We did it…again!

Well, here we are. A few days have passed since Sunday’s marvellous win at Stoke and it still hasn’t quite sunk in that in ten weeks from now little Wigan Athletic will be embarking on a SEVENTH successive year in English football’s elite league.

I must admit that despite banging the positive drum over the past few weeks about our survival chances, there were times on Sunday when it felt like our number was being called and our time was up. The number of times I heard a score coming in from another ground that did us no favours whatsoever was unbelievable.

I’d spent countless hours on the BBC’s Premier League predictor in the lead-up to the game and I therefore had memorised every possible permutation that could arise, including latics losing to Stoke but still staying up! And as each goal went in at the other grounds, people around me asked “where does that leave us?”

^ This is actually me!!!

Like the sad person that I am I knew exactly where each and every goal left us, whether it was points, goal difference or goals scored, I knew. It meant so much to me that I didn’t want to be stood behind the goal at Stoke not knowing whether we were up or down and waiting for someone sat behind me that I’d never met before to find out via his radio!

In the end, latics pushed forward and got the all-important goal which meant that we’d taken care of our fate ourselves and results elsewhere didn’t matter as much. At full time I remember muttering stupid lines such as “well a draw would have done” and “we’ve actually finished sixteenth above Wolves!” Who cares!! We’d survived and that was all that mattered.

So what does it all mean, to the club, and to the fans? Well, put simply, it means everything. While we’re only a small club, in a small town with a relatively small fan base, to simply survive in that division for a SIXTH time is truly remarkable. Just like many Blackpool fans would have told you a year ago, to just have one season at it would be something special, but what Wigan Athletic have achieved since 2004 (and earlier for that matter) is enough to leave you speechless. I personally don’t think we, as a club, get anywhere near the amount of credit we deserve for that.

Some idiot decided to try and ruin my celebrations in town on Sunday night by saying: “What are you celebrating for? You haven’t won anything, you finished near the bottom!” That, for me, indicates someone who hasn’t got the first idea about sport and certainly no idea about football. Roberto Martinez himself summed it up well in interview by saying “for us it’s the equivalent of winning a trophy” I think that quote sums it up perfectly.

And while I’m on the subject, what a man our manager is. He’s taken a fair amount of flack over the past couple of seasons and it’s a measure of the man that he’s just taken it all on the chin, stuck to what he believes in and got on with the job. There’s many a manager would have either given in to the demands of the fans and changed his style of play or even walked away from his job, but not Roberto.

For a man so young and still so inexperienced I find that remarkable. He’s never once doubted his beliefs in his style of play, or that he’ll keep his team in the division. Yes he’s still got things to learn and yes we need more goals in the team, but it’s a work in progress and let’s not forget, his remit every season is to be better than at least three other managers, three other teams…so far, so good on that score.

Going forward now the club has got a great opportunity to strengthen its position. The wage bill has been trimmed significantly these past two seasons, but the quality of the product has got better. That’s no mean feat and if the club can add a regular goalscorer (Conor Sammon could be that man) and some competition for places in positions such as left-back and down the flanks we’ve got ourselves a squad that can really make an impact and surprise a few teams.

You’ve only got to look at the last third of the season. As soon as we hit February and we had a fully-fit squad to chose from, take out a couple of bad displays against Manchester United and Sunderland and you’ve got an excellent set of results that a team in the top six would be proud of. In fact, since February, latics picked up 20 points from 14 games. That’s the sort of ratio that, over a season, makes you a European contender.

Now I’m not wildly predicting that we’re going to go from relegation fodder to European football overnight (only Leeds United fans think like that!!) but what I am getting at is that when everyone’s fit and pulling in the same direction, you never know what’s achievable in this division.

That for me is the next step. Roberto often talks of consistency. If he, as the manager, can bring a bit of that to the club then next season could be an interesting one. It’s gone largely unnoticed because of the significance of Sunday’s win but at Stoke we won back-to-back Premier League games for the first time under Martinez. That stat alone is a big reason why we’ve been fighting it out at the wrong end of the table for so long.

