. When Weir and Bogle came on we started to threaten. A shame it took 75 minutes to try something different. So yet another disappointing 0-1 defeat to a ‘top six’ Team who were frankly little better than us.

I’ve not lost hope like some on here as I can still see that we can turn it around. I’d like to see the line up that finished tonight starting on Tuesday for a start.

Stuart Kelsall @StuartKelsall believes Latics can stay up:

Not one team played us off park this season and that’s why am more than confident that will stay up there are worse sides than us #believe

Jonny_SuffolkLatic on Latics Speyk advocates a more attack oriented approach:

Our wins against teams around us in recent weeks already shows we can stay up, it’s just that against the higher positioned opponents we should be setting up, and playing, more attack orientated than we are. Against weaker opposition, the team we started with tonight might be able to deliver the points, but better teams need to be tested with more than Grigg up front supported by Jacobs on the wing.

SamWhyte @SamWhyte referred to Grigg’s role:

Grigg spends more time doing defensive work than actually being a striker that when chances do fall his way, he’s knackered. Waste IMO #wafc

Stewart Hart @No1fan referred to a Grigg/Bogle combination:

Should have got something tonight. Clear we can’t play Grigg alone, needs to be paired up, or Bogle on his own. Impressed with Weir. #wafc

Jeffs right on Latics Speyk added:

Bogle and Grigg together could have got us a point. Bogle on his own just reminded me of Mark Antoine Fortune. No service to either of the strikers from Power, Jacobs, Perkins, McDonald. For sh..s sake give Grigg some service and he will get us goals. Power and Jacobs have been more inept than Grigg all season yet Grigg gets the slag off.

Moonay on Latics Speyk summarised:

Sheff Weds – nowt special
Latics – not clinical enough
Rhodes v Grigg – both as poor as each other
Their goal – scabby ……………… & offside ?
Our goal – marginal ……….. but probably was just offside
Our chances – Weir & Burn & Jacobs should have scored
Negatives – reaction of some of our fickle fans, Connolly had his first poor-ish game
Positives – Weir, Morsy played well again, Weir, Bogle looked a handful, …….. oh, and Weir looked a good prospect.

WhittleBlue on Latics Speyk concluded:

A game we didn’t deserve to lose nor win.

Regarding the goal yes it had an element of fortune about it and perhaps Burn, in an otherwise excellent display, could have got closer to Rhodes but that passage of play should never happened in the first place. A lack of footballing intelligence cost us that goal this evening and the blame for that is solely down to Power. Why on earth having sent the centre backs forward would he choose a six yard sideways/backward pass to another player who wasn’t exactly free instead of putting it forward toward those who had ventured forward? What the hell did he expect MacDonald to do with it other than put it forward himself? Absolutely f**king clueless.

Other than that plenty of effort, we look decent defensively overall butlook bereft of quality in attacking areas. I thought Grigg had a thankless task with little service but the one opportunity he had he again spurned, miscontrolled and appears to be low on confidence. Morsy was good but had little support. Jacobs, whilst he tries hard is out of his depth at this level. The problem is who do we replace him with? Weir is a left sided player as is Obertan and the other midfielders all are of a similar type. Yanic is a massive loss and despite signing a load of players I don’t think they strengthen us in the area we needed strengthening which is offensively. The squad is very poorly balanced. The right back looks more threatening and likely to score than anyone which is a poor reflection on the attacking players. Sadly I don’t see enough creativity or goals in this team to see us winning games comfortably and I’m not convinced we will score enough to get us the victories we need to stay up.

 

 

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A Grimsby Town fan’s view of Omar Bogle

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with , , ,
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Bogle at Aldershot in April 2016.

In the dying minutes of the January transfer window Wigan Athletic signed Grimsby Town centre forward Omar Bogle. The transfer fee is reputed to be in excess of £1 million.

