The new Wigan library -- BBC*

The media have once again turned the club into a laughing stock. Sure, Latics fans know full well that this weekend’s Fulham contest had the club’s single best home attendance of the season (80% of all seats sold out – not bad for a non-Saturday match against a London club) and the number of Wigan supporters at each game has been steadily rising, but this clearly isn’t good enough for the mainstream media.

They continue to focus on the 150-odd away fans that made the short and relatively inexpensive 200-mile trip north on a Sunday just to make the point that nobody watches Little Wigan or Little Fulham. That would normally be just about tolerable, except in this instance the atmosphere and support just so happened to be so good you didn’t notice. Not one news source cared to point that out.

All they are interested in is figures, and the bottom line is that this was the lowest attended match of the season. Oh really? Does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? Supporters that care about the football and not sensationalism will know that it isn’t particularly, but if there’s a story to be had, then the BBC will pounce upon it for the purposes of  ‘entertainment’. As a result, Wigan are the subject of some undeserved and totally unwarranted stick. It’s just furthering the media characterisation of the club as some irrelevant small-town, second-rate outfit run by a raving old loony.

We are still to receive an apology for all this nonsense, and I’m very surprised the club haven’t reacted more strongly against the BBC in particular. Now, numerous ‘reputable’ news outlets are taking the BBC’s unfounded views as gospel, which is ever so slightly worrying.

Fulham returned from their midweek visit to the Stadio Olimpico to the unglamorous JJB Stadium which boasted the undesirable record of the lowest crowd attendance of anywhere in the Premier League so far this season. — The Sport View

“Unglamorous”? You never saw Springfield Park, did you, boyo?

NUMBER OF THE DAY: 16,172 – The number of fans who turned out to watch Wigan’s 1-1 draw with Fulham, the lowest attendance in the Premier League this season. — Eurosport

Let me reword that: “16,000 – The number of Latics fans that turned out to watch Wigan’s 1-1 draw with Fulham, their highest home attendance of the Premier League this season.” Way to be positive, Eurosport.

Approximately 5 people saw a goalkeeping masterclass from Kirkland and Schwarzer. — Robbo Robson, BBC

Oh, were the other 16,000 covering their eyes because they felt they didn’t deserve to be watching their clubs play Premier League football? Probably, because I know I was. Those that weren’t blindfold will tell you that the football was more important than who was and who wasn’t sat in a centrally-heated pub watching the match on dodgy satellite.

I can accept such low-rate attendance-bashing from the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea, but when the BBC are resorting to this kind of journalism you know you’re really up against it. I suppose we should just accept our position as also-rans and continue to be hammered by the Liverpool and Man United fans that stalk the pubs of Wigan just to shout “16,000″ every time they see someone in a Latics shirt.

Come on Whelan, get on Sky Sports News and set the record straight! Less than five people might take you seriously, but that’s still five more than those outside of the borough who listen to Wigan’s fans. Oh, and BBC, you can shove Rome up yer jacksy – their pies are well expensive.

*Look, I haven’t had chance to snap an empty stand since they rebranded it the DW, OK?

Let it be known I have absolutely nothing against these brave Fulham fans.

I’m not usually one to complain (at least not officially), but regarding the BBC’s coverage of yesterday’s Wigan-Fulham match I thought “why the heck not?” It couldn’t hurt, could it? Well, at least I’ve never heard of anybody being tracked down and beaten by Huw Edwards with a leather belt as a result of a complaint.

After reading a piece over at VitalLatics by Worbo, my grumbling juices began to flow and I guess you could say it was that article that pushed me over the edge and compelled me to vent my spleen here at JWAW. I wasn’t gonna, but, y’know, it seemed a good idea at the time.

This ‘rant’, if you will, is almost entirely prompted by the aforementioned. The following ‘moaning old codger’-style attack is the result of twenty minutes’ spare time and a grudge against a general top-four bias in the modern media.

I thought it turned out alright for a poorly proofread spur-of-the-moment gripefest, so I decided to kill two Alan Hansens with one Alan Shearer and turn it into a proper complaint as well as a blog entry. As with most of my posts, please don’t take the whole thing entirely seriously, as although I make one or two good points I’ve embellished them with hyperbole just a touch.

Category: Factual error or inaccuracy (bordering on Bias)

Summary of complaint: Misleading editing regarding attendance at Wigan-Fulham match

Full detail:

During Sunday’s broadcast of MOTD2, a commentator made the point that the Wigan v Fulham match had the lowest attendance of the current Premier League season whilst panning across the Fulham (away) end of the ground, completely failing to notice the other three (home) ends which were almost full.

This editing implied Wigan Athletic have poor support when in actual fact the attendance was very good for a match held on not just a Sunday, but Remembrance Sunday at a time that clashed with Sky’s coverage of the Chelsea-Man United top-of-the-table match. This is a complete discredit to the club who are doing everything in their power to promote Wigan Athletic and have introduced some excellent ticket promotions, spending an awful lot of money revamping their marketing effort this season.

A simple ‘this is the Fulham end’ or ‘150 hardy souls braved the cold to make the 200-mile trip north’ would have avoided this situation, but I am sad to say sensationalism won out in this instance. If this was not meant then I apologise, but there is no escaping the fact the club was portrayed in a negative light.

Furthermore it is my wish for MOTD to, in future, order games by how entertaining they are and not by how many people watch the individual clubs, which effectively amounts to bias. I understand this complaint is unlikely to have any effect on your broadcasting whatsoever and am aware that satisfying a fan base is important, but the fact still remains that sides such as Wigan have played some very entertaining football this season but have always, without fail, been relegated to the last and second last game on the broadcast.

I, for one, am a lot more interested in the bottom of the table clashes that finish 3-2 than some boring non-contest in which Man United beat Tottenham 4-0 yet again.

No matter what club you support, if you share any of these views, then I urge you to complain by clicking here. Or not, if you don’t really feel like it – it’s up to you.

Once again, apologies for the clumsy grammar, which I have rectified somewhat in this reproduction of the original complaint.