So to the Watford match, the Wigan TNS office is busy again, the Press ‘Love Hate’ relationship is currently in the ‘Love’ phase, as we’ve start a Bandwagon of our own.
The other Bandwagon has slowly squeaked off into the sunset, this new one is all about money.
The reason it’s busy is with Alan writing a cracking article on Away Ticket prices with the mantra of Zammo’s ‘JUST SAY NO’, due to Leeds United (Yes they’re in Yorkshire) charging £41 for the Boxing Day match.
It’s been backed up with ‘An Open Letter‘ to Wigan Athletic yesterday. So far TNS is waiting for a response from the club with the FSF, BBC & the Guardian (yes them again); working with TNS on what the response is from Wigan Athletic.
As you can imagine it’s made the office somewhat frantic with Steve, Martin & Peter having to bring back a job lot of hand held fans from Pound World to help cool the TNS Servers. Jimmy’s been concentrating on his 50 up Mudhutter but has been trying to find some buckets. Moonay has been practicing Oratory skills ready for the Town Square; Bert & the Wolf have been quietly shaking their heads, though Bert has started to make a Massimo Cellino voodoo doll.
So to the match, I often digress.
It’s the 21st game in the Sky Bet Championship. Wigan Athletic will be playing Watford at Vicarage Road, kick off will be 3pm on Saturday the 13th of December.
Wigan is still in 23rd place in the table with 17 pts, and though I dare to say are 3 points away from safety, Watford are in 6th place with 32 pts, Derby County are top with 38 pts.
Last game out saw Wigan take another defeat at the DW, with 0-1 against Norwich City, who typically hadn’t won in ages. Watford bucked their recent run of poor form with a Friday night 5-0 drubbing of Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Form going into the game, other than the recent game against Fulham, shows 2 teams with poor form in their last 6, with Wigan in 23rd and Watford 18th in the Form Table:
- Wigan P 6 W 0 D 2 L 4 (Draws with Fulham & Middlesbrough)
- Watford P 6 W 2 D 0 L 4 (Wins with Millwall & Fulham)
Previous Games between the 2 have seen 14 games in total, 10 in the league & 4 in Cup Competitions. Last season’s League games saw Home wins in September & March, and the previous 8 League games had seen 5 games on the spin ending in draws. Overall in the 10 League games it’s Wigan with 3 wins, Watford with 2 and 5 draws.
The matches in the Cup have seen 2 wins each in the 4 games, with a 3rd Round FA Cup tie in January 1990 and a Worthington Cup 2nd Round 1st Leg in 1999, won by Watford. Wigan winning the return leg a week later and a Carling Cup 3rd Round tie in October 2005.
Overall in the 14 games, Wigan has won 5, Watford 4, with 5 draws. Thanks to Cockney Latic for the previous matches info.
Referee from the Game will be Mark Haywood, with Assistant Referees in Adrian Sannerude & Lee Venamore and the 4th official in Patrick Miller.
Mark’s last game looking after Wigan, was a 1-0 defeat to Blackpool in October 2013, Tom Ince scored a penalty and James McClean was sent off in the 90th minute, Mark also issued a solitary Yellow Card with James’ Red.
For Watford his last match in February this year saw them beat Birmingham City 1-0, with Troy Deeney getting the winner, Mark dished out 2 yellow cards that day.
Team News, for Watford’s Slavisa Jokanovic didn’t pick up any injuries from the Fulham game and will have had an extra days rest with playing Friday. For Malky, it will just be looking at Maloney who was subbed early in the Norwich game for Cowie, whether it was a knock or Shaun just playing shit, we’ll see this weekend?
The Bookies see this game as a Home win, with 56% believing Watford will collect 3 easy points, 24% see this game a draw and amazingly 20% see Wigan throwing 3 points into the boot of the Coach and making their way back up the M6.
Some interesting stats from the bookies in that Wigan have lost 14 of their last 20 Away games and Watford have won 11 of their 20 Home games. As for odds, William Hill has 23/20 for the Home win, 23/10 for the draw and 12/5 for the Away win.
My thoughts on the game, I do wonder if what Malky is trying to do is what Steve Bruce did all those years ago when he took over a very poor Wigan. In building from the back and sorting the defence out first. Well Jimmy will be asking Malky that question today in a ‘Meet the Manager’ session. As for the game, anything really a defeat with a better team effort than that shown against Norwich will be a start.
Andy
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