If you did watch the Rugby League last night, you’ll know where the article’s picture has come from!
If ever you wanted it make it even harder for Wigan Athletic to rescue their season, you play a Rugby League game 24 hours after Wigan Athletic played.
Well ‘played’ is a misleading word for Wigan Athletic; they played for the first 15 minutes in another bad defeat to Charlton 3-0 at the DW.
So yes, a difficult task became even harder for forthcoming game against Cardiff City.
The TNS Office has been quiet up until Friday evening, well it usually is when we win, but it also meant we are seeing some good discussions & articles on the Web Site. Have a look you might be surprised at the balanced & sometime humorous look at our season so far.
Just to give you an example, have a listen to TNS’ ‘Jimmy’ on the ‘Football Flush podcast’ on everything that is Wigan Athletic, I enjoyed the ‘Sphere of Influence’ chat and so true on how to perceive hastag WAFC on Twitter.
It’s the 33rd game in the Sky Bet Championship. Wigan Athletic will be playing Cardiff City at the DW Stadium, match will played on Tuesday the 24th February with a kick off at 7:45pm.
League Position of course we are still in 23rd place, now on 25 points, Cardiff are in 17th place on 38 points and hoping 3 points against Wigan will appease their slight relegation worries. Top of the Championship are Derby on 62 points, after a cracking 3-2 win against Sheffield Wednesday.
Looking at recent form coming into this game, it’s not good reading for either team for their last 6 games, Wigan are also 23rd in the form table, with 4 points. Cardiff City are in 21st place also with 4 points, top of the form table are a surprising Leeds United with 15 points in their last 6 games, ironically only a few weeks ago in a relegation fight with Wigan:
- Wigan P 6 W 1 D 1 L 4 (Wins against Reading & a Draw against Ipswich)
- Cardiff P 6 W 0 D 4 L 2 (Draws against Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton, Cardiff & Huddersfield)
Previous Games between the 2, we covered this in the early season match preview, were Cardiff won 1-0, with Maynard getting the only goal in the game. In all we’ve played Cardiff 24 times, winning 10, drawing 9 and Cardiff winning just 5. Thanks again to Cockney Latic for keeping the stats up to date.
Referee from the Game will be Andy Woolmer, his assistants will be Mark Astley & Barry Cropp. The 4th official will be Kevin Wright.
We’ve seen Andy earlier this season at the DW, a September 2-1 defeat to Ipswich on Monday Night Football, with the Fish that is Conor Sammon getting the 2nd & decisive goal for Ipswich. Andy that night issued 2 Yellow Cards, both to Ipswich’s Mings & Berra.
As for Cardiff, Andy last saw them in November, a 3-1 victory over Leeds United, with Ecuele Managa, Macheda & Jones getting the goals, Andy booked 5 players that afternoon, with 2 from Cardiff going in the book in Ralls & Jones the scorer.
Team News for Wigan is a little grim with the 2 big injuries picked up against Charlton means we believe Malky may only have 14 fit players to choose from! Well now 15 with the signing of Jermaine Pennant, so we are expecting some Academy players to gain some first team experience. As for Leon Clarke who I hope is okay, the TNS office have not been able to find out how he’s progressing, so we are hoping ‘No News’ is good News.
How the Bookies see the game, well looking at William Hill we have Wigan winning at 5/4, Cardiff to win at 23/10 and a draw at 11/5. Wigan to win 1-0 is 11/2 & Cardiff to win 3-0 is 40/1, I know you’ll have probably worked out why I’ve picked this score. Daft bet, but then again…..you can get 50/1 for Cardiff to score those 3 goals in the 1st half & 35/1 for Wigan with the same bet, just to keep myself on the fence.
My thoughts on the game, well it’s now getting desperate, 9 points adrift with 14 to go, easy we need a win.
Something a little different, I’m going to start adding some Music to help emphasise the mood of Wigan Athletic, just a small part of the lyrics are relevant & they don’t take long to arrive! Those who know will easily pick them out; oh I don’t mean the lady moaning at the start as if it’s the back of the Cow Shed circa 1990’s.
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGuFn0RPgaE” width=”420″ height=”225″]
Andy
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