J-Rob MBE

Former Wigan striker Jason Roberts has received an MBE for his work encouraging young people in Britain and the Caribbean to play football.

The Jason Roberts Foundation was formed in 2007 to provide opportunities for young people to take part in sporting and cultural activities and to participate in learning programmes enhancing educational achievement.

Roberts bagged 37 goals in 93 games for the Latics and helped them to achieve promotion from the Championship in the 2004/2005 campaign. He went on to score Wigan’s first goal in the Premiership from the penalty spot against Sunderland the following season and steer the Latics to mid-table safety.

He is perhaps best known for his winning goal in the 2005/2006 Carling Cup semi-final second leg, which sealed his team a place in the final of the competition for the very first time. The following season, he signed for Blackburn in a £3million deal, and has since gone on to score seventeen goals in 86 appearances for the Lancashire side. He came on as a sub in Saturday’s match against his old club, whereupon he received a polite round of applause from the Wigan crowd.

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Bob addresses his adoring fans

Roberto Martinez hosted his first fans forum as manager of Wigan Athletic in front of 350 supporters at the DW Stadium’s Fitness Lounge last night.

Unfortunately JWAW could not personally make it, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet (as in, the various Latics messageboards) we are able to bring you the general gist of the event.

If appropriating content is good enough for Rupert Murdoch then it’s sure as heck acceptable for a small-time weblog read by about five people (two of which passed away more than fifty years ago). Anyhow…

The evening was a chance for fans to pose questions about anything and everything to do with Wigan Athletic, and by all accounts Roberto was his usual honest self, answering all queries — which addressed a wide range of topics, from his style of play and tactics to Wigan’s status as a ‘selling club’ — calmly and with aplomb.

“There are no difficult questions” said Martinez to Latics Player’s Graham Lovett. “As long as everyone knows what we’re trying to do, it’s easy to find a real answer.”

“I’ve said it before, I want to know what the fans feel. All that we’re doing is for the fans. Unless we are together, we cannot share all our worries regarding the direction of the football club, and that’s vital.”

Amongst numerous other things, Roberto expressed his thoughts on Chris Kirkland and Titus Bramble, who, in his opinion, “should be in the England squad“. In the case of the former, he theorised it must only be a personal issue as opposed to lack of ability keeping Kirky out of the national setup.

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Latics’ 3rd Round FA Youth Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur will be held at the DW Stadium on Wednesday 9th December at 7.00 PM, the club have announced.

Entry on the night will be £5 and £1 for children. However, season ticket holders will be able to watch the game for free – that’s zero pounds and zero pence. Fans are being urged to come along, as this will be a great opportunity to witness the future of Wigan Athletic first hand.

Remember the Channel M Wigan Athletic programme, The Latics Football Show, that was on for about half an hour on a weekday night? I could never watch it because our house isn’t within the broadcast area for the station, which is a bit stupid really considering Hindley is supposed to be in Greater Manchester.

Nevertheless, I remember watching an episode via the website and really enjoying seeing how our youth team were getting along. I don’t think this programme exists any longer — probably down to financial restrictins, Credit Crunch and all that — but I would love for them to bring it back. In fact, if some influential bigwig is reading this, then I would gladly offer my services for any such revival, even if it did consist mainly of fans rambling on for half an hour.

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Wigan have released an official statement thanking Latics’ fans for their support during Sunday’s match against Fulham. This comes less than 24 hours after the BBC’s slightly dubious editing on their Match of the Day 2 programme, which some claim portrayed Wigan Athletic fans in a negative light. It is unknown whether the two are related, as it could be argued that the club were going to release the statement regardless of what Match of the Day claimed.

Whatever the situation, Latics’ Commercial Director Paul Hunt was quick to heap praise on the home support:

It was a great effort by the fans with so many taking up the various offers. The real plus point was that supporters are supporting the Club in pushing attendance with so many new, and in particular, young faces at the game. It bodes well for the future. — Paul Hunt, wiganlatics.co.uk

From a personal point of view, attendance and atmosphere-wise, the game was a marked improvement on some other matches this season. It has been pleasing to see the South Stand in particular fill with each home game that has passed, to the point where it was visibly packed for Sunday’s match. It was also good to see some of our armed forces lads attending the match on Remembrance Sunday, and perhaps in future we could think about letting some of them in for free. After all, I should think they’ve earned it.

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