Night and Day, no not the infamous Oldham Street Manchester venue but the difference between the Wigan Athletic performance against Stockport and Sheffield Wednesday.
There was much trepidation heading over the Pennines after the previous Saturday but all of that was dispelled by arguably the best performance of the season.
Latics arrived at Hillsborough rock bottom of the league, with confidence both on and off the pitch shattered.
One step forward and three back, in true Wigan Athletic style.
Just as it seemed the season may be about to ignite after the impressive win over MK Dons Latics followed it up with a performance that never got going against the Hatters.
Three goals down within the first 30 minutes and as comprehensive a defeat as you could imagine.
So as Latics crossed the border many in Yorkshire could be forgiven for thinking that top of the league Sheffield Wednesday might be on for an equally impressive result.
But Latics pulled out a fantastic performance to ensure that a point returned to Lancashire, and a point really was the bare minimum of what we should have had.
As with every other performance this season from Barnsley to Cambridge, Leyton Orient to Wimbledon if we had taken the numerous chances we had created we would have won.
There’s only the Stockport match and the mad first half at Cambridge that we have looked out of place this season.
Every other match has felt like a win that slipped through our hands on account of not putting away our chances.
And our visit to the table topping Wednesday was no different, Latics nullified their attacking threat and that of play-maker Barry Bannan and once again created numerous chances. But once again didn’t take those chances when presented.
The glaring lack of a goalscorer becomes more evident with each passing week but there was some relief on that score ahead of kick-off as veteran Scott Hogan was announced on a short-term deal until January.
Depending on what side of the fence you sit on you will either see that as a pragmatic move for a club wanting to stay within the financial guardrails (whether self-inflicted or at league level) or a sad indictment of where we are as a football club these days.
Hogan has scored goals regularly over his career and moved for some huge money in the past decade, I can’t believe that a goalscorer of his pedigree wouldn’t have converted at least one of the chances we’ve created in the opening month of the season.
Indeed it looked written in the stars that he was going to score on his debut at Hillsborough before Wednesday’s keeper made a brilliant save.
But that wasn’t the best chance of the game, that fell to Reggie Walsh who somehow managed to miss an open goal midway through the second half.
It was the only slight sour note on an otherwise fantastic performance.
It does bode well that we are creating chances. But unless we start to convert them those chances will mean nothing.
I’m confident from what I’ve seen that we will start getting the goals our performances deserve and the results that should follow.
Managerless Wycombe present the next challenge on Saturday, if we can nullify their expensive new striker who Gary Caldwell should know all about we’ll have a great chance.
It’s time we follow up those performances with a win. Let’s hope Saturday starts that.
Sean Livesey
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