If you think this week’s episode of the Progress With Unity Podcast is busy, then just you wait until the transfer burglars visit town. With the Premier League season due to kick off this weekend, the press will transform into a wide-eyed Incredible Hulk-type behemoth, foaming at the mouth at the prospect of a Wigan…
Seven short months ago, a whole division separated Wigan and Bournemouth when they drew swords for an FA Cup tie spread over two matches. On the pitch, however, the teams were far more evenly matched than their respective statuses might have suggested. The then-League One side, in the midsts of an unbelievable run of league…
“Don’t concern yourself too much, it’s only a sideshow.” But what a sideshow, eh? Yep, it’s time for me to gush about Wembley again, so skip forward to… August 2032 when I will finally stop. And that’ll only be because I’m dead. You can write about the league all you like, and I will continue…
Earlier this year an inconceivable FA Cup victory, last week a stonking start to the Championship campaign, this week a visit from the Prime Minister. This little town is really moving up in the world for the correct reasons. And then you have the PWU Podcast, but the less said about that, the better. The…
Even after seeing your team win the FA Cup just months earlier, there is no better feeling than waking up on the first morning of the new football season. Not even the prospect of starting two weeks earlier for Wigan’s (glorious?) return to the Championship can blemish the refreshing sensation that puts a spring in…
Football’s back, baby, and that can only mean one thing… the long-awaited return of the critically acclaimed* Progress With Unity Podcast! Apologies if that news was so exciting you spat your coffee all over your tablet PC/mp3 player/gramophone. Provide me with your postal address and I’ll steal your iden– erm, send you something cool to…
Jetlag can be a real problem. I should know, I’m jelly-legged after just a short trip down the high street in a shopmobility buggy (not that I’ve been stealing my grandad’s scooter again). But no, the only time I ever left the country was when I got lost in the Welsh part of Wrexham –…
Just like how DC Thomson always released a ‘Summer Holiday’ edition of their usual publications, Progress With Unity attempts in vain to fill the rather large gap between football and football with a healthy dose of juicy speculation. And maybe some football as well, but that takes something of a boisterous back seat as the…
*Snores loudly* Huh, wha? Grumble! How dare you wake me from my summertime slumber! Like hedgehogs, us football bloggers like to hibernate during fallow periods; it prevents us from losing touch with reality when the madness of the season begins in earnest sometime after July. Or maybe even earlier, if you’re Swansea. Don’t quote me…
[Scattered applause punctuated by the odd chesty cough] Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you to Sharpy’s Restaurant for this very special end of season dinner. While the PWU regulars are currently tucking into their cod and chips, here is a brief montage of memorable clips from this campaign. Wait, what? We haven’t got…
Did you see the 4-page victory parade special in today’s Wigan Evening Post? Did you open the centre spread and try to spot yourself among the crowd? Because I did, and it’s like Where’s Wally? without the red stripy shirts – they were nowhere to be seen. I haven’t been back to the town centre…
Seeing the FA Cup paraded around Market Place, just like we predicted on the PWU Podcast, was something of a surreal experience. Of course, we were never totally serious about it all, were we? The very notion of such a thing is foolish, surely? But no, this afternoon I got to see Arouna Kone balance…