Finally, I must pay tribute to latics fans. I said it in my blog post-Blackpool but I feel it must be said again. Although there were some nervous folk on Sunday, the attitude of each and every supporter at the game was absolutely superb. Every single fan was right behind the team from the first whistle to the last and yet again I feel it made a massive difference.

There were fans that missed out on tickets that would have loved to have been part of that and part of what was ultimately a great day, but they were there in spirit and the cheers from Wigan could be heard in Stoke when Hugo nodded in that late winner!

It’s what being a fan of club like Wigan Athletic is all about because you could see what it meant to each and every latics player at full-time on Sunday. They’re not the highest paid players in the Premier League by any stretch of the imagination. They play for the fans, not for the wage packet. Because without the fans this football club wouldn’t be the great football club that it is.

We get knocked down, but we get up again…

…you’re never gonna keep us down!

Well it’s hard to know where to start after a weekend where the phrase “a rollercoaster of emotions” doesn’t even come close to describing what latics fans went through. Not just on Sunday, but also on Saturday, before Wigan had even kicked a ball.

Throughout Saturday afternoon, with games taking place that affected Wigan’s own survival chances, our relegation rivals went behind, levelled and went in front seemingly every five minutes. I personally had to leave the house at 1.30pm as I couldn’t take the stress of it all…and my team wasn’t even playing!

To say results ended up going against us is something of an under-statement. Blackburn got an unlikely point at home to newly-crowned Premier League Champions, Manchester United. Meanwhile, Blackpool and Wolves both picked up wins to put added pressure on latics going into Sunday’s crunch match.

When latics quickly found themselves 2-0 down in the first half against the Hammers you’d have been forgiven at half time for feeling as though it was all over. Our time was up, our Premier League journey had run its course and the dreaded ‘R’ word was but 45 minutes away.

But this isn’t any ordinary football club, this is Wigan Athletic we’re talking about here. Giving up simply isn’t an option. The introductions of Victor Moses and Conor Sammon at half time gave the players and the crowd the lift and the belief that they needed to turn things around.

No sooner had Rob Green picked the ball out of the net following Charles N’Zogbia’s wonder free-kick, Green was doing it again when Conor Sammon cut inside a defender from Ben Watson’s through ball and slotted calmly beyond the ‘keeper to pull things level.

With Birmingham losing at home to Fulham, a point was enough to keep Wigan’s survival chances alive going into the last game at Stoke. But Wigan didn’t stop at that. The spirit, commitment and desire the players showed to go and get a winner was enough to take your breath away.

Rob Green’s goal led a charmed life and it felt as though we’d have to go to Stoke needing a win to even give us half a chance of survival. However, like the true prizefighter we are, we found that extra inch, that extra bit of energy and with just seconds left on the clock Charles N’Zogbia’s second of the afternoon sent the DW Stadium into celebrations that are simply indescribable.

Not after Jason Roberts’ goal at Arsenal to send latics to the Carling Cup Final, nor after Charles N’Zogbia’s injury time winner also against Arsenal last season have I seen celebrations to even come close to those on Sunday.

When you talk about Wigan Athletic you’re talking about a prizefighter that’s truly unique in its never-say-die attitude. They broke the mould when they made this prizefighter. It just does not know when it’s beaten. Even when it’s firmly down on its backside, with the third fist about to hit the canvas, it somehow finds something from somewhere to get up, dust itself down and finish the job off.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s what makes being a Wigan Athletic fan truly special. I see other teams fighting like mad to stay up, but are any capable of the sort of courage we showed on Sunday? I don’t really think so. There’s just something about this football club that means it’s always capable of the impossible, the unthinkable. We won’t always pull it off (we’d be Champions of Europe if we did) but somehow when we really need it most we manage to pull it out of the bag.

Roberto Martinez summed it up in a direct address to the fans in the supporters bar after the game. “Sorry we put you through it today but we like to do things our way, the latics way!” Having a man in charge that knows exactly what this football club and its supporters are all about is a big reason why I think this club is going places and is as capable of the unthinkable as it’s ever been before.

