I have a funny feeling this will be Wigan Athletic’s ‘realistic’ season. You know when you make a prediction and someone immediately responds with “is that what you realistically anticipate?” Well, I have yet to hear such a challenge, as due to The Season That Time (Hopefully) Forgot, expectations have once again been reset to…
This summer, I decided it was time for a change. Instead of scrutinising behind closed doors friendlies in minute detail, I will save my excitement for the start of the league season – there are, after all, six games scheduled for the next three weeks. I figure it is better to pace yourself than blow…
This interview was originally conducted by Liam Sephton and published in an issue of All Gone Latics from the 2014/15 season. I lost my crib notes so I can’t be sure of the exact edition it appeared in. Also my watch broke. And I can’t tell the time. And any other excuses I neglected to…
This interview was conducted by Liam Sephton and originally published in All Gone Latics 05. It is reproduced here with permission of The Powers That Be (thanks, Google!). AGL: Who was the best player you played with? CG: Dean Saunders when I was at Oxford, who were in Division One. There would be times when…
This article first appeared in All Gone Latics 01, October 2014. I wasn’t at Sharpy’s Restaurant back in July 2012, when the Progress With Unity Wigan Athletic Podcast was first pitched to Vital Latics webmaster Barry Worthington. His moderately popular web radio show ‘Latics Speyk’ had recently disappeared from the internet in mysterious circumstances, restoring…
This article first appeared in All Gone Latics 06, May 2015. Everybody knows about Roberto Martinez’s greatest successes. They’re immortalised in banners above the Grand Arcade, specially themed season review DVDs and doodles of Ben ‘Maloneyinto’ Watson at the back of school exercise books from Hindley to Haydock. But what of those smaller mercies, the…
This article first appeared in All Gone Latics 01, October 2014. July 1998 was a wonderful month for the young JWAW. For one thing, he had the luxury of replacing his yellowing Wigan Evening Post squad poster with a shiny new model replete with glossy finish and 2-inch staple hole puncturing the unfortunate Staurt Barlow’s…
OK, I’ll admit we haven’t been the chirpiest bunch this year… or at least, that’s the way it might seem. It is hoped that this week’s podcast, the second in a series of summertime specials with free bucket and spade, will prove that it hasn’t all been serious business down at Studio PWU. In truth,…
Stop right there, dear reader! Sorry to interrupt your hard-earned first ice cream of the summer, but we thought you might want to hear this. Progress With Unity has returned for our traditional close season special complete with socks ‘n’ sandals and sand in your swimming trunks. Except we hope this isn’t *quite* as excruciating…
Wait, don’t events like this generally occur in a player’s benefit year? Well, considering our current contract situation, Progress With Unity simply couldn’t take the chance of waiting another 12 months for Boycey’s big one-oh to tick around. And anyway, to hold an Emmerson Boyce tribute night at the end of this season would be…
Surprise! I bet you never expected the PWU team to organise something as large scale as an Emmerson Boyce tribute night at the North Stand Marquee. There again, it’s really just a slightly expanded podcast… with 500 attendees and added celebrity guests. And of course, the big man himself, the Barbadian international legend, the Joseph’s…
(Well, Tuesday, seeing as this didn’t publish on time…) It’s a weird feeling, you know. To come face to face with the final game of the season and have naught but a McFastFood ‘luncheon’ and pride in the Wigan Athletic shorts to play for. When you know you’re to meet a gristly end involving severely…