Wigan Athletic’s awful run of form continued as we fell to our 4th consecutive defeat at the hands of Watford at the DW Stadium. Here are 5 things we learnt from the game…
1) 1 step forward, 2 steps back…
For 65 minutes this game was looking like it could be the turning point in our season. We more than matched Watford with our hard work and stubborn defending whilst also looking somewhat dangerous on the break. However, all that hard work was undone with a drastic change in mentality as we looked to settle for a point rather than continuing to try and cause Watford problems going forward. Ultimately sitting back cost us a point, maybe even 3 if things had gone our way, and it feels like we’ve seen this happen before. A positive start but a painfully familiar end.
2) Jamie Jones is Number 1
Latics only made one change from Saturday’s team as Jamie Jones replaced the out of form Ben Amos between the sticks. Amos wasn’t in the 18 so I’d assume he’s injured but the change is one that needed making regardless of fitness levels. Jones showed yesterday that he’s more than capable at this level and the margin of defeat would’ve been more but for a very good save in the first half. He commands his area far better than Amos and came for crosses on a couple of occasions. I’m glad he’s back in the XI and hope he stays there.
3) Whatmough can he do?
Latics fans were overjoyed to see star man Jack Whatmough in the team after he picked up an injury towards the end of our game at QPR last weekend. As usual he was immense, defensively sound and composed on the ball. His block in the second half is one of the best I’ve ever seen and prevented a certain goal, and he’ll be gutted that it didn’t earn us a point. In the last minute he almost equalised too but his towering header clipped the bar in a moment that pretty much summed up the last month of football for us as a whole. Get that new contract signed ASAP Jack, please!
4) Game changing subs…
Usually hearing that sentence would give you a positive feeling wouldn’t it. Unfortunately for Latics our substitutions in recent games have actually hindered us somewhat I’d suggest. The facts are the majority of our squad aren’t ‘Championship quality’ players and we don’t have the luxury of having high quality players to bring off the bench. But still, by replacing a quick attacker with a defensive target man it completely kills any hope of attacking football and you could just feel the excitement in the crowd diminish. The decision to leave Thelo Aasgaard and Antony Scully on the bench until we were a goal down was another baffling one from Leam, who I still don’t think knows how he wants us to play at times.
5) What’s the opposite of a fortress?
It’s one of the most used cliches in football isn’t it? ‘Make your home ground a fortress’ says every football manager in the history of football. Well, Latics haven’t won at the DW on a Saturday afternoon since March when we pummelled Morecambe 4-0 and only have one more chance to rectify that before the World Cup break. The home form could be down to a number of things. A lack of atmosphere from 95% of the ground, not knowing how to break teams down properly, setting up too defensively and settling for a point (yes, I’ve mentioned it again!) or perhaps we’re just unlucky. Whatever the reasons are