And so it’s on to Stoke. A draw could be enough. We could even lose and stay up on goal difference (again!) if the likes of Birmingham and Blackpool suffer heavier defeats than we do. That really would be remarkable given our goal difference was -10 after the first two games of the season. Just like four years ago at Sheffield united, you wouldn’t bet against latics doing it the hard way, whatever that hard way is.

I wrote on Twitter on Sunday night: “I don’t know who writes Wigan Athletic’s scripts but they ought to be nominated for an Oscar” Here’s hoping that’s the feeling on Sunday evening. It’s like living within a real-life Rocky film. We’re in the final round, we’re exhausted, we're battered, we’re bruised, but somewhere within those last closing moments you feel we’ve got it in us to deliver one final, telling blow.

Progress with unity

I can’t go without showing you a couple of videos from Sunday. The first is, of course, the highlights from an unbelievable match. The second is how Sky Sports News covered the game. It's over 11 minutes long so if you can't watch it all makes sure you watch from about 8 minutes in. I really feel it sums up Sunday’s events and the emotions attached superbly well.

No one likes us, we don't care

Well this week saw yet another member of the national media take a huge swipe at little Wigan Athletic. This time it was the turn of Mick Dennis. It seems Wigan only getting 17,000 through the turnstiles each week just isn’t good enough and therefore the Championship beckons.

Funny that, because last time I checked the rule book there was no mention of teams not being able to compete in any given league based on how many attend their matches. The FA must have omitted that one, how foolish of them.

I think the point really is that for years our club has over-achieved beyond the wildest dreams of anyone connected with Wigan Athletic. For a short time the press and the majority of outsiders jumped on our bandwagon and were heaping praise on our achievement of moving through the leagues so quickly and reaching the very top.

However, the tables appear to have turned. Those people don’t want to praise us now. They don’t want to say how well were doing or “that’s how a football club should be run.” They want to take every possible little swipe at us that they can. Their love for our club has turned to hate. The very fact there’s only one thing they can ever criticise us for is our attendances makes me smile, I’m sorry to say. It really is a sad state of affairs.

If you were to ask me right now which sets of supporters have given grief to me personally over the last few weeks and months I think you’ll quickly see a pattern emerging. Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Coventry City and, most recently, Norwich City (Mick Dennis’ team), to name but a few. (Even Wigan Warriors fans are having a go and they get less through the turnstiles than we do!)

Now can you detect the pattern? Yes, they have all been Premier League clubs in their day and most have been some sort of force in Europe too. The trouble is, while Wigan have been lauding it up in the Premier League, their respective clubs have been struggling a division (or two divisions, in some cases) below us.

What’s the reason for the barrage of abuse? The answer, quite simply, is jealousy. Their clubs have been run so poorly while we’ve been working our way to our current position. Just because they get more through the turnstiles in their respective divisions than Wigan Athletic do in the top flight, that makes it alright to try and give the club and its loyal supporters a bad name.

When they dish out their criticism there’s not thought to the fact there’s little over 80,000 people in our town. No thought to the fact we’ve got 7 other Premier League clubs within a stones throw of our ground. No thought to the fact we’ve spent most of our history in non-league football. No thought to that fact we were getting just 1,800 through the turnstiles only 16 years ago. No thought to the fact that we’ve not got generations of supporters to call upon now we’re in the big time. The list goes on.

It’s wrong. What Wigan Athletic have achieved in the past 15 years is something few clubs will ever achieve in their entire history. It’s something that I, for one, am immensely proud of and, even if we do suffer from the dreaded ‘R’ word at the end of the season, we can always look back fondly at what we achieved, which is more than can be said of the aforementioned clubs and their under-achievements.

We’ll never be bitter and twisted about what we once had. We’ll always be grateful for what we had and respect that we couldn’t punch above our weight forever. We’ll always know it’s not that long ago we were in the bottom division and we’re not blinkered enough to think we have a divine right to be in the upper echelons of English football forever.

More importantly, we’ll always be here. It doesn’t matter what league we’re in, whether we get 1,700 or 17,000 through the gates, whether we’ve got a millionaire backer or go back to the days of collection buckets outside the turnstiles. There’ll always be a Wigan Athletic.

No one likes us, we don’t care.