Sunday 5/5/13
8 am
Get up and walk the dogs . Now have two dogs as daughter is staying with us for a while with her English Bulldog and I already have an Irish setter. As they don’t get on , think Baggies and Wolves fans after that banner going round the ground yesterday ( can you imagine the furore if we did that when Horwich went down yesterday) I have to walk them separately.
Quite a few Latics fans also up and abut in the leafy suburb that is Beech Hill, lots of knowing smiles, nods and the traditional Wigan greeting of “t’reet”. Everyone seems to have an extra spring in their step.
Walk past Galloways on Gidlow Lane, shop bedecked in blue and white, I wonder if a certain Wigan chippy infamous for its good luck Gillingham poster all those years ago will put up some Latics stuff, somehow I doubt it.
Mood…………………….happy stress levels 10% ( due to carrying nappy sacks full of dog poo)
9am
Check sky text for scores and tables from Saturday as I was banned from watching sport on Saturday night on grounds I had been to the game so I had seen enough ( Stoke wife so just like Tony Pulis she knows nothing about football ).
Relieved to find that yes we did win and that it wasn’t a Bobby Ewing in the shower moment where I find out it was all a dream. Thankfully it wasn’t and yesterdays magnificent win keeps us in the mix.
Look at league table and work out goal differences, we are one better than Newcastle and the same as Norwich. Sunderland have a far better GD than us but if they lose to Stoke and we beat Swansea we are above them on points. Find myself wishing for a Stoke win, an aspiration which is as rare as seeing a fish riding a bicycle.
Mood……………………..cautiously optimistic stress levels zero
10am
Go to Church ( yes really), they used to say the Church of England was the conservative party at prayer, let me tell you in Wigan it is overwhelmingly Latics . Chat with many blue nad whites after the service. One tells me Budweiser are using them in their half time commercial on cup final day and another tells me that because of the change in kick off his brother will miss the final because he cannot get his flight for his holiday in time. He’s watched Latics for 50 years which is a bit of a bummer. Leave Church and go home to do match report.
Mood…………………hungry ( need a bacon barm ) stress levels 10% ( match report to do)
12pm
Start match report, I try and do them from memory to get the fans feel of the game. I don’t make notes at the game and stay away from football first or MOTD as I think it makes them too clinical for a fan site Like doing the match reports and grateful to TNS for letting me do them. Player ratings are always difficult as they’re very subjective and I have had some stick for some of my scores. I was actually criticised for marking players too high for the Spurs game !
What was easy to do was give Maloney the man of the match, his performances the second half of the season have been key to our revival. We’ve lacked a Valencia, Moses type player to give the team that little bit of flair to unlock the opposition defences but Shaun is providing that and fingers crossed he stays fit until the end of the season.
Match report posted , bacon in frying fan
Mood ……………….satisfied stress levels zero
1pm
Watch football first recorded from Saturday, we look good going forwards but ropey at the back, Impressed though with Watson’s performance out of position but Stam had a mare and with Golobart not looking ready for football at this level , Caldwell struggling with injury and Beausejour seemingly joining Ramis and Figueroa in being out for the season I am worried as to who will partner Boyce and Scharner in our defensive backline will be for the next few game. Remember Espinoza has played in defence for Honduras and assume he will fill in on the left but no idea if Stam will retain his place or whether we will bring in Lopez or some other combination I haven’t thought of.
Mood…………………….concerned stress levels 30/% and rising
4pm
Pop on Twitter so see what everyone is saying. Resist the temptation to bite re re-tweets from fans of big city clubs saying we don’t deserve to be in the premier league cos we have shit fans. What balderdash, out fans aren’t shit, they’re fantastic living in a small catchment area with so many big city club fans in town our crowds are amazing. Sure we would like to fill our ground but short of knitting new fans what more else can we do. Not one of our fans is shit, they’re all part of the Latics family and we stick together even if we disagree re tactics, formations etc.
Mood ………………….angry stress levels stable at 30%
7pm
Scroll round the sites, end up on BBC site, over a hundred responses to their match article, the majority from embittered Newcastle fans bemoaning the fact that McManaman is scoring goals and that our winner against them involved a hand ball and it might send them down. As usual fans of this big city club ignore their own failings, Tiote not being sent off against Liverpool for a stamp and Figgy’s sending off up there which was very harsh were of course not considered. Gratified to see we were defended by of all people a Manchester United fan who stated that on our day we play the best football in the P.L. and he would be sad to see us drop out of the league.
Mood ……………………….still angry stress levels stable at 30%
11pm
After doing the dads taxi bit for both kids ( does this ever stop ?) check texts before toddling off to bed. A few Latics texts all still buzzing about yesterday but all realistic enough to know that we need a win on Tuesday.
Mood…………………………..quietly confident stress levels 10%
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