Welcome back to JWAW, the shamelessly Latics-biased site with absolutely no annoying popups or adverts for completely irrelevant stuff you don’t want. Today we’ve got a few pics from the buildup to Saturday’s Wigan-Burnley game which are, as usual, released under the Creative Commons license. This pretty much means you can use ‘em for whatever you like as long as you credit Illarterate (that’s me, by the way).

A few pics from the Villa game are still to come at some point, as is some more multimedia stuff related to Thursday’s events at the club shop. Keep it here for all that coming up in the next week.

Reminiscing upon this afternoon’s match, I was reminded of an October afternoon in 2005 when Wigan, having had a so-so game, grabbed a last-minute winner to dispatch Fulham 1-0 at the JJB Stadium. Pascal Chimbonda, sneaking in at the back post, stole all three points to head the Latics into dreamland with their seventh win in eight games unbeaten.

During the first half of that season, everything we touched seemed to turn to gold and thanks to that magical run Wigan were all but safe by Christmas. Though we can’t exactly say the same of this campaign, for me, there was certainly a hint of 2005 about this afternoon. Specifically, I’m talking about that little bit of luck to help us snatch those crucial wins that could ultimately keep us in the Premier League for a sixth successive season.

There aren’t many games Wigan could safely say are “three point bankers” this season, testament to our up-and-down, topsy turvy form; it’s been a mixture of very good (Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa away) and some absolutely dire stuff characterised by lacklustre defending and lack of real heart or even effort. Take Bolton last week for a prime example of this – Wigan were by no means outplayed, but once that second goal went in that, as they say, was that.

This particular encounter with another Lancashire (arch?) rival contained a combination of both the poorer stuff that’s seen us toiling in the bottom half of the league, which Latics exhibited for periods of the first half, and the excellent forward-thinking movement which, sadly for Latics, only began to materialise in the latter part of the second half.

But Wigan needed not worry, for the fourth official had magically found four minutes of stoppage time somewhere in the back of his pocket or something. It wasn’t as if either team was doing a lot of time-wasting as such, at least not in the second period, so perhaps the injuries and substitutions combined with the linesman stoking up a stogie somehow added up to a total of 240 seconds. I tend to think the officials decided to add an extra minute for Brian Jensen’s first-half bootlace tying at the end of the game. Trust me, I swear they do it all the time.

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Latics’ Honduran connection was out in force at the club shop today as Hendry Thomas and Maynor Figueroa were on hand to launch a limited edition poster celebrating Figs’ 60-yard goal against Stoke in December.

Attendees could also attempt to recreate the wonder strike out in the DW car park, where a training goal had been set up near the West Stand ticket office. As it transpired, not many managed to score — even from a distance ever so slightly shorter than sixty yards — though Hendry and Maynor had no problem at all.

A group of schoolkids, probably bussed in to ensure at least someone turned up on a Thursday afternoon, cheered heartily as Figueroa successfully placed the ball into the net just as he had done four months ago.

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James Milner snatched the Villa winner

As most anticipated, Aston Villa emerged with the spoils yesterday evening having looked the more likely in a game ultimately decided by a long-range second half James Milner effort.

But it wasn’t as if Latics were played off the park – far from it. They could have even been 1-0 up going into the break had James McCarthy’s fluffed clearance not found the back of his own net. It was a strange incident, as not only was he unchallenged, but he had sufficient time to let it fall to his feet for an easy boot out of play. As it was, McCarthy chose an overhead volley which failed spectacularly, somehow hooking its way past Chris Kirkland.

Wigan would hit back straight away, however, with McCarthy to some extent making up for his discrepancy by winning a free kick in a testing position just outside the Villa penalty area. An excellent delivery nodded in by the advancing Gary Caldwell brought Wigan level within a couple of minutes. Latics were visibly buoyed and exhibited an enhanced brightness, the culmination of which was Hugo Rodallega seeing his shot deflected wide of Friedel’s left hand post.

The sides had earlier traded blows with strikes from Maynor Figueroa and Gabriel Agbonlahor only finding the advertising hoardings behind the goal. The latter would have a frustrating evening characterised by an offside goal with the scores still level, but replays showed the linesman was correct to signal, even if there was less than a foot in it (much closer than, say, Jermain Defoe’s goal a few weeks earlier).

Villa settled down into a rhythm, however, and made Kirkland earn his money on numerous occasions, most notably with the last action of the first half; the keeper advanced off his line to fortuitously clear as Latics’ defence wobbled in the wake of the Villans’ pressure.

Brad Friedel, too, was tested on more than one occasion. Maynor Figueroa forced the Ohioan into a save low and to his right to prove Wigan weren’t just going to let Villa walk all over them like Liverpool had done to Portsmouth the night before.

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