24^th August 2012

The BBC this evening was responding to many viewers complaining about the after match report on their UEFA Super Cup MOTD special.

The match was between Barcelona who in May beat Real Madrid to win their 5^th Champions League & Manchester United who in May also beat Valencia to win the Europa League for the 1^st time.

The game was played at the Stade Louis II stadium in Monaco.  It finished 5-0 with Barcelona taking their 5^th Super Cup, drawing level with AC Milan in Super Cup wins.

The match though will be remembered for Björn Kuipers decision to send Wayne Rooney off in the 39^th minute for what seemed an innocuous clash with Daniel Alves in the centre circle.   The match was then poised at 1-0 to Barcelona with Xavi scoring in the 8^th minute & Manchester United having dealt with early pressure from Barcelona.  Kuipers even though 35 yards from the incident indicated that Rooney had used an elbow on Alves, when replays showed it was just a coming together.

After this Manchester United down to 10 men capitulated, conceding another 4 goals.  Pedro scored an 18 yard screamer in the 75^th minute and Lionel Messi grabbing a Hatrick, one a penalty in 78^th minute where again Kuipers provided another strange decision.  Iniesta with the ball moving towards the penalty area, was deemed to be fouled by Ferdinand, even though Ferdinand never ventured into the Penalty area.

The reasons for the complaints, repeated many times by those who registered their dissatisfaction, was the flippant nature in which the MOTD panel of Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer & Mark Lawrenson treated Manchester United chances of winning their 2^nd Super Cup.  At one point Mark Lawrenson almost giggling when reviewing the Rooney Sending off, with Lawrenson saying “the Sending off had no bearing on the game as Barcelona were always going to win”.  Shearer repeating the same theme as Lawrenson highlighting that “Manchester United had no chance in beating Barcelona due to the previous results between the two teams”.

Mark Thompson the Director General of the BBC, said a meeting had been organised between himself & the MOTD team.  This was to see how the MOTD team could in future to ensure their post match reviews don’t come across as blatant bias towards certain favoured teams.

Andy

P.S. this is a vision into the future of what could happen if the current MOTD team continue to report like they do for the BBC in the Premier League.  Imagine if the boot was on the other foot, how many complaints there would be if the above story was true. Well now you know how it feels to be a Wigan Athletic fan on a Saturday evening Gary, Alan & Mark……….

Wigan slumped to their fifth successive Premier League defeat (6 in all matches) in probably the most tame derby seen in the past seven seasons against a Bolton side seeking its first win in seven league games.

Martinez opted to rotate the squad bringing in Alcaraz, Jones and Gohuri with Van Aanholt Figueroa and Stam making way.

Any fans who were at the last home game against Tottenham must have experienced a sense of déjà vu as the home side for the second home game gave away a terrible goal within the first five minutes.

This time it was the returning Alcaraz who brought the ball to the half way line but lingered too long on the ball allowing Pratley to pinch the ball exposing Wigan’s remaining defenders with a long pass to Chris Eagles on the right who flew pass the static Gohuri crossing for Reo-Coker who was given time chest the ball past Caldwell and Al Habsi into the net.

Within five minutes it could have been two, Wigan who all afternoon allowed the Bolton midfield especially Petrov and Eagles far too much space saw ther latter flash a shot at the Wigan goal with Al Habsi producing a fine save.

Wigan were awful, their back four looked disjointed with only Boyce who tried to make the overlap to support Moses’ attacking prowess looking anything like a Premier League defender . The midfield five had McCarthy who is a shadow of the player from the first half of last season playing in the unfamiliar position of the left wing created little and defended poorly this exposing the porous defence. Moses ran his socks off and tried to feed the ball to Di Santo who tried to inject a spark into a moribund first half performance but Wheater and Cahill closed him down and with the big Argentinean having little support when in possession Wigan didn’t look like scoring.

For Bolton, Davies was his usual thorn in the Wigan defence and only a good save from Al Habsi and a diving block from Caldwell stopped the scoreline being worse.

The home fans were getting restless and just as the grumbles of discontent were rising, Mohammed Diame produced a wonder shot to equalise. A clearance from the Bolton defence found the Wigan midfielder on the edge of the penalty area and his powerful shot left Jaaskelainen grasping at thin air and Wigan were level.

