It’s been a while since JWAW’s last From the North Stand interview – more than two years, in fact. But now the time has come for its triumphant return to comed- er, I mean, this website. The special seat I keep reserved bang in the centre of the North Stand has once again been dusted down, treated with a bit of elbow grease and furnished with the finest Wigan cuisine – Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls, of course – in anticipation of United webmaster Jordan Street‘s arrival. Oh crumbs, he’s here already! Better get the sarsaparilla.

JWAW: I’d imagine you’re happy with the signing of Robin Van Persie, because I know I would be. But are there any other new guys we should be looking out for at United this season?

Jordan: To be honest with you, when we were rumoured to be interested in Van Persie I wasn’t that excited, but when he’d actually signed for us all that changed and I was completely over the moon. I’m extremely happy about how quickly he’s blended in to the team, the hat trick he scored vs. Southampton was truly wonderful. (Let’s just not talk about the embarrassing penalty miss ha!)

Secondly, the players who you should be looking out for include Shinji Kagawa and the youngster Davide Petrucci. The former will play a massive part in our bid to retain the Premier League title, his passing and movement has been absolutely superb in the opening three league games. Davide Petrucci has a big future ahead of him, he impressed on the pre-season tour but I don’t think he’ll get much playing time this season. You may see him involved in the League Cup, but that’s about it.

Ex-Wigan man Antonio Valencia looks to have had an impact in the early part of United’s season. Are you a fan of his?

Antonio is just a top pro. He’s certainly up there with the best out and out wingers in the world. He’s more of a traditional winger who just drills the ball into the danger area, he certainly makes things happen. When he broke his leg a couple of seasons ago I feared the worst for him, upon his return it took him a while to rediscover his form but he’s been a key part of our team ever since.

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For longer than I can remember, Wigan Athletic have had a special relationship with Man City that even George Bush and Tony Blair might recognise as a ‘friendship’. You see, it may be slightly off the radar to newer Latics fans (such as I, in fact), but the Blues have always been there to lend a hand where it’s been needed.

The first competitive game between Man City and a Wigan side was in 1898, when newly-formed Wigan County — the earliest attempt at establishing a football club in the town — unluckily lost 1-0 in an FA Cup Round One match.

As far as Wigan Athletic goes, the on-again, off-again relationship between the two towns can be traced back as far as 1966 when City visited Wigan for the grand opening of newly-installed floodlights at Springfield Park. After a close-fought FA Cup tie at Maine Road in 1971, the Latics would face their Manchester neighbours once more during the Seventies: an illustrious friendly at Springfield Park just one year before Wigan’s inception to the Football League. The rest, as they say, is history, and Manchester City played a big part in making it so.

It wasn’t until the late Nineties that Wigan-City contests became something of a semi-regular occurrence. Perhaps the most memorable of these was a Division 2 playoff match – the final ever game to be played at Springfield Park, which ended in a creditable 1-1 draw. Though Wigan would ultimately lose out in the two-legged tie, they would gain a modicum of revenge by beating City 1-0 in a 2002 Worthington Cup match thanks to a 35th minute Neil Roberts volley.

And that pretty much brings us up-to-date in the potted history of notable Latics-City contests. Monday night’s game sees perhaps the strongest Man City side of recent times take on a club in transition as the Roberto Martinez-led Latics pass and bumble their way to (hopefully) Premier League safety. City’s own Roberto M is looking to push for a Champions League place in what looks to be a competitive end-of-season run-in.

Right, that’s the (shamelessly biased) Wigan perspective. What we need at this point is an expert. Not just an expert, but a Manchester City expert; a lifelong supporter and professional Man United hater. Well, his blog’s URL states that Man U ruined him, so he must be. Paul Doleman of Bert Trautmann’s Neck has very kindly agreed to be interviewed on topics including Monday’s match, his side’s prospects for the season and a few other things too.

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If you cast your mind back to November, you may remember a very special match preview for what proved to be a highly notable game in this season’s Premier League. Those who haven’t completely blanked the weekend from their minds (and I’m very sorry for once again evoking repressed memories here) will remember that Dan Fitch of tottenhamblog.com very kindly provided his thoughts in the build up to our previous encounter with Spurs.

Well, the JWAW readership enjoyed that feature so much they asked, nay, demanded Dan return to comment on the rematch at the Dee Dubya. Actually, it was Mr. Fitch himself who posited the idea of a similar interview for this weekend’s encounter – the vast majority of Wigan fans have spent the last three months pretending Tottenham don’t exist, and who could blame them?

Nevertheless, I think we’ve sufficiently recovered from the events of that fateful afternoon at least to the extent we can forgive and forget, chalk it up as a freak result and apply any other coping mechanism your psychiatrist could care to mention.

I think we’re gonna have to sooner or later, as there’s no escaping the fact a team that put nine past our defensive line in their last encounter with us is visiting the borough this Sunday afternoon. And we’re going to have to play them again.

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JWAW: Dan Fitch, editor of tottenhamblog.com, the last time I spoke to you was before what has since been termed ‘the incident which must never be mentioned again under penalty of stoning’. However, much as it pains me, I think we’d better address the issue of that game sooner rather than later because I feel it’s looming over us like a four match ban for punching someone when the ref isn’t looking.

Dan: Yes, we somehow beat you 9-1, which I can only apologise for. As you will have noticed from our recent results, it was completely out of character for us.

I’ve still no idea how it happened really, as at half time I was thinking that 2-0 would be a good result. It was just one of those days when every shot seemed to go in.

I think that you were a victim of playing far too openly against us. Teams like Wolves and Hull have got results at White Hart Lane, by merit of just putting everyone behind the ball, whilst Wigan tried to play football. It’s to your credit, but I imagine is reasonably annoying from your perspective.

Do you think a win of such magnitude filled Spurs with a renewed/continued flair and self-assurance, or did it have the inverse effect and create a sense of overconfidence that ultimately led to one or two disappointing performances?

It certainly didn’t seem to help us, as afterwards we went on a four game run without a win, culminating in a home defeat to Wolves.

This side, like many Spurs teams before it, doesn’t have much bottle and the weight of expectation after such a big win, may have counted against us.

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A match preview with a difference this weekend. Instead of the one-sided nonsense you usually find here of a Friday, I think it’s about time we took a fresh perspective on the weekend in prospect, don’t you?

Ahead of the Tottenham-Wigan clash at White Hart Lane, JWAW caught up with seasoned Spurs fan Dan Fitch for his thoughts on pies, Harry and of course Sunday’s match. It just so happens that Dan also has a weblog at TottenhamBlog.com, which is really rather good – better, in fact, than the typical small-time ‘pinch news from other sources’ you might be familiar with (especially if you read JWAW).

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JWAW: Dan Fitch, Tottenham season ticket holder and editor of tottenhamblog.com, pleased to meet your acquaintance. Or, at least, converse over the interwebs.

If you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been a Tottenham supporter and where do you think the current Spurs squad ranks among the best (or maybe even worst) you’ve seen?

Dan: I first started taking a real interest in Spurs in the 1986/87 season. David Pleat had taken charge and introduced a then revolutionary 4-5-1 formation, which saw Hoddle, Waddle and Ardiles pulling the strings in midfield and Clive Allen scoring a record 49 goals in all competitions.

That side came third in Division 1, got to the semi-final of the League Cup and lost in the final of the FA Cup. Looking back, we probably haven’t had as good a side since, though this current vintage come close.

Though we’ve had some star performers through the years like Gazza and David Ginola, they’ve always shared a field with some weak players.

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