a goal (and maybe some points).
Just opened Day 16 on my Wigan Athletic advent calendar. Empty again! No points, no shots, no goals. Maybe, just maybe, behind tomorrow’s window there might be a small festive crumb of comfort hiding inside, and I don’t mean a mouldy mince pie.
There were enough glimmers of hope during the Newcastle game to suggest that if we can play that way in the next few games then the points and goals will start to flow.
We have to hope and pray that is the case as we have gone nearly three months without even scoring a goal at home. Still, look at our cheap season tickets eh? At least we get the plaudits in the Price of Football review every year as reward for sitting through all those games were we get nilled at home.
I was talking to a mate of mine, who’s not really a Latics fan, who has started going with his son, only for his son to turn around and say to him now that he doesn’t want to go watching them anymore. The thing is, they’ve been getting free tickets!
There has definitely been a negative vibe around the place over the past few weeks due to the upheaval. I am sure I will be accused of contributing to it by making statements like that but the crowd and players have been subdued, uninspired by uninspiring football. We’ve had a pretty low base to start with this season and it seems to be getting worse.
I am struggling to buy the notion that things have improved so far under Warren Joyce and it seems somewhat perverse that the only fans who seem deliriously happy so far are the same ones who were so critical of Caldwell on a daily basis. For me, we have gone perhaps 20-30% backwards and that can easily be measured by points tally, goals or chances created (I’ll refrain from mentioning possession!)
Yet there were signs of promise on Wednesday night, as we played with a centre forward, actually managed to attack Newcastle for a few short spells and were very unlucky not to get a gaol…goil….goul…..GOAL, sorry, forgot how to spell it there when the ball flashed across the box a couple of times.
And God bless ES2 who were roused from their slumber to give the team some great vocal support in the second half in the face of 4,500 bare chested, suitably refreshed Geordies in the away end.
That’s all we ask for as fans, signs of promise and watching our own team actually on the ball, preferably in the opposition’s half. Give us something to cheer about and we’ll get behind you in spades. And with a handful of winnable games coming up, there is no better time like the present.
The world could look a whole lot rosier in ten days’ time should we continue to perform like we did in spells against Newcastle. We need to get this monkey off our back the next two games and maybe only then can we start to take a peek at the league table once more.
Article first published in the Wigan Evening Post’s 12th Man column on Friday 16th December 2016
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