As the game was meandering towards the half time break the ball found Gohuri on the left hand side of the penalty area, with literally seconds to go, instead of booting the ball far upfield, he tried to play it out was easily dispossessed by the predatory Davies who crossed to N’Gog who had time to control the ball before firing past Al Habsi and Wigan were behind again.

Martinez opted to change things around at half time, replacing the underperforming Gohuri and Watson with Rodallega and Figueroa and immediately Wigan looked more balanced and dangerous going forwards.

Moses was giving Robinson a torrid time and with Rodallega giving Wigan width on the right , Di Santo found more room in the middle and it only seemed a matter of time before Wigan secured an equaliser.

It didn’t happen however and Bolton gradually came back into the game. and Boyata must be wondering how he didn’t extend the lead. A corner wasn’t cleared and the ball was fired back in and a diving header from Boyata fizzed past the far post with the Wigan defence stranded.

Shortly after Bolton had another chance when Eagles turned and shot, the ball went through Al Habsi’s legs and trickled past both Caldwell and the far post.
Minutes later Bolton had another chance when Caldwell earned a booking for an alleged push in the penalty area. Davies stepped up to take the penalty but Al Habsi guessed the direction of his old team mate’s penalty and saved well.

Wigan pushed on looking for an equaliser but Jaaskelainen wasn’t troubled other than one shot from Moses which went just past the post.

As Wigan pushed forwarded looking for an equaliser, Bolton looked to counter, one more broke down but Alcaraz took too long on the ball and was robbed by Eagles who then strode past three Wigan defenders , none of whom attempted a tackle and slotted the ball past the Wigan keeper to seal the victory and condemn Wigan to another defeat.

The full time whistle brought a muted chorus of boos, muted because a sizable chunk of the home support had already left and many more performances like today’s with too many players seemingly content to pick up their losing pay without busting a gut for their team will see the team remain in the bottom three. Only Moses, Di Santo, Rodallega, Al Habsi and Diame showed anything like the skill and application needed to compete in the Premier League.

Att: 17,261

Al Habsi…….7.5 Kept us in the game with some fine saves
Gohouri ………4 A poor performance
Alcaraz ……….4 Too casual too often cost two goals
Caldwell ………5 Tried hard but limited ability
Boyce …………6 The best of a back four
McCarthy……..5 A shadow of last season’s player
Watson………..5 Poor
Moses…………7 Tried hard, our best creative outlet
Jones………….6 Worked hard but nothing special
Diame……….6.5 A superb goal
Di Santo ……6.5 Tried hard with little support
Rodallega ……7 Troubled the Bolton defence
Maloney ……5.5 Little chance to shine
Figueroa …….6 Gave some stability in the second half.

Man of the Match

Ali Al Habsi , without him our goal difference would be far worse.

My God, our manager is good, we’d heard he was good but had no idea he was this good. Maybe we could be THAT team: the Chievo Verona, the Hoffenheim, the Auxerre, the small provincial side who somehow clicked like a thousand clog dancers and strung together the kind of results against the league super powers which would spawn a thousand articles from week to week :‘Is it time to take Wigan seriously?’ Samuel, Winter et al would write as first European football was secured and then the league title a few weeks later after a famous away win at Old Trafford.

Of course, that midweek we dipped in terrible fashion at home to Wolves and then get routed 5-0 at home by United, a highly familiar scoreline versus the Red Devils during Roberto Martinez’s tenure. Despite many quite frankly embarrassing reversals in Martinez’s inaugural season at Wigan, it was still enough for Aston Villa to come looking for our own Bob when they found themselves with a managerial vacancy in the summer, only for the young Spaniard to turn them down and stay put.

Villa have subsequently consoled themselves by nicking our star player for £9.5m but the mercurial Frenchman N’Zogbia has apparently not found the grass any greener so far. Bah! I feel a sub-text being written here and no doubt Charlie is about to break his duck against the team and manager that turned his career around. Because that’s what happens when you support Wigan Athletic.