On signing Bogle Warren Joyce said: “Omar is a finisher, and he has scored goals at every level he has played at. He needs to take it to the next level now but we are convinced he has the attributes to be a success here.”

Bogle added: “I owe a lot of Grimsby Town, the chairman, the gaffer, my teammates and the fans, who were great with me. I’ll always appreciate their support.I’ve handled the step up from the Conference and have done well this year, but that’s testament to the gaffer at Grimsby and the players I had around me.I’m quite a direct player who has attributes in every area. I’m quick, strong, put myself about a bit and have the ability to really beat players. I want to excite the Wigan fans. I’m ready for the challenge of stepping up to the Championship. It’s a new environment for me playing against bigger teams and the standard will be higher, but I’m definitely ready. I want to thank all the Wigan Athletic fans for their support on social media. I can’t wait to excite the crowd and do well for this club.”

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Bogle lines up a free kick against Braintree in October 2015.

The 23 year old Bogle, who is 6 ft 2 in tall, was born in Birmingham. After being with West Bromwich Albion’s youth system in his early teens he passed through the Birmingham City Academy before joining the Celtic Academy for a year. After a one year spell at Hinckley United he joined Solihull Moors where he went on to spend three years. In 2014-15 he was the Conference North Player of the Year, being top goalscorer in the division with 29 goals.

Bogle scored 62 goals in 111 appearances for the west midland club before signing for Grimsby Town in summer 2015. He went on to score 16 goals in his first season, including two against Forest Green Rovers in the National League playoff final, which Grimsby won 3-2. Bogle started the next season well, being League 2 Player of the Month in both August and September 2016. He went on to make  a total of 68 league appearances for Grimsby, scoring 32 goals.

In order to learn more about Bogle we contacted Paul Ketchley. Paul is a regular contributor to the independent Grimsby Town fanzine  Cod Almighty.

Paul not only gave us his insights through a Q and A session, but sent us the photos featured in this article.

Here’s over to Paul:

Where did you get him from?

As you know we picked him up from Solihull Moors for something around £30,000. Last season he and Padraig Amond (now at Hartlepool) struck up a partnership that went together like haddock and chips. That’s the way it should be by the way. They are why we are back in the League.

How good is he?

On his day and providing you play to his strengths he’s a match winner. Won the play-off final for us last year to get us back in the League and has only got better this season. Play him along a little guy and he’ll make as many goals for them as many as he scores himself. Padraig Amond’s 30+ goals last year were also the result of having Omar alongside him

Have Wigan paid over the odds?

We think that you’ve got him at a bargain price! If it’s between £1 million and £1.5 million he’s worth at least that. We hope we’ve got a big sell-on clause in the deal.

Will he do any good in the Championship?

Providing you play to his strengths he’ll terrify opposition defences. He likes taking free kicks by the way.

Can Wigan send him back if they don’t like him?

There’s nobody at our end who is glad to see him leave. We realise that this is how football is these days. So, Omar will be welcome back any day.

How do you welcome him?

Start playing Blur’s “Tender is the Night” to practice the Omar Bogle anthem. The “oh, my baby” bit.

 

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Latics fans react on social media to Man U game

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

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Only the most optimistic of Wigan Athletic fans would have expected their team to get some kind of result at Old Trafford.  Damage limitation was the best that most of us had hoped for. But Warren Joyce’s team performed well until Fellaini’s goal in the 44th minute. Latics had at least matched their expensive opponents up to that point and if Michael Jacobs had not fluffed a clear shot on goal they could even have been ahead before the big Belgian bruiser barged past Callum Connolly for that goal.

Once behind it was a tall order for a Latics team playing with just one forward. But early in the second half home keeper Romero fluffed a cross straight to David Perkins, one of the outstanding performers up to that point. But sadly Perkins is not known for his goal scoring and could not put the chance away. It was not an easy chance, but it was a lost opportunity to get back in the game. The seemingly inevitable was to follow, as Latics sank under United’s pressure.

