So to the FA Cup.
Over recent years this has been rather successful competition for Wigan Athletic, the last 2 seasons have seen Wigan win the Cup & last season lose in the Semi Final to Arsenal on Penalties. Arsenal of course then went on to beat Hull 2-0 in last year’s Final.
So you’d think with this pedigree going into the 3rd Round of the FA Cup 2014/15, we’d be looking forward to this match, especially against Wigan’s arch rival Bolton Wanderers.
Well we’re not, since that penalty shoot out that Carzorla slotted home, Wigan have played 32 games. We’ve won just 6 games, drawn 9 and lost a staggering 17 games, of course relegation form.
With this relegation form, we’ve changed our Manager (I bet Uwe hasn’t stopped laughing), a fantastic decision by Dave to bring in a person who’s more baggage than Victoria Beckham getting off a flight from LA.
Of course it’s had the expected result, 1 win in 7 & 5 defeats.
Hence the reason why most Wigan fans making the journey in to Horwich today will probably be looking forward to the match, but not the performance, attitude, tactics, formation, result, etc.
Of course this is the FA Cup 3rd Round, a Bastian in the football calendar, more shocks than you can shake a stick at. We shall see today but come 5pm, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wigan only has a relegation fight to concentrate on!
The other side of the M61, is the Macron Stadium, match today of course will be the FA Cup 3rd Round tie, it will kick off at 3pm on Saturday the 3rd January 2015.
Now the reason for such pessimism is one bloke and how he’s managed to turn a team around, and he doesn’t have any bags with him.
Neil Lennon was appointed the boss on the 12th October, with the opposition bottom of the Championship at the time. Less than 3 months later, Bolton is in 15th place, with the months of November & December, seeing Bolton, winning 5 out of 9 with just 1 defeat. I’ll not remind you of Wigan’s results since they appointed their Manager.
They also have a certain Bloke on their books that just sends shivers down my spine in what revenge may be bestowed on us today? Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey, could you imagine it! This bloke is a hero in my eyes for Wigan, that day against Sheffield United, striker come Defender, and he was like Bobby Moore that afternoon. You just know with the ‘Car Crash’ that is Wigan Athletic, Emile is going to get a Hat Trick. Well he did score against Blackburn!
Team news for today sees Bolton without Lee Chung-Young, who’s flown out to the Asia Cup and maybe Matt Mills who is suffering from a Knock.
Wigan will of course be without Grant Holt who is looking at 9 to 12 months out with Anterior Cruciate Ligament picked up at Huddersfield, also Callum McManaman whose Hong Kong Fu style tackle will see him on the sidelines for 3 games. Hopefully for Wigan Malky may bed in some youngsters in for this game, we can only hope.
You can tell with this match preview, I’m not feeling too positive. Probably because in the last 18 months, for whatever reason, Wigan’s image of a well run local club, fighting above its weight but whilst playing positive football has been destroyed.
It’s sad, but we now are a laughing stock, the FA Cup success is well forgotten, by a owner who’s since been banned for 6 weeks, we now have a bloke at the helm who couldn’t run a chippy, a Manager who’s admitted he’s sent Racist, Homophobic and Anti Semitic messages and is awaiting his fate & players who at the Sheffield Wednesday game, looked like they couldn’t give a shit about this club.
Andy
Don’t forget the Brick:
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