Skewed Shrews

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I pride myself on being a fair minded, unbiased correspondent. Alternatively, if I am going to put forward a biased opinion, I tend to put a disclaimer in at the time.

I have in the past referred to a situation where each group of supporters watching the same game often has a different lens on the same game and it certainly felt like that on Boxing Day.

The internet supporters of Shrewsbury spewed forth venom towards us post-match in perhaps what has been a stock response to those seeking to pour cold water over their unlikely rise to the top.

I personally felt that the Shrews came with a game plan, and note the use of the word personally carefully added to denote an opinion not necessarily a fact!)

The gameplan involved kicking our better players, defending to the hilt, timewasting, surrounding the ref, play acting, cynical after the ball digs and generally spoiling any attempts the home side had in trying to get a football match started.

I believe the phrase I’m looking for to describe our visitors is a colloquial term more commonly used to describe a collection of outside toilets. This opinion was more or less backed up by esteemed local journalists, Kendrick and Farrimond. Hey, maybe they’re biased too!

There’s no harm in playing that way if you’re of limited means. I’d just like them to admit it, indeed their manager more or less admitted that they had come to stop us play.

Getting their fans to admit it was a totally different story and I had two days of phone bleeping accusing my lovely Wigan Athletic of being a team of divers and a dirty side, backed up by fair play league tables and all sorts of meaningless gubbins I simply couldn’t be bothered to read.

What they couldn’t seem to get their heads around was that my opinion was based on the game itself. Maybe they aren’t a dirty team generally, but they adopted certain tactics on this particularly day designed to disrupt and stifle us in order to collect the precious points that they so wildly celebrated at the end.

That’s my opinion based on what I saw and I’m not going to change it. Morsy getting continually kicked by their captain; Shrewsbury’s number 9 continually running 30 yards to kick and provoke Nick Powell; Their ‘keeper painfully time wasting from as early as the 12th minute. These things happened, we all saw them.

And it’s fine, but a bit of honesty from their side would be nice. Instead all we got was fair play tables which are, to be honest, quite compelling evidence – but for the season not from the game on Tuesday, in which a stronger ref would have been posting a lot more Christmas cards in the direction of Shropshire.

The other comment from Shrewsbury fans was continual gloating about how they were a better side and we were bitter because they have taken 4 points off us and we hadn’t scored against them.

Fair enough but unless the league rules have recently changed, I’d say it’s a bit more important to collectively take more points off the other 22 teams in the league than the one at the top of the table.

I’ve previously had lots of praise for Shrewsbury but the victim mentality of their fans has left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth, in much the same way as Peterborough earlier this year.

Yet maybe just maybe, when I apply a different lens, we’re just bad losers (or drawers!). Maybe that’s not a bad thing if we can bounce straight back with a home win against Charlton on Friday night. Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser and all that!

It would have been nice to put our closest contenders to the sword and put them in their place but they came and did a job on us and the fallout from it has done nothing but set us up for a spicy second half of the season.

Article first published in the Wigan Evening Post’s 12th Man column on Friday 29th December 2017

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12 Comments

  1. Two Wigan players probably earn more a week then the Shrewsbury starting XI.

    It’s a joke to even begin to discuss if they could be on the same level in terms of playing staff and ability, what do you expect.

    Give your head a wobble.

  2. ??????? I have never in my life heard so much shit spewed out in one article. The biggest barrel of shite I’ve ever seen. Nick Powell was falling on the floor as often as he could lee Evans was an absolute embarrassment going to the ref and crying because a player went within 10 yards. We came there fully expecting to be under pressure and adapted accordingly like all GOOD teams would.
    So take your sour grapes, shite review and your half empty plastic fan stadium and shove it straight up your arse

    Ps thanks for the 4 points and the two clean sheets
    Lots of love shrewsbury fans

  3. I like a good laugh. Thanks for helping! Funniest thing I’ve read since witnessing the sour grapes from the Wigan fans after the match. It’s not all about beating you of course. Your 5 point lead doesn’t look so big after tonight though does it?

  4. Shrewsbury fan here! And come in peace! Unfortunately in football, your going to get these kind of reactions. Theres definetly biased opinions from both camps. From our (and many teams in this division) to get 4 points and no goals conceeded to a team whom are favourites for the title, your bound to get slightly carried away. Dont forget, we were favourites for relegation during pre season. We’re simply are enjoying the ride atm. Each point is a step closer to safety from our view! We know the second half of the season is going to be as tough as the first was. Who knows what will happen? Anything more than safety is a bonus. Enjoy and good luck for the rest of the season.

  5. Not sure the correspondent was at the match or if he was had the two teams mixed up, particularly with reference to para 5

  6. Some #wafc seem to get confused. On the one hand they enjoy being the big team in the league, but act shocked and appalled when smaller sides beat them or draw. You cant gloat on the former if you cannot handle the later.

  7. Do you fill your pies with bullshit? Whoever wrote this stirred the shit into their own pie before eating it and spewing it on that drivel of an article. Never seen anything so bitter ever, even Walsall or Wrexham fans wouldn’t go this far. We beat you fair and square at home and certainly earned a good point by defending well, keeping shape and try playing a counter attack game. We got into good positions but the final ball just didn’t happen. Who ever wrote this needs to buy a new dummy from boots as your old one has too much bitter drivel on it.

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