Not just a rugby town anymore!

[daddyrichie]

Hey guys, in case you haven't gathered already I am doing a story based on my Wigan career.

After many years of everybody saying the town is nothing more than egg chasers the time has come to turn that around and put football firmly on the Wigan map! With a population of 81203 in the main town but over 300,000 in the borough of Wigan there are many people about who I could turn from Man Utd/City, Bolton, Liverpool, Everton etc... fans and reform them as Latics!

The journey is going to be fun and eventful, of that I'm sure! I will be doing monthly updates which obviously depending on the month could take a long time so please bare with me if I seem to be taking a while with some updates.

Thanks for looking, hope I keep you interested and hope I do any Wigan fans out there proud with my adventures!

 

[daddyrichie]

Well, pre season went quite well with 5 wins out of 8 including wins against OGC Nice (1-0) and Saint-Etienne (2-0). I've decided to go for a 4-5-1 formation with a defensive midfielder and 2 wingers.

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So after a pretty good pre season I went into the first league game with high optimism.


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Opening game was to be at Molyneux to face Wolves. A little disappointed to concede the equalizer so late after starting so well! The early goal was to be a false dawn though as Wolves would go on to pretty much dominate the game snatching the late equalizer and denying me victory in my 1st competitive game.

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2nd up was a clash at home to Everton, best way I can describe this game was mauled! Everton was the best side from start to finish and completely deserved the win, I couldn't even score from the spot after Ben Watson had his penalty saved!

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Here we have the League Cup tie with Bury. Deciding to rest a few bigger names almost cost me dearly with Bury forcing us into extra time but it turned out to be better than it could with a goal from Piscu and great defending to keep Bury out!

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Lastly was a visit to Old Trafford and most probably 1 of the most difficult games I will have this season. A 2-0 loss was better than I thought it would be considering we hadn't played brilliantly so far this season. I played a little more defensively in this game lining up a 5-4-1 formation dropping the DM back to make a flat back 5.

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On the transfer front I don't think I've done too badly, most deals done over 48 months so being able to bring in a few more players, now ideally need a good cup run in both cups to bring in a bit of income to help towards these transfers.

So this concludes the month of August and I must say I'm a little disappointed with some of the performances I've put in in the league. In 3 games I've had no more than 9 shots and only 3 of those on target. I'm happy with the players I've brought in, all of them brought in for rotation purposes only as I thought the squad were a little thin.

Will update soon for September, until then I say goodbye!

 

[Darren Colgrave]

Nice start mate keep it up i will be following this. Some good results in pre season hopefully take that into the start of the season

 

[daddyrichie]

Not so far mate but I'm sure once the players get used to the way I work results will start picking up

 

[daddyrichie]

SEPTEMBER

So after a bad month in August we look to get a few more points on the board in September!

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First this month we hosted Newcastle. Keeping a lead when we manage to score seems to be something we don't understand how to do as we concede within 3 minutes of taking the lead. As it turned out Newcastle were too strong for us and we lost

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This game I was bitterly disappointed with loosing! Despite Norwich going down to 10 men after only 20 minutes we fail to score and it cost us massively!

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A trip abroad to Wales for the League Cup 3rd round see's us face Swansea, another very late goal forces us into extra time and eventually penalties and for a change the English win the shootout!

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Return trip back for the league now, I did suggest to Brendan Rodgers that we share the trip back to keep costs down for both clubs but he wasn't so sure. As it turned out there was another late goal, infact I wouldn't say it was late, it was a Fergie Time goal, 90+6 with a penalty salvages a point for us!

On the whole our performances are getting better so doubt it'll take long for us to get the elusive first win of the campaign for us! I'm confident it will come in October and then we can use that platform and kick on up the table!

 

[W4FC B3N]

I'll be following I know Wigan seasons are pretty difficult. I know you can do it

 

[daddyrichie]

Thanks buddy, will have Octobers update up in the next half hour or so and there's some good news on the way!

EDIT: I won't be getting an update done that soon but hopefully get 1 up later on this evening guys

 

[daddyrichie]

Firstly I want to apologize for not getting this update done last night, kinda got caught up in the Saints game. Bare with me when I say WE'RE OFF TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!! 5 points clear of West Ham with only 2 games remaining, I feel we won't loose our next 2 games so I'm confident enough to say we're back!

Also I would like to take this chance to congratulate Reading on making certain they are back in the Prem next season and I do feel I should say congrats on them winning the title, I can't see us getting back in it although I'm hoping and praying we do!

Back to what we're all here for anyway...

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So we finally done it! That vital victory we have been waiting for and it comes at a place that even the best teams struggle to get a result!

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Disappointed not to win this game, I felt we had the better of the chances but it just wasn't meant to be for us. Oh well, another game to come, let's get the 2nd win this time.

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And another win, well deserved at that. Bolton put up a massive fight but they were finally undone by a penalty, 3rd penalty we've had this season and only the first to be scored!

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This was always going to be a tough game but we didn't play like it was, we played brilliantly! Fabianski ended up getting the Man of the Match award for this game so at least we made them work for the points!

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Not alot to say about this, well there is but I can't say it on this site! (Enter your comments here)

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Stupid stupid stupid stupid STUPID!!!!!! We just didn't turn up today, the Reading game has knocked us alot more than I thought it did and we're right back to where we were at the beginning of the month!

Bit of a mixed month this time. 2 wins, a draw that should have been a win, a loss that we could have easily won if it hadn't been for the GK and 2 terrible games! Don't you just love football sometimes!

November looms and we have some very tough fixtures, here's hoping for the best but we could be back in the relegation spots by the end of the month!

 

[daddyrichie]

Well I was kind of right with my prediction with this month. It was tough, well half of it was!

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This game I felt we played well in despite what the stats say, held the ball for long periods but their quality showed through in the end and they ran off with the 3 points

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This game we weren't in at all, I'm very surprised we managed to get the goal and we were outclassed all over the pitch

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Much much better from us, rode our luck a little at the start giving away the penalty but with Bendtner lining up to take it I was fairly confident he would miss. After that we never really looked back and scored 3 great goals, 2 of which coming after we went down to 10 men

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Another great performance and another great 3 points which also ended up ending Alex McLeish's stay at Villa which I was then a favorite for which I swiftly denied, I have a mission with Wigan and I refuse to stop until I have completed that mission!

So all in all it was a fairly good month, if we had managed to keep the score down at the Etihad I would've been pleased despite loosing 2 games but you can't expect an easy ride there can you. December looks like it could be a good month for us and I'm hoping for at least 3 wins!

 

[daddyrichie]

So December is here already and we've had some mixed results.

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Great result against Fulham, couple of stupid mistakes handed them the goals but it didn't end up as costly as it may have been!

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WOW! Just absolute wow! I couldn't believe it watching this game pan out! Chelsea pretty much dominated the entire game but we stood strong and Al-Habsi put in a Man of the Match performance to keep them out. Was waiting for 2 offside goals but it never happened, officials impressed me in this game

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Pathetic game! We didn't turn up to the game and deserved to loose!

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A little disappointed with this game, played relatively well but again the Spurs class showed through!

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Thought I would put up a picture of the league table mid way through. So far so good

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So here comes the 2nd round of the league fixtures, didn't play particularly well but got the win all the same

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Played alot better at Goodison than we did at home against Everton but still we loose

So December has been and gone and we get 3 wins and 3 losses, haven't managed to draw since the draw with QPR back in October so need to try and turn more defeats into draws but I'm happy enough with the way we're playing so far!

 

[daddyrichie]

Hey guys, I'm afraid something has come up and I'm not going to be able to carry on with this.