“Just what do Wigan Athletic bring to the table?”wrote a moron on a message board forum somewhere right at this very minute probably. Well the truth is I don’t know. We’re making up the numbers or so it seems and despite a reasonable point haul in August against the three promoted sides, the stats in September read as follows: Played 4, Scored 3, Conceded 10, Points 0. Ouch. We’re quickly reverting to type I see as the league’s also rans, whipping boys and rubbing rags.

However, Villa Park has been something of a happy hunting ground over the years, which more than compensates for the fact they often wallop us at our place. If we’re going to steer clear of that place where a lot of people would like to permanently see us then we need to start picking up points.

Last Saturday against Spurs was one of those horrible days where many more of our ‘lifelong fans*’ screamed abuse at half time and several apparently walked off at half time as we gifted Spurs a 2-0 lead. The second half saw a much more determined performance and were it not for dipsy Mohican’d nutter Steve Gohouri scything down Gareth Bale twice we could have run the North London side very close despite all their star names.

*There seem to be an awful lot of these considering we had just 600 season ticket holders just 15 years ago

Martinez relies heavily on youth and the ethics of expression, which can sometimes be a problem as a lot of footballers, bless them, are thick. And as we’ve seen this week more so than any other, if it wasn’t for their ability to kick a ball in a straight line many of them would be a pretty loathsome bunch or indeed even with that blessed ability, many still are. So there’s an argument which goes that the way to get results is to tell footballers exactly what to do and if they all stick to it, then ability permitting, you’ve got your super team. Not the Roberto Martinez way. Clearly, we had some kind of game plan against Spurs, but it went out of the window when our makeshift centre half Figueroa passed the ball straight to Adebayor a couple of minutes in.

We do still appear to have quite a talented young squad, but it remains to be seen whether there is the required resolve to stay up this season. When it goes right for us, it came be truly beautiful but we spend too many games fumbling around the edges like a teenage boy desperately trying to unping a bra and failing so badly that our rivals steal in and score whilst we’re dawdling.

Over two years on and we’re still frustratingly inconsistent and still wondering whether the system works. Maybe it worked so well because of that element of surprise. Many of those fans who watch week in, week out question the supposed tactical genius of the manager whilst others admire him for his unshakable beliefs in trying to play a certain way.

The positives this season have to be the form of young Argentinian Franco di Santo and his three goals in the first half dozen games, more than he scored in the previous 70 at Blackburn, Chelsea and Wigan. Have we slowly but surely unearthed a gem here? Only time will tell, it may be that he doesn’t get another all season but his confidence is rising and he is getting in good positions. Let’s not dwell on the fact that all three goals have been deflections.

It’s difficult to know what impact we can have in the Midlands at the weekend. I’ve not seen enough of Villa to comment but I am guessing their fans are no happier with Alex McLeish now than they were when he was appointed. It’s not our problem, I just hope we don’t turn into a sacrificial lamb to kick start another club’s season as is often the case.

Oh and if anyone fancies taking a pop at our away support again feel free: ten years ago we were probably paying a tenner to get in at Walsall. For Villa to charge £37 when it’s £21 or 2 for £30 in the home end is a bit harsh. Consequently, you’ll have to forgive us if a lot of our notoriously sh*t support stays at home.

This article also appears on the excellent Sabotage Times website

… Wigan Athletic’s game against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend drew an attendance of just 18,788. This is percieved as ‘appalling’ by yourselves, and you then also almost cream yourselves by reiterating the fact that (in your opinions) Wigan is indeed a rugby town and little ole Latics will always have a hard time winning any sporting popularity contest.

You’re not wrong are you? 

After all, the last two Wigan Warriors home attendances were 12,893 and a mind blowing 6,790!  This then is a combined total of 19,683.  Which means there were 895 more speccies at two major rugby games than the single game against a London based team at Latics.  Bear in mind that one of these games was against St Helens which is the ‘fiercest and most famous derby game in rugby league, nay the world’), then I suppose the dear old Klumps (as they are affectionately known to the vast majority of the town’s sports fans) didn’t do too badly!

Now factor in the fact that Tottenham brought 4,000 supporters to the Wigan Athletic football stadium and there were 5,000 (at least) combined away supporters for the thugby (another common and appropriate nickname of the sport) and you find that in terms of home support the Klumps couldn’t muster up as many home spectators for two games than Latics did for one!

