After previous pre season visits to Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands , this year along with my son and a friend we decided to follow the Latics to Austria.
First issue was getting there, flights are very expensive and the only reasonable priced flight was from Stansted into Linz, the next problem being where the hec were Wigan playing in relation to Linz?
This appeared to be shrouded in mystery and various texts, tweets and e-mails all returned with the advice to check the official site which at this point didn’t actually tell us any venues. We finally believed that the first game was to be played in Nicklehoff but something was lost in the translation as there isn’t anywhere in Austria called Nicklehoff ( there is a place called Micheldorf however!)and we eventually were texted from England with the correct venue for the first game which is some two hours drive from our hotel. We decided not to leave it to chance and drove there through breath- taking scenery on Monday to find the ground surrounded by mountains, a far cry from the D.W.
On arriving at the ground on match day you can imagine our surprise when we were greeted by Roberto who sat and chatted with us for half an hour or so about his plans for Wigan. What a fantastic guy and his vision was infectious. We were the only three Wigan fans there and were made to feel welcome both by WAFC and the locals.
All the players were warming up and expected to play except McArthur who had a knock in two different teams per half . As it turned out Boselli came on for Di Santo during the first half and Nicolls played for the full match.
Boselli scored the first goal for Wigan late on in the first half chesting home a Beausejour cross. The players who caught the eye in the first half were Caldwell, Dicko, Nicholls and Boselli.
Ten changes at half time saw the team continue in a 3-4-3 formation and Wigan continued to dominate with Crusat, Redmond and especially Moses who scored the second goal and McManaman rounding off a 3-1 victory, looking good.
In conclusion it was a great workout in the sunshine in Austria and I’m looking forward to the second game when the bar the locals have put on for us closes.
Brian talking to Wildheart
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