Roberto should not be discouraged

Well, the less said about this the better, one would think.

The way Wigan played attacking-wise, you would have said they certainly didn’t deserve to be pummelled by so many goals. With a slightly dodgy defensive performance, though, there was always the chance we were going to be punished severely. It wasn’t always that way – the first half passed by with no goals and Wigan actually in the ascendency as the 45-minute mark came.

Man U created a hatload of chances, but up until the first goal had only managed to find Chris Kirkland’s gut numerous times. Lucky? Probably. It could easily have been 2-0 Man U at half time.

For 55 minutes, Wigan looked competitive and came from the half-time break looking very promising. Alas, ’twas not to be, as the floodgates seemed to open, unfortunately. You could sense that a collapse was coming after the second goal, which turned into an almost complete capitulation by the third. After that, well, it ceased to be a contest.

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Wolves were cheered on by a good travelling contingent

Tuesday night was a bit of a blur, if I’m honest. The overall feeling was one of frustration, and, somewhat surprisingly, the boo-boys were out in force for much of the game. I’m not sure if it’s where I was sat in the West Stand, but there was a general feeling of negativity, of a failure to live up to expectations.

Some of that rubbed off on me, and I was left dejected at the end of the game. But I watched the extended highlights the morning after, and I have to say we actually started to create some very good opportunities. If it weren’t for Mancienne’s strong defensive performance, I daresay we could have at least salvaged a draw against an eminently score-againstable (to coin a phrase) side.

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Er, well, not particularly.

“Wolves will be tougher“, Bob said after the Villa game. Well, at least he was right about that.

If everything went Wigan’s way on Saturday, then I think it’s safe to say that this certainly was not Latics’ evening. Frustration was the order of the day as none of Martinez’s tactics seemed to work, and a strong early performance by Wolves, in which Andy Keogh managed to steal a goal, was ably defended for the remainder of the game.

A good physical performance by Wolves meant the hosts never really completely dominated, and though the Latics bossed second half possession, few chances came their way. A good performance, in particular, by on-loan defender Michael Mancienne ensured Latics opportunities were hard to come by, helped in part by an average passing game by Titus Bramble, who seemed to think he was playing for Wigan Warriors with numerous successful 40-20 efforts. Not much good in this game, though.

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I used to buy matchday programmes religiously, until I came to my senses. Yeah, sure, you’re supporting the club and that with the three quid, but for me, it was a one-read publication: save for the really big match programmes, each of them were placed neatly in a pile on my shelf where they have remained untouched for years.

These days I instead use the cash to pay for the Latics Player (formerly Latics World) to get phone quality, induction loop commentary live from all the away games. Well, I am being a bit harsh there as the quality really has picked up since the days of Matt McCann mumbling about half time pies, and I’m going to leave a critique on that for another day.

Apart from that, I also buy the club fanzine whenever I can. A few years back, when the Cockney Latic was in its heyday, I’d enjoy thumbing through the pages of endless rants on David Graham and Geoff Horsfield by Les Bagg and the like. Not long ago, the name changed to the Mudhutter Football Express, but the content remained just as irreverent and opinionated as ever.

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