This weeks 12th Man page in the Wigan Evening Post features two contributions from Vital Latics:
We Must Kill These Teams Off
How on earth did we not win that game on Saturday? A fantastic display from the Latics, lots of chances created, just couldn’t kill the game off.
Martinez had his men fired up from the off, four great goal scoring opportunities within the first five minutes, but that psychological hurdle of getting the first win at home since August is looking to be our Achilles heel at the moment as a combination of bad luck, great goalkeeping, poor finishing and a lack of composure denied the Latics until the 54th minute.
The West Brom game presented a great chance to pull ourselves out of the bottom three and put some pressure on our rivals, if we could have grabbed an early goal, then I am positive that we’d have gone on to score a bucket full, it just didn’t happen and with our frailties at the back the sucker punch was always on the cards, you wouldn’t have bet against Paul Scharner scoring either.
The point gained though, coupled with Wolves getting battered by Manchester United saw the Latics climb off the bottom of the table, which in itself is something of a relief and something to build on.
There is now a tough run of fixtures ahead, first up is a trip to Liverpool this Saturday, hopefully Dalglish’s side will have one eye on the FA cup and with our away form being somewhat better than our home form I’d give the Latics half a chance of getting something from the game, well you can but hope.
Barry Worthington
We Can Still Seal Survival
It’s a strange feeling walking away from a game when you’ve taught the opposition a footballing lesson, and they have in return taught you a lesson in obtaining points. As Fulham did earlier on in the season, West Brom will have crept out of the DW with ill deserved gains. We need the points, we didn’t get them, same last week. The question therefore remains as to whether Saturdays performance and result is a bad thing or a good thing.
I know there are those that say it was a bad sign that we had so many chances and didn’t convert them. I personally prefer to dwell on the fact that we are able to create those chances, a bit of finishing and we’re home and dry. When the performance is described as a massacre at half time, you know you’re doing (mostly) the right things even if you’re not getting the right result. It’s now not a case of the management team trying to convince the players they are good enough, they have delivered and know it for themselves. They just need to believe they can cross the line and we’ll be fine.
I have absolutely no doubt we are capable of picking points from the ‘hard’ games coming up. With other clubs in turmoil, we’ll be fine
People have been moaning about the lack of inclusion of Diame, claiming it’s costing us points we can ill afford to give away. All we need to do is finish 17th or better.
We did that last year with massive contributions from Cleverley and in particular N’Zogbia. Both players then left the club with huge holes to fill for this season. I therefore think that Roberto is confident we can survive and we’re deliberately trying to survive, whilst giving our young squad experience and leaving ourselves with much less of a rebuilding job for next season. This is why some of us have stuck by Roberto, you heard it here first. The turnaround is starting, his stock is about to climb again. So buy, buy, buy whilst people still think we`re struggling.
Paul Thorp
Latics and Proud
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