Should I have slept on it before writing about Bolton 0-4 Wigan?
No, let’s not bother. Sometimes, the raw emotion is probably better. That’s a bad result. You couldn’t have really asked for a worse result, a 4-0 defeat at home, to whatever the historical contexts and all that, right now, in this moment, in this season, in this history, our local rivals. Two of the goals were scored by a player who depending on you believe, we either wanted to sign in the summer, or was begging to join us as we turned him down. It could have only got more insulting had the Wigan players sprinted outside to urinate on the Lofthouse statue.
It was a dreadful performance, Fair play to Wigan, who are a good team, and are on to a good manager there in Leam Richardson, but we didn’t help ourselves. Will Keane’s opener around the five minute mark was one of those where you could watch the carnage unfold in slow motion. There might have been a handball in there, but it’s not an excuse to stop playing as it looked as if they did. Keane took advantage.
It could have been different – we had a chance just before half time with Dapo Afolayan going over the bar, there was a penalty shout too which admittedly, I didn’t see particularly well from the other end, while Antoni Sarcevic hit the bar after the interval. Had any of those things gone our way, it might have ended up with a different outcome, but ultimately, it didn’t, and instead we witnessed the humiliation we were handed down after the break.
There have been a few appeals to take things with a pinch of salt and all that, but I don’t think it’s particularly difficult to say that despite the fact we’ve had a decent start to the season (and we have, we’re a newly promoted side that find themselves a point off the play-off spot) that performance and result today, was a shambles, and embarrassing for the fans. Wigan will release a DVD of that, even if they’re obsolete in the rest of the developed world.
In all seriousness though, the scenes from pockets of both sets of fans weren’t on. Whether it was Wigan fans ripping up and chucking advertising hoardings (at their own too) or our fans chucking stuff onto the pitch, whether the Wigan players were antagonising them or not, is not on, and will only hurt us financially, and/or mean future games will have to be played a grimly early kick-off time.
And finally, a bit on Ian Evatt, I was particularly critical of him in his early days, but with that run last season, he turned around my opinion. I still think he’s doing a superb job. The football is pleasing on the eye, and it’s largely getting results, but sometimes the confidence turns to bluster and arrogance. I wasn’t aware of the line until after the match, but simply, we are not the best team in League One. We just aren’t. Tell the players that in private if you really have to, but feeding the media that can make you look like a muppet, especially in a genuinely competitive league like League One.
One thing Evatt was right on, was the the ‘let down’ comment. That’s exactly how I felt leaving the UniBol. Not just the result, because a defeat was entirely plausible. It was the manner and atmosphere of it.
Onto Plymouth Argyle…