There was a distinctly pre-season feel about this game: maybe it was the empty South and East Stands or the slightly below Premier League standard opposition that betrayed the match’s warmup status. But it was a game worth paying attention to for a number of reasons, not least the small but significant fact it was Roberto Martinez’s home managerial début.

There was a vociferous, if not rapturous, reception for Bob in his appearance as part of the reunited Three Amigos as an emotional pre-match presentation involving Bob, Issy, Jesus and Uncle Dave was met with warm applause. It was worth the five pounds entrance fee alone, and many would have been forgiven for forgetting there was actually a game about to take place.

Latics got off to a roaring start, hitting the post early on and causing the St. Mirren defence some real problems in the first half. A couple of tasty challenges involving Lee Cattermole got the crowd warmed up, and on 25 minutes, Jason Koumas capped a decent personal pre-season with a free kick slotted nicely into the top corner of Paul Gallacher’s goal.

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First of all, I will say that I did not go to, or even listen to the Norwich match, hence the lack of a match report. Call me a fool, but I got confused and thought it was on Sunday for some reason. Thanks a lot Ceefax! Needless to say I’m going to heed my own warnings and check the official website from now on.

Sounds like it was another decent runout, despite the loss, but I’m a little bit wary of the St. Mirren game now; whereas before I was sure we would paste them to a pulp, now there is that nagging doubt. I would trade a 3-0 win against the Scottish side for a 1-0 against Villa, though, so everything ought to be put into context.

Only one stand is open to home supporters for this game, so I will pick up some tickets later on today if all goes to plan. I did want to go for them on Saturday, but the office was closed for some strange reason, perhaps something to do with rekitting everything to say ‘DW’. Still, it’s not like I’m going to miss out on a seat, eh? Eh?

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Couldn’t make it to this game, unfortunately — something about trains being unreliable — but thanks to the wonders of technology I was able to listen to a (rather biased, but what else would you expect?) Wigan Athletic World broadcast via the official website.

I do wish I could have been there, as all accounts seem to report a Latics side performing more like Manchester United than the Colchester United we’ve been used to of late. Well, maybe that was a bit uncalled for, but things are definitely clicking into place for Roberto Martinez’s side now.

Coupled with a below-par Preston performance, it turned out to be something of a rout as Rodders, Browny and N’Zogbia all found their way onto the scoresheet. There was also a goal for new boy Jason Scotland, which was met with cheers from the 2000-strong Latics travelling support.

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Is the cancellation of Almeria’s pre-season tour of Britain a sign of things to come? Will further fixtures, perhaps competitive, be postponed or even cancelled as the deadly disease takes a grip on the country?

Well, if you believe everything you read in the press, then yes, but I stopped taking tabloid filler as fact a long time ago. There’s a likelihood that the flu will bring some disruption to football (hopefully devastating the Arsenal squad the very week we are scheduled to play them), but let’s not be too negative about these things, eh?

At any rate, the upshot is that officials have lined up St. Mirren to fill the Spanish side’s place for the friendly on 8th of August. As far as I can gather, the game will go ahead as planned at the same time with the same ticket prices, only with new opposition. It will not, as Teletext page 517 still claims, be away to Motherwell – always check the official website for confirmation.

Well, at least we’ll still have a chance to see some Spanish style football at the DW this season under Bob Martinez. Of course, I suppose that ought to be ‘Big Bob’, in keeping with the long-standing British tradition of prefixing all managers’ first names with ‘Big’, but that’s a thought for another day.