Point gained, two lost?

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A point gained, two lost? It’s a well-worn path travelled by this Wigan Athletic side this season.

If our problem last season was scoring goals it’s moved on to hanging on to leads this season.

Twice in the past week we’ve been ahead and unable to capitalise on our leads, in the case of Stoke what could have been a decent point turned in to the least surprising defeat of the season.

The only surprise was that a certain Nick Powell didn’t get the winner against his old side.

Tuesday was a different prospect and at least offered some tangible progress and a bit of food for thought, Anthony Pilkington’s cracker of a goal early in the match set Latics on their way before poor defending allowed Millwall back in to it.

Despite this Paul Cook’s side still did all the running – it was a very different proposition from what we’ve seen in recent weeks but Latics could and should have been two or three goals ahead before half-time.

As it was that second goal came early in the second half as the ever impressive Antonee Robinson created an opening to tuck away his first goal for Wigan Athletic.

Instead of going on and getting a third goal Latics once again shut off from a corner to allow Millwall to draw level.

In the end a point was probably a fair result and if we weren’t coming off the back of a run of three straight defeats which had propelled us close to the relegation zone it would have been a decent point.

Unfortunately our form over the last month and if we’re being truthful for most of the season means that points simply aren’t enough.

We once again failed to win away from home in two crucial matches and we once again failed to hold on when we were ahead in two matches.

So to Paul Cook and his future, a fair proportion of our supporter base would have expected the gaffer to have been shown the door after the Stoke match but that is ignoring the fact that the owners and board have consistently backed their man and that doesn’t seem like changing any time soon.

I sit across both camps – I can understand those who want to see a change, but question just who exactly would come in who would be better placed than Paul Cook to get more out of this set of players.

I also recognise that the players are seemingly still playing for their manager, and that is a huge thing. Once players down tools it’s easy to spot but that doesn’t seem the case.

Cook seems a man under pressure, whether that be from above or self-inflicted who knows? But a decent run of results is needed from somewhere.

The next two matches against Reading and Luton need a minimum of six points ahead of the home match with West Brom next month.

Otherwise we could well be spending the festive period rooted to the bottom three of the division.

There were glimpses, both against Stoke and Millwall of something better. The key now is making sure those tangible bits of progress actually result in – well results.

Sean Livesey

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