Joyce had once again put on a cautious line up, loading the midfield. But until Fellaini’s goal they had looked well organised and were holding their own. The defence had been solid and the midfield industrious. Joyce’s influence on the defensive make-up of his teams is clear. He is making Latics a hard team to beat. However, it is on the offensive side where the work still needs doing. As yesterday’s game wore on, Will Grigg looked more and more isolated in the lone centre forward role. Given the team’s lack of goals it is worrying to hear rumours about Yanic Wildschut being sold off. Craig Davies has already left for Scunthorpe and Adam Le Fondre was not even on the bench yesterday. Neither was Jordi Gomez. Some say that Gomez is not a Joyce-type player. It would therefore be no surprise if he and Le Fondre were to depart in the next couple of days.

Yesterday’s Paul Kendrick’s headline read “We don’t want to sell Yanic – Joyce”, with the manager being quoted that: “It’s simple as far as I’m concerned – you don’t want to sell your best players. I’ve come here and I’m trying to build a football club. I don’t think Yanic had played a full game this season before I came to the football club. He’s progressed, he’s lost weight, he’s sharper, he’s fitter.” Rumour suggests that Wildschut will go if Latics are offered between £5-£6 m. The manager clearly does not want to lose one of his key players, but the Chief Executive and Chairman appear to have different ideas.

Losing Wildschut would be a hammer blow for a manager trying to keep his team in the division. Some would say that the club could use at least some of the funds to sign a replacement, but Latics will be reluctant to pay a significant transfer fee for a player who will expect a high salary to match. Given that Latics already have more loan players than they can field in  a match, the likelihood would be to go for a free agent or a younger player from the lower divisions.

All will be revealed in the next couple of days.

We took a look at the social media following yesterday’s match and came up with a wide range of views. Our thanks go to the Cockney Latic Forum, Vital Wigan – Latics Speyk Forum, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Facebook) and Twitter for providing the media for the posts below to happen.  Thanks go to all whose contributions are identified below.

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Max Power @power_m4 tweeted:

Great experience today, thought we gave a good account of ourselves despite the result! Thanks for the support.

David Sharpe @DavidSharpe91 responded:

Scoreline is harsh but very proud of the boys. 1st half we were excellent. Equally as proud of our fans, non stop singing for 90 mins

Argus on the Cockney Latic Forum commented that:

We’ve scored 1 goal at Old Trafford in what 9 goes and that was a last minute Baines penalty in 2006 I think.We were 1 minute away from a perfect 1st half performance.You really didn’t think we were going to go gung ho at them did you – they would have scored a hatful similar to their 3rd if we had. We should have been 1-0 up if Jacobs had connected instead of that air shot in the 1st half.

Morsy’s performance showed the class difference between the PL and the Championship. He was fairly anonymous today.That was one of our better performances there and we should be OK for the rest of the season.4th bottom will do at this stage then we can take stock and consolidate ready for next season.

Jonjo Gallagher @JonjoGallagher tweeted:

I mean this whole heartedly I do not want to get back to that greed league that isn’t football, where is my sport gone #wafc

 Jocklatic on Latics Speyk commented on the atmosphere at Old Trafford:

Well we tried hard to give them a game n up until their goal against the run of play we was holding our own. Had we held on to a 0-0 till half time then it wud have been a different game …but my oh my what an absolutely abysmal atmosphere there is from the ‘ tourist’ that visit there….it is awful n no wonder teams in the prem can come n get a win. No pressure from home crowd, no atmosphere, no intimidation of away team in fact it was so sterile it was like a pre season game. Even walking up to the game from the cricket club was directed….ffs support yer team (utd)…..worst home support I’ve seen …even worse than blackpool away last season who r boycotting the club…..big team my a..e

Donnys Page on the Cockney Latic Forum added:

If you go to a place like Old Trafford and try to stifle and slow them down eventually you get what you deserve. Totally different match plan from the last three games and left Grigg so isolated on his own. Brought on Yanic for pace but soon after took off the only striker at the club and no further positive options on the bench. Two of the pointless signings had a run out but hopefully we won’t be seeing them again. Let us hope we get back to the style and approach we had for the three wins. Very disappointed today but at the end of the day we were playing the bank but just wish we could have been more positive and not have just put up a brick wall. Could we have lost with a greater score?

