About

This blog was a big part of my life for 8 years.

As time passed, the type and tone of posts shifted massively. Some rambling, some completely irrelevant, some vaguely readable for ten seconds. I just wrote about stupid stuff that surrounded football matches: the mascots, the fans, the officials falling over unconvincingly. Occasionally it slipped over into the edgy side, a remnant of the northern humour that birthed this small time internet weblog.

The result remains here as an archive, a documentation of stuff I would’ve otherwise forgotten. The important bits were condensed to a paragraph or two, the irrelevant given three sheets of A4 paper. I just sat there in my underpants and winter socks and typed nonsense of an evening, with little grasp of “good” writing or what anyone would actually want to read.

But that’s alright, cuz who cares? Up the ‘Tics, c’mon.

For the uninitiated, Jesus really was a Wiganer.

When local businessman Dave Whelan took control of Wigan Athletic in 1995, he recruited a trio of Spanish superstars dubbed the ‘Three Amigos’.

Jesus Seba, along with Roberto Martinez and Isidro Diaz, made the cross-continental trek at a time when lower league teams weren’t known for scouting abroad. Though only Martinez proved a long-term success as a player, the seeds were sewn for a monumental 15 years at the JJB Stadium/DW Stadium/Pie Dome.

The club would embark on a scarcely believable meteoric rise to the Premier League, blitzing all in their path and giving the Wigan public something other than The World Pie-Eating Championships to cheer.

In 2010, things came full circle with Roberto Martinez back at the club, this time at the helm. The culmination of ‘Bobby’s’ reign was incredible FA Cup glory in 2013 – in fact wait a minute, I have to double check with my Rolodex that actually happened. Well, apparently it did.

But success came at a price, and the Championship beckoned that year.

Dave Whelan cycled through managerial ‘turkeys’ Owen C0yle and Malky Mackay before finally stepping aside for his grandson David Sharpe to assume the role of chairman.  His first major decision was to appoint Gary Caldwell, but by this time, Latics were slipping back to England’s third tier.

What happened next is beyond the scope of this blog – it was retired in 2017. The final season of posts is imported from the short-lived All Gone Latics, which began life as a ‘zine but re-emerged as a website for 18 months.

I apologise if some images remain broken – perhaps I will be able to fix them all one day, but seeing as there are over 700 posts on this blog, perhaps sleeping cats will be left to lie.