Can you imagine how many Kleenex tissues you’d need if Latics got less than 13,000 on for a major game against Manchester United?  I rest my case.

Obviously the Klumps’ attendances being compared to a Latics ‘run of the mill’ game is unfair, so perhaps we can now compare like for like.  I’ll take for example the Australian Rugby League play off games then. 

The crowd at Wests Tigers was a mere 49,000, there was an attendance of 31,000 at Manly and a capacity crowd of 29,000 were at Melbourne!

Oh dear, they don’t fare too well on that score either do they? I don’t suppose there’s a chance of any of you printing this in your rags?

Thought not! 

The accompanying photographs show a world famous Klump being tackled by another world famous Klump with the bouncing crowd really appreciating the pulse tingling tension! The other one shows a sparse looking Wigan Athletic football stadium crowd watching some mediocre non event! 

#iblamerobertomartinez for choosing to take the thankless task of being the Wigan Athletic manager after we’d been abandoned by Steve Bruce and no one else exactly sprung forward to volunteer.

#iblamerobertomartinez for accepting the job of reducing a growing wage bill whilst trying to keep Wigan Athletic in the barclayspremierleague.

#iblamerobertomartinez for caring about Wigan Athletic, the football club that he kept a place in his heart for even though he’d been forced out of it as a player.

#iblamerobertomartinez for trying to rebuild a football club from the youth-team up that had been eaten away by almost 15 years of short term thinking and glory chasing.

#iblamerobertomartinez for being proud that Wigan Athletic get crowds of 17,000 rather than being ashamed that we don’t fill our stadium.

#iblamerobertomartinez for taking an inexperienced bunch of young pros and trying to mould them into a side that plays and thinks like a bigger team.

#iblamerobertomartinez for having principles and having the balls to stick to them in the face of difficult times.

#iblamerobertomartinez for trying to play football in a intelligent, attractive way rather than hitting and hoping for percentages like people expect from clubs like Wigan.

#iblamerobertomartinez for turning down the chance to manage a bigger club, with a bigger budget for a bigger salary to stick with what he’s got at our club and try to finish the job he’s started.

#iblamerobertomartinez for looking at and selling the positives of our club in public rather than getting down because of our shortfallings.

#iblamerobertomartinez for having the gall to stand in front of fans and openly discuss his hopes, fears and plans fully in the knowledge that some of them would happily see him sacked in the morning.

#iblamerobertomartinez for not being perfect, infalable or being able to magic a team of world beaters from nothing.

And most of all…

#iblamerobertomartinez for keeping Wigan Athletic in the Premier League for the last two seasons and getting his head down to try and get us an eigth year at the top.

Wigan Athletic showed a packed DW Stadium their worst side and their best side much to the frustration of the majority of the almost 19,000 spectators privileged or unfortunate (tick as appropraite) enough to be in attendance.

Manager Roberto Martinez was forced into a few team changes with Steve Gohouri replacing the injured Emmerson Boyce, with Piscu dropped altogether in the back line, whilst up front talismanic hit man Hugo Rodallega missed out through injury which gave Momo Diame a chance to impress.. Harry Redknapp meanwhile, was also forced to rule out Jermaine Defoe who is suffering from a virus and he was replaced by Robin Van Der Vaart, with Sandro replacing Niko Kranjcar from the team that crushed Liverpool 4-0 last time out.

With Gohouri playing at right back and newcomer Patrick Van Aanholt playing on the left perhaps Maynor Figieroa was caught on the hop in the third minute when a sloppy back pass fell at the feet of Emmanuel Adebayor instead of fellow defender Gary Caldwell.  Adebayor jinked past Caldwell with ease and laid the ball on a plate for Van Der Vaart to slam into the roof of the Latics net.

From that moment on it is fair to say that Latics were ran ragged and the hosts should have been two goals down just three minutes later when Gareth Bale miscued when it would have been easier to score and in the blink of an eye Kyle Walker had found Adebayor who fired over the bar to save the blushes of an absolutely woeful defence.

