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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Marlon King: Going down

Why is it that the only time Wigan ever get on the telly is when one of our players is convicted of actual bodily harm? Well, I say our player, as Marlon King was on loan at the time of the offense, but we were still paying his wages. Not any more, though, because he’s been handed his fourteen days notice.

According to Whelan, who I thought gave a rather good account of himself on Sky Sports News, “we don’t want players with eighteen month jail sentences”. Presumably seventeen would have been the threshold but one and a half years was just long enough to warrant a sacking in DW’s eyes.

Jollities aside, it’s something of a worry that King was our third-choice forward in the opening ten games of the season – he made a couple of substitute appearances but no real impact. In fact, King struggled to impose himself during his spell at the club with only a single penalty — which just about crept in — to his credit in 18 appearances.

If truth be known, Latics have been trying to offload King for quite a while now. He’s been an expensive burden, but perhaps we may be entitled to some sort of monetary compensation for his actions. Big Dave sounded pretty angry, and being the shrewd businessman he is, I would not be at all surprised if he pursued this claim.

On a personal level, there’s also the question of whether King will ever play professional football again. Had he been cleared of this offence, I am sure he would have been offloaded to Portsmouth or Wolves, maybe even a Championship side where he would have prospered.

As it is, the only football he’ll be playing for the next year and a half will be for Wormwood Scrubs FC. Still, if Mean Machine is anything to go by, then at least he’ll get the opportunity to hone his skills — footballing and otherwise — under the tutelage of Vinnie Jones.

Latics fans have the opportunity of attending our next three home games against Fulham (8th November), Sunderland (28th November) and Birmingham (5th December) for just thirty quid in the club’s 3 for 30 offer.

Now let’s look at the maths here. These category C games would normally cost £22 for an adult in the most expensive areas of the ground — that’s the middle of the West or East stands — totalling £66 for all three. If you take the club up on their offer before the Fulham game in just over a week’s time, you’ll be saving 50% and upwards on ticket prices.

Season ticket holders will also be able to bring a friend to one of the games for a measly one quid. Not bad eh?

More details.

It’s nice to see some of these offers popping back up again, but I can’t help feeling we’d sell out more games if we applied similar discounts to the bigger matches. I would love for there to be a sellout or two this season, but it seems highly unlikely unless Arsenal are really shooting for the title when they visit the DW on the 17th April.

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