Wigan Athletic 12th Man - 17/01/12

This weeks Wigan Evening Post 12th Man page features two contributions from Vital Latics:

Maintain Monday's Levels

Losing to Man City on Monday night wasn`t the biggest shock of the season, but on reflection with a bit more guile in and around the box a draw could have been quite easily achieved. Therein lies the story of the season so far, that lack of quality in the final third is what is, at the moment, setting us aside from safety and leaving the Latics languishing at the foot of the table.

Overall the performance wasn't too bad against table topping City, nice bouts of possession, McCarthy and Gomez having excellent games in the centre of the park, but we didn't look like scoring and until we can sort out that problem then we will continue to struggle.

Next up is a trip to London to face QPR, who like the Latics, are also struggling at the wrong end of the table, they have just appointed a new boss, Mark Hughes, to try and change their fortunes, but realistically they will need a large influx of players if they are to survive, QPR are a team low on quality and this game surely presents a great opportunity for the Latics to get some points on board and climb out of the bottom three.

The Loftus Road outfit have won just the one game at home this season and are currently on a run of taking just five points from their last 12 games. If the Latics can find the same level of performance that they have shown through December and in Mondays game then the chance of another away win is definitely on the cards.

Barry Worthington


We Gave It A Go

After the cup exit, we were treated to the league leaders visiting the DW Stadium in the form of Manchester City. The very same team that put our early season optimism firmly in its place. We were flattered by the 3-0 scoreline at Eastlands, as Aguero and Silva went rampant. It was this game, and the mental damage it did that started our long losing streak.

It`s fair to say therefore that I was expecting the worst last night, especially as both players were starting for the visitors. We started brightly but then the tide turned and the game started to go their way. It was without doubt that we could have gone in at half time further behind, but by virtue of the hard work off the ball we managed to keep it to just the odd goal.

In the second half we came on much stronger, and whilst they couldn`t have complained much if we'd pinched a draw, the same has to be said about the actual result. We can't really complain too much. I am thankful for this second half, mostly because I feel the result at Eastlands cost us more than the 3 points on the day as it affected future games. That shouldn't happen this time.

If we can take the desire we showed into the next game, bringing back all 3 points from QPR is quite realistic. We do have a knack for delivering the goods when we need to, I expect us to do just that at QPR because once again we're on a knife edge and need a result, and that's usually when we deliver one.

On a side note, I did see a Wigan player, late on in the warm up throwing cross after cross into the box, right into the danger areas. It was Mike Pollitt doing the delivering, maybe if we have a late free kick in the right area`s we can cheekily deploy the specialist kicker again.

Paul Thorp

















Latics and Proud



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