Ihaventaclue on Latics Speyk was positive about the performance:

We were great today. Well done every one. Cracking good atmosphere – in our corner, but blimey how 60,000 can do nothing except a half hearted cheer when a goal goes in ….. is beyond me. No wonder they needed all the help they could get from the ref. Actually with their reputation I was really surprised, I was expecting more.

Dave Carter on The Boulevard of Broken Dreams said:

I think it’s open for debate whether the keeper should have come out for the ball. In my eyes, Connolly was too lightweight and allowed Fellaini to outmuscle him. That said, it was a decent defensive performance till the goal, but it was game over when it went in with Joyce’s reluctance to support his lone forward.

Loudmouthblue on Latics Speyk thought the goalkeeper was at fault:

The cross for Fellaini’s goal came from wide and was very high, in the air a long time and travelled along the six yard box, any decent keeper, especially one that is 6ft 7in would have come for that.

Hindleymonwafc  on Latics Speyk questioned the case:

The cross was excellent….how can you blame any keeper for being in two minds about that .

 MightyBongsmon on Latics Speyk added:

That cross was too high & deep for any keeper to come out for. If you want to look at blame for the 1st & 2nd goals blame the players who didn’t put pressure on the guy who crossed it & the full backs for getting out muscled & outjumped. Mind you that’s nit picking. I looked at taking 4-0 before kick off but couldn’t bring myself to do it. I also thought that in the 1st half Latics were the better side but that Jacobs miss & their goal killed us

Northern Soul on Latics Speyk thought Connolly had been fouled:

Outmuscled? I’d hardly calling getting elbowed in the face outmuscled. Since when is that anything other than a foul?

Piemon on Latics Speyk questioned the consistency of the refereeing:

Completely sour grapes from me here but …If Fellani commits two professional fouls and isn’t booked for either, and then Burn is booked for one similar foul . . . how was Fellaini still on the pitch to score the opener? At the end we just ran out of steam after a stonking first half performance

 Noel Wards Leg on Latics Speyk summed up by saying:

Lots of plus points aside from the result. For me the biggest was that we created chances – something we failed to do against very ordinary opposition until quite recently. The players are fitter and working hard.

Several players who did not look up to the task earlier in the season are now looking very, very good players. I thought Max Power looked our classiest player today but I’m just in awe of Perks for his ability to break up play and run all day at an age when others are retiring.

I liked Gary Caldwell and am grateful for what he did for us but even last season I was never overly convinced of his style of play. For me he erred too much on the side of patience and not enough on the side of urgency. Warren Joyce is beginning to have success at instructing players to look for the forward pass and to have players looking for space between the lines. It provides for more entertaining football I feel and we saw evidence of that today even against the richest club in the world.

I’m desperately hoping that we get a new striker in in the next couple of days but I would imagine that whoever it is will only be there providing support to Will Grigg and not necessarily improving the team.
yanictwitter

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A Derby County fan’s view of Jamie Hanson

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with , , ,

 

Wigan Athletic this week announced the signing of Jamie Hanson from Derby County on loan until the end the season. The 21 year old Hanson is 6 ft 3 in tall and played 5 times for the England under 20 team.

On signing Hanson, Warren Joyce commented that: “Jamie is an exciting prospect and Derby feel that his immediate development will be better served by coming on loan to us. He is versatile and can play in a number of positions in midfielder or in defence and we are delighted to have brought him to the club.”

