We had some tough discussions in the TNS Office in the past 48 hours. Unless you’ve been living under a rock in Wigan, you’ll realise no matter what ‘Sound bite’ comes out of Wigan Athletic, Football has been placed on the back foot, in the preference to Business Asset Management.
Well that is what I’ve concluded after yet another defeat to Bournemouth, meant Malky saw his 9th defeat in 13 Games, with the solitary win back in December.
Okay the last match was against top of the table, but so too for Uwe, he had to play teams at the top of the table, he instead came out with 8 defeats in 18, with 7 draws and 3 wins, 1 of these against top of the Table Derby, AWAY.
So if Uwe can be sacked for that performance, off the back of a FA Cup Semi Final & a Play Off place the previous season, its obvious Wigan’s direction under Malky surely can’t be based on Football results.
So there you go, apparently we are all supporting a team, were the club believe football is 2nd and Asset Stripping and Bottom Line Financial analysis is more important.
Okay sitting on my pragmatic fence, I can see the need to balance the books, we’ve done it well whilst other around us have imploded, Horwich Wanderers being a prime example.
But it does seem as if this financial Management is for life in League 1 before we’ve even landed there. Or for the club to be handed over ready to be sold because looking at the players we’ve bought and who they’ve replaced, I think we’ve quickly seen through the Chemistry excuse. No disrespect to the players we’ve seen coming in, but I bet the financial statement in February and Salary run is much better than the one we had in December.
So it’s the 30th game in the Sky Bet Championship. Wigan Athletic will be playing Nottingham Forest at the City Ground; apparently their Web Site today says if you use Colgate you’ll have a Brighter Whiter Smile. Anyway the match will be played on Wednesday the 11th February, with a 7:45pm Kick off.
Current League positions, well a little like a scratched record for Wigan, 23rd, with just 22 points, Forest are in 12th with 37 points. Of course because they beat Wigan last time out, Bournemouth sits on top of the Championship, with 57 points.
Looking at recent form coming into this game, neither team are setting the last 6 form table alight, in fact with Wigan they are in the same place as the league table in 23rd place, with just 2 points from their last 6. Forest are a little better with 2 wins in the equivalent matches, means they sit 18th in the Form table.
- Wigan P 6 W 0 D 2 L 4 (Draws against Blackburn & Ipswich)
- Forest P 6 W 2 D 0 L 4 (Wins against Derby & Brighton)
Previous Games between Wigan & Forest; we covered what is a small history in September’s Match Preview, a game that just over 14,000 saw the game end goalless. This meant of the 8 games, Wigan have won 4, Forest 1 and 3 draws, thank to Cockney Latic for the head to head info.
Referee from the Game will be Oliver Langford; linesman will be Mark Howes and Tom Nield. The 4th official will be Kevin Wright.
Looks like Oliver last looked after a Wigan game back in December when he didn’t issue a single card; Norwich won that game 1-0 with an early goal from Howson.
For Forest it was October last year, in a game at the City Ground they lost 3-1 to Blackburn, with Oliver issuing 2 yellow cards to Williamson & Evans.
Squad news for Wigan has seen them take another player on loan in Hull’s Defender Harry Maguire. As for team news they’ll be without Emyr for the rest of the season after a Training Ground injury, Liam Ridgewell will also be playing his last game before returning back to the States. Chris Herd took a knock at the end of the Bournemouth game, and Malky will see if ‘The Perch’ is ready for a return to the 11.
Dougie Freedman, yes him, will be looking for back to back wins, after the 3-2 win over Brighton. Looking at his team news, it’s rather positive, with Michael Mancienne the only player not available to Dougie after Danny Collins and Chris Burke returned to training after knocks picked up in the Brighton game.
How the Bookies see the game, well actually they may have given Wigan a chance, 42% believe it’ll be a home win, but 31% believe it’ll be an away win & 27% see this game as a draw.
William Hill today are giving the following odds, 11/10 for a Forest win, 13/5 for Wigan to win and 23/10 for the draw. Other bets are 17/2 for Wigan to win 1-0, Forest are 13/2 for their own 1-0 win & for that foolish bet 75/1 odds can be found for Wigan to win 2-1 and Billy to get the 1st goal.
My thoughts on the game, well this could be a strange game for the Wigan fans as the Fat Lady who’s been warbling in the background for Wigan, may be in a full Aria before the game kicks off.
All the teams above Wigan play Tuesday evening, so worse case scenario could see Brighton beating Cardiff and Wigan 10 points from safety. Then again the way the fixtures play out with FA Cup ties, it sees Wigan play 3 times with Brighton playing the once. So 3 wins against Forest, Reading & then Charlton (I know delusion), could see Wigan on 31 points and 21st, if Brighton then can’t get a win against both Cardiff or Sheffield Wednesday.
I can only be positive can’t I, it’s Wigan Athletic I support, not its Bank Account at Barclays Bank is it!
Andy
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PIE AT NIGHT PODCAST
We promise you that it’s easier to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t have to rely on us to remind you when a new episode comes out.
Apple sorts can find it on iTunes here – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-pie-at-night-podcast/id1097853442?mt=2
If you prefer a different podcast app then just search for “The Pie at Night Podcast”.
You can also find us on Stitcher, here – http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-pie-at-night-pocast/the-pie-at-night-podcast
If you’re that way out, you can find and subscribe to our RSS feed here – http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepieatnight
And if you just want to take pot luck then you can find all our episodes on our Soundcloud page
