The 12th Man - Wigan Athletic

This weeks Wigan Evening Post 12th Man feature has two contributions from Vital Latics:

Jean Plays A Major Role

An international break so early in the season isn't ever going to be a good thing for the Premier League clubs, managers bemoaning that players have travelled half way around the world and back, arriving at their clubs the day before the weekend games is not the ideal preparation for the bread and butter stuff of league football, but this particular break may have done the Latics a huge favour.

The importance of left wing back Jean Beausejour to the way Martinez gets his team playing can't be stated enough. The Chile international is paramount, especially now Victor Moses as left, to providing some width to the team, his quality crossing adds a dimension to the game that other Latics players find hard to replicate. When Beausejour left the field early in the last game against Stoke due to his tweaked hamstring we most definitely lost a string to our bow.

To have Beausejour out of action for any length of time would be a huge miss, so this break just may have given one of our more vital players enough time to recuperate and get himself ready, if not for the weekend visit to Old Trafford then certainly the game the week after when Fulham visit the DW.

Apart from Antolin Alcaraz and Maynor Figueroa the rest of the Latics internationals have got off relatively lightly, Maloney and Caldwell both had home games with Scotland, McCarthy may have been in Kazakhstan last week but this week its Fulham where the Irish face Al Habsi's Oman, so not too bad with all things considered.

Moving on to Saturday and a trip to Old Trafford has never been something to look forward to for the Latics faithful, dodgy refereeing decisions, Michael Oliver is the man in the middle this time but our old mate Phil Dowd will be there, he is the 4th official, we usually end up on the wrong side of a hammering and the standard of play from the Latics down the years, bar one or two performances, has been quite poor at the self proclaimed 'Theatre of Dreams'.

This season though will hopefully see a change, we are a different animal nowadays, definitely not intimidated any more by reputations, we have started the season quite sprightly whilst Man United look anything but a well oiled machine, I can see a draw on the cards and hopefully that will be the least we come away with

Barry Worthington


The Reds Are Next

International week brings with it mixed feelings, we feel pride as more and more of our squad represent their countries, we feel disappointment for the lads that deserve to represent their countries based on what we regularly see them do, but who didn't get the chance.

The overriding feeling though, is the fear that players we release don't come back healthy and ready for the next fixture.

That next fixture being Manchester United away. A fixture which looks to be one of the tougher on the calendar, but also one in which we were competitive last season until the intervention of Mr Dowd.

Assuming our players are all fit after the midweek exertions and travels, we go into this fixture with every reason to expect something from the game. United are not the team they once were, and if we keep their new talisman quiet, we can take all 3 points.

Believe or belief is not only our mantra, it is also the genuine position of supporters, and squad alike going into this game. We all know that having scored 2 goals in beating them 1-0 at the DW, we are more than capable of getting our first points at Old Trafford.

Paul Thorp



The latest PWU Podcast is now available, this week it's the Manchester United v Latics preview, in the 'studio' are Barry, Dan, Dan, Dave and Gareth

The podcast is available for download from itnues, our hosting site www.buzzsprout.com or you can click play on the player below to listen from here



















Latics and Proud



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