So, I would write some sort of a pseudo-serious match preview with injuries and that here, but I’m gonna leave that up to the guys that know about this sort of thing to report with integrity and impartiality. Instead, I believe I shall have a bit of a blather about… well, not much.

The sun always shines at the DW

As a Wigan Athletic supporter, this weekend has been somewhat depressing for me. Not only am I suffering from the final throes of laryngitis, but just to rub it in we’ve had the town’s sunniest weekend of the year, throughout which I have been forced to watch other teams battling it out in both the league and FA Cup on the boob tube.

Yep, for some reason we’re scheduled to play on a Monday night this week. As I sit here goofing off, erm, I mean typing away on my keyboard, the sun is shining through the blinds and I’m once again forced to stay indoors. By the time 7PM rolls around, it’ll no doubt be minus 3 degrees as I make my way down to the DW for a game that should have been played in glorious sunshine on a Saturday. I like those days, they’re the ones I remember the most; the 3-1 victory over Reading that clinched top flight football; our first Premier League game against Chelsea; the time I missed McCulloch put us 1-0 up against Forest because I was down in the concourse getting a drink (which I had, like, three sips of)…

Well, maybe not all of Latics’ most memorable moments have been blessed with blazing sunshine on a weekend afternoon (Highbury 2006, anyone?), and I’m not saying the weather actually has much of a bearing on how much I enjoy a game, I just find it hard to get motivated for these incessant weekday evening matches.

No doubt today’s attendance will suffer as a result of its Monday scheduling, and the fact it’s on Sky TV doesn’t help much (actually, it’s on ESPN in case anyone’s interested).

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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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Anybody who’s checked the official Latics site in the last couple of days will probably be aware of a promotion by club sponsors 188BET. If you remember back to December before the fixture was rearranged due to adverse weather conditions, the hype surrounding this game was massive – a Monday night, last Prem game before Christmas, live on ESPN, promotions aplenty etc.

As much as the club has tried to emulate this by carrying over the Flag Day thing, they shouldn’t need to. After all, it’s Bolton, our closest rivals geographically and who knows, perhaps in the table as well by the end of this season – if we can’t get ourselves motivated for this game we never will.

I have to take my hat off to the club, however, in their continued merchandising and promotional efforts this season. Perhaps the most pleasing is their gesture of allowing supporters with half season tickets to attend tonight’s game as a virtual bonus fixture. See, this game was originally scheduled to take place on 21st December, before the half season tickets came into effect for the 26th.

All of this makes me wonder how Latics can continue to offer such great promotions when they’re probably losing money on the vast majority of them. Add to this the fact the two home FA Cup ties probably cost the club money to host, especially with the low gate receipts, almost to the point where it’s actually more financially beneficial to go out of the competition. Actually, there’s a conspiracy theory and a half for the Daily Mail readers out there.

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Brucey returns to his old club

A bit of a pivotal game this weekend. It isn’t going to be the ‘be all and end all’ cup final match that’ll decide the fate of the club for the whole season, but it is pretty important in the circumstances.

There’s that old saying that if you’re in the relegation zone at Christmas you’ll be fighting to stay out of it come May, but that isn’t one that I necessarily subscribe to, and besides, there’s a whole month before the traditional mid-point reckoning.

The reason I cite this as a (kind of) crucial match is the events of last week. Should we emerge victorious, White Hart Lane shall be forgotten and we can all get on with our lives (at least until the next 9-1 drubbing, which hopefully won’t come within my lifetime).

I dread to think what’ll happen should Wigan lose. It’d probably mean a drop into the bottom three, which will bring out the inevitable moaners ranting on about how our manager isn’t up to the job and we should move back to Springfield Park and get more fixture cards in the club shop or whatever.

I shall ignore all that, though, because today I am going to steer away from the negatives and try to project some positive influence upon the club by way of talking up our chances. First up, the Premier League’s third top goalscorer, one Darren Bent, could well be ruled out with a hamstring injury.

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