Al Habsi was called on to keep Latics in the game on two more occasions and then a 23rd minute corner was not dealt with sufficiently and Gareth Bale piled on the misery by notching Spurs’ second goal of the afternoon.  By the time the half time whistle was blown it is fair to say that the only thing offered by Latics by way of an attacking move was a 12th minute free kick by Jordi Gomez, it really was that bad.  

As the whistle blew the home faithful once again gave the team a standing boovation!  

Such was the complete domination of the visitors that a Tottenham youngster even won the half time crossbar challenge after a woeful display from the previous eight Latics supporting youngsters who attempted to hit the crossbar from the penalty spot! 

Whatever was said at half time in the privacy of the Latics dressing room certainly worked a treat and with Ronnie Stam replacing the much maligned Gomez for the start of the second half it took just four minutes for Diame to score his third Latics career league goal by placing a great shot past Brad Friedel to halve the defecit.

The visitors were rattled, and it showed, they began missing out on the fifty balls and mistakes began to creep slowly but surely into their game. Then in the 63rd minute Gohouri, who had earlier been shown a yellow card by a somewhat unpredictable referee, lunged into Adebayor on the left hand touchline and was shown the dreaded red card.

Far from demoralising the hosts, the decision seemed to instill yet more self belief and with a by now rocking home support urging them on the game proceeded with Latics seemingly just shrugging off Gohouri’s loss.  The ante was raised by the introduction of Conor Sammon and James McArthur to the proceedings in the 72nd minute.  The two Macs began to boss the midfield and Redknapp in his technical area was far from amused!

The last five minutes saw the hosts tiring though as Spurs began passing the ball back at any given opportunity.  Frustration began to creep into Latics’ play and Spurs could have scored a third goal had Modric’s free kick not slammed Al-Habsi’s bar with just a few minutes remaining.

Blatant time wasting by Friedel and a late, late substituion by Spurs upset the Latics rhythm and after four minutes of added time the game was over and three more precious points had been dropped.

Thankfully all the other results went Latics way and when most of the supporters arrived home or at various watering holes in and around town, they found that Bolton Wanderers were propping the rest of the league up, this helped ease matters slightly.  Next up is Aston Villa at Villa Park, a happy hunting ground for Latics who have yet to taste defeat on it.  Here’s hoping!

WIGAN ATHLETIC - Al Habsi, Gohouri, Caldwell, Figueroa, Van Aanholt, Diame, Watson (McArthur, 72), McCarthy, Moses, Di Santo (Sammon, 72), Gomez (Stam, 45).  Subs not used, Kirkland, Crusat, Maloney, Jones

Goal scorers, Momo Diame 49 mins
Booked, Steve Gohouri, James McCarthy, Conor Sammon
Sent off, Steve Gohouri 63 mins

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR - Friedel, Walker, Dawson, King, Assou-Ekotto, Modric, Parker, Sandro (Livermore, 90), Bale, Van der Vaart (Dos Santos, 77), Adebayor.  Subd not used, Cudicini, Bassong, Corluka, Townsend, Carroll

Goal scorers, Robin Van Der Vaart 3 mins, Gareth Bale 23 mins
Booked, Emmanuel Adebayor

Referee, J Moss
Attendance, 18,788 

It’s been a while for “things that make you go mmm…”, but in the interests of getting my creative juices flowing (and an excuse to reuse the picture) I thought I’d have a go. Just to remind you (or let you know if you’ve never seen me do this before) this series is an attempt by me to catch the zeitgeist, or at least have a fumbling guess at the five things that you’ll all be talking about in the pubs and on the concourses this Saturday when Spurs ride into town either high on their victory over Liverpool last Saturday or low (and, fingers crossed, knackered) from their penalty defeat at Stoke.

#1 – ‘appy ‘arry for England.
Or why journalists should never be allowed to run football part 2793.

For some reason that I’ve still not worked out, there appeared to be a fair bit of debate early on on the week about what happens once Capello brings Euro 2012 back to Wembely and then takes off to an Italian castle to count the (about) three billion pounds he’s earned in his time as England manager and ponder how long is an appropriate time away before he writes a biobiography of his time on the job entitled “John Terry is a massive cock’, probably.