James Hanson was born in Burton-on-Trent and has spent more than 10 years at Derby. He  had built up a reputation as a set piece specialist having scored from several direct free kicks at youth level. He made his first team debut in a holding midfield role in a 1-1 draw at Norwich in March 2015, scoring directly from a corner. He was named Player of the Season for the under 21 squad for 2014-15.

Hanson now has made 27 appearances for Derby, with 14 starts and 11 substitute appearances being in the Championship.

In order to learn more about Hanson we contacted the Ollie Wright at the @derbycountyblog.

Here’s over to Ollie:

First and foremost, he’s a defender or defensive midfielder, who wants to scrap and tackle. There’s no doubt over his effort and commitment levels, as his nickname ‘bruiser’ implies. The swelling band of ex-Rams at your place will be well aware of him, so hopefully he will have no problems fitting in.

 His willingness has led to his been used as a utility backup player at Derby, covering the holding role and both full back positions, but we were always told that he was being trained as a defensive midfielder and that is where he’s most comfortable.  A bonus is that he is possessed of a bit of a rocket shot and has scored some fairly impressive free kicks for Derby’s U23s in his time. 

 At this stage in his development, he’s pretty unspectacular on the ball – more the kind of player who wins the ball and shifts it than someone you would look at as a creative threat.  In his emergency duties as a full back, he very much stayed in his own half, which points to some technical   limitations.

 Supporters always love to see youngsters coming through the ranks, so his progress at Derby has been followed with interest and some indulgence.  Personally, I am not sure that he will make it with Derby long-term, but if he can establish himself in your team and learn from playing regular football at this level, then that might well give him the platform to kick on and prove me wrong. 

 

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An Everton fan’s view of Callum Connolly

Posted by JJ (Tony) in Fan Views and tagged with , ,

 

Callum Connolly made an instant impression on Wigan Athletic fans when he scored two headed goals to beat to beat Burton Albion on Saturday. The expertise with which Connolly leaped for those headers suggested he is a player the opposition will have to mark closely when Latics have set pieces. Connolly can play anywhere across the back four or in midfield. Last season he scored seven goals for Everton’s under 21 side.

The 19 year old comes from Litherland, five miles north of the Liverpool city centre. An Everton academy graduate, he has represented England at under 17, under 18, under 19 and under 20 levels. Roberto Martinez gave him his first team debut in mid-April 2016 when he came on as a substitute for Seamus Coleman after 60 minutes against Southampton. Prior to that he had been on a month’s loan at Barnsley where he made three starts in League 1.

Connolly has been signed on loan until the end of the season. His contract at Everton runs until the summer of 2019. On signing for Latics he commented that “I got the call up on Thursday morning, I shot down the motorway, had a couple of days of preparation with the lads and settled in well – the lads and gaffer have been great with me.The gaffer was at United last season and he has seen a lot of me in the last couple of seasons and liked me so I am just glad that I performed on my debut. I would like to think of myself as a versatile and hard-working player who just wants to do well for the team.”

In order to learn more about Connolly we contacted Lyndon Lloyd of Everton fan site Toffeeweb  (http://toffeeweb.com/).

Here’s over to Lyndon:

Regarding Connolly, only those who regularly watch the U23 games will know much about him because he’s only made that one first-team appearance to date. 

 He is certainly highly regarded in what is a very good crop of emerging youngsters at Everton, though, and he didn’t look out of place at all when he came on as a substitute early in the second half of our draw with Southampton last season.

 Everton were in the middle of a difficult period under Roberto Martinez so they weren’t the easiest circumstances in which to make your debut… although the way the senior side was playing, it was actually refreshing to see some young blood come in and put in a good shift!

 Though he’s primarily a defender or defensive midfielder, he does have an eye for goal (he scored a few for Everton U21s and U23s over the past couple of years) as he proved in his debut for you. Hopefully there’s more where that came from and he can prove really useful to Wigan between now and the end of the season.