Well after that weekend, Déjà vu rules, a dour & somewhat dull 0-0 draw against Brentford on Saturday. It actually saw Wigan rise in the table, but the performance was something last seen in another dour game in Yorkshire vs Huddersfield.
You can imaging for TNS, after the RailingGate incident, the tedium of an England break, ‘THAT’ performance by Wigan & a dull Monday Morning in Wigan, there is not much joy in the TNS offices this morning as the staff ‘clock on’.
Steve’s asked if anyone wants to play Cluedo this morning to see if he can lighten the mood? It’s not gone down too well, with Bert saying he knows someone who he’d like to bludgeon to death in the Library, with the Lead Pipe & it’s not Colonel Mustard!
If you do want to read about the match, you can see Wildheart’s Match review here, it’s downbeat even for WH.
So to Tuesday night football, it’s the 13th game in the Sky Bet Championship, Wigan Athletic will be playing Millwall on the 21st October at the DW Stadium, kick off will be 7:45pm.
Going in to this game Wigan are 19th in the table with 11 pts, their last game as we’ve said a 0-0 draw at Home to Brentford.
Millwall are one place above Wigan in the table with 13 pts, their last game a 3-3 drawing against Wolves. Which saw a cracking come back from The Lions, who were 3-0 down with 23 minutes to go and brought it back to 3-3 with goals from Gregory & Fuller. #persistence
Top of the Championship are Watford with 24 pts.
Looking at recent form coming into this game, it’s not good reading for either team, the last 6 games, Wigan are 23rd & Millwall 24th in the form table:
- Wigan P 6 W 0 D 4 L 2 (Draws with Huddersfield, Forest, Wolves & Brentford)
- Millwall P 6 W 0 D 3 L 3 (Draws with Forest, Derby & Wolves)
It looks like a draw doesn’t it, Wigan have in fact not won in 7, their last victory against Birmingham in August & they’ve drawn the last 3. Millwall are similar in that they too haven’t won in 7, their last victory against Blackpool against at the end of August, they’ve drawn their last 2. Between them its 14 games without a win, that’s 1,260 minutes of football without a win, surely something has to break?
Previous games between the 2 teams have seen 25 games, 22 in the League and 3 in Cup Competitions. The league history saw both teams in the Championship last season, with Millwall winning both games, a 2-1 win at the DW in December, then a 1-0 win at The Den in April.
Prior to that Wigan had played Millwall from 1982 through to 2005, in Divisions 1, 2 & 3, overall in the league Wigan have won just 5 games, Millwall 10 & there’s been 7 draws.
It’s the 3 Cup games that are very interesting & has some surprising History many may not realise. Of course the last Cup game between these 2 was the FA Cup Semi Final at Wembley in April 2013, Wigan winning 2-0 with goals from Maloney & McManaman, they then went on to win the Cup beating Man City 1-0.
Before this Wigan had previously beaten Millwall at Wembley in April 1999, at the Auto Windscreen Shield Final, with Paul Rogers getting the only goal.
It’s the first ever meeting between the 2 teams; many will think it was in the Old 3rd Division in 1982, it was actually many years before that. 47 years in fact, Wigan played Millwall in the FA Cup 3rd round on the 12th January 1935. It was Wigan’s 2nd Season in existence as a Football club; they were playing in the Cheshire County League. Millwall at the time were a 2nd Division team.
Millwall of course won the game 4-1; they lost later that month to Reading in the 4th Round, with Sheffield Wednesday eventually winning the FA Cup in May against West Brom 4-2.
Bet you also didn’t know, the last game of that 1934/35 Season, Millwall’s survival was ‘in their own hands’. A game on the 5th May 1935 at the Den, only a draw was needed to stay in the 2nd Division & ensure their opposition that day were relegation to the 3rd Division North. Unfortunately they lost the game 2-0 and were relegated themselves; the team that stayed up that day were ‘Manchester United’. #ifonly
Sorry I digress, so of the 25 games between Wigan & Millwall, Wigan has won 7, Millwall 11, with 7 draws. Thanks to Cockney Latic for the Head to Head info.
Referee for the game will be Eddie Ilderton; his assistants will be Paul Kettlewell & Jason Whiteley, with the 4th Bloke being Danny Gratton. Looking at Eddie’s Ref Stats, he’s been a ref for 13 seasons, his last game for Wigan was a Carling Cup tie in August 2007, Wigan lost 1-0 to Hull & he dished out 3 Yellow Cards. For Millwall Eddie officiated their 1-0 win over Ipswich Town on the 18th Jan last season & he also dished out 3 Yellow Cards.
Team News for Wigan will be the ongoing saga that is Watson & McCann and when they’ll return to the Squad? As for Ian Holloway’s Millwall, only change he’ll need to look at is to his defence to accommodate Shaun William’s straight sending off late on against Wolves.
The bookies for this Tuesday’s game are very even, well you’d expect them to be, William Hill has 23/10 for the draw and 17/2 for a 0-0 draw. Overall 39% see a Home Win, 33% see Millwall going home with 3 pts & 28% do see the draw.
As for me and my thoughts on this game, I’ll accept anything; just want to be proud again of Wigan Athletic and that is so hard to do after the game this weekend.
COME ON WIGAN
Andy
Also please remember & Support Millwall who on Remembrance weekend will be wearing a Comouflage kit in support of injured servicemen & women for the Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre:
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09SLmon4flM#t=87″ title=”Camouflage” ratio=”4:3″ color=”white”]
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