The field involved in these debates shrinks with every passing international weekend and we’re now basically left with a solitary candidate, the Phantom Bankrupter. It’s natural, isn’t it? After all he ticks all the boxes doesn’t he? He’s English and… and… well that’s enough, innit Jeff.

Of course Redknapp is just as good as most English candidates, but only really meets the criteria for an international manager if you rate someone’s cheerleading abilities over their tactical acumen or coaching ability and why wouldn’t you? It’s not like international football gets increasingly more tactical by the year, just get the best eleven players you can in the starting team, get loads of strikers on the bench and tell them to go out and play football.

Oh, and give as many interviews out of your car window as you can, goes down a treat the next time you’re at the dealers.

Any way, I’ll leave the character assassination there for the moment, there’s no need for me to go on when Spurs fans have already done it for me:

The Worm Turns

In the flow

#2 Some old crock for England
It’s been the third round of the Carling Cup this weeks which means it’s been the really big boys turn to stretch the legs of their assorted kids and crocks. And what a week it was, Steevee G got a run out and chance to patronise a young lad who wasn’t good enough to clean his boots at Melwood but did his roof before getting on at Brighton, young Michael Owen got to check whether his hamstrings were still dodgy whilst bagging a brace and Owen Hargreaves managed a whole 57 minutes without getting injured.

And fair play to all three of them, after all their talent deserves more time on the pitch than it’s had over the last few years, but what’s far from fair play is the reaction of the hacks and coffee machine pundits ever since Owen’s second hit the back of the net on Tuesday night.

Of course there’s a story there. Of course there’ll always be a suspicion that we’ve not seen all that Owen has to give, or that we’ve been robbed of seeing Hargreaves’ best years, but calling for the striker to be back in the England squad and celebrating about not needing to see Gareth Barry play the holding role for the three lions again is so far wide of the mark it’s unbelievable.

Come back when they’ve got twenty games under their belts and they’ve played in something that amounts to more than a glorified reserve level. But hey, when the press and pundits decide then the couch side football fans will follow, which brings us neatly to back to the Spurs game and…

#3 Saint Scott Parker
Cards on the table time, I hate the fellow. Maybe it’s something to do with the total disrespect that he showed Latics inbetween his move from Chelsea to Newcastle (we outbid them, but he declined to speak to us), maybe it’s something to do with the way he “won” his midfield battle against Lee Cattermole by pretending to have been machine gunned even though he’d gone over the top or maybe it’s just the ar*e aching adoration that he gets from the London media and the fact that he’s slowly being painted as England’s saviour in waiting.

Or maybe it’s just that all those things added to that butter wouldn’t melt and I’m offend if you think otherwise look that he manages for 90 minutes each week. Yeah of course he’s a good player, and my view of him would probably be totally different if he want wearing the tree and crown, but he isn’t and would probably never lower himself, so think yourself lucky we’ve got James McCarthy and put your thoughts behind Owen Hargreaves’ come back so that we never have to see St Scott in the three lions ever again.

#4 Think Responsibly
So Hugo’s out and Bobby’s got loads of options Gomez, Crusat and Maloney for starters; Di Santo out wide and Sammon in the middle or a completely different move altogether, but you’ve got two choices. Stand by the choices that Bobby makes tomorrow or start off with little faith and bitch, moan and rage against the light until you’re been proved right.

I think where I’m heading here is that, regardless of your expectations, our injury troubles or who ends up turning out for us tomorrow, it’s Spurs that are coming to town. Largely they’re a team that made the Champions’ League quarter final last season and we’re a team that survived a relegation battle on the last day of the season.

There was a time when we used to enjoy this type of encounter, little Wigan against the big boys and we should probably be doing the same thing again. Forget what’s gone on before, and concentrate on the ninety minutes in front of you. If you want testament to how that works, look at the carefree atmosphere at Blackpool last year or in the second half against West Ham, if we get our part right then the players usually follow suit.

#5 In the club?
Apparently the referee tomorrow is erstwhile Culture Club drummer and the man who Boy George turned straight (or something, I only had the smash hits version of events to go off), Jon Moss.

Ok, so there’s every chance that it’s a different bloke with the same name, but why spoil my Saturday? Altogether now… “do you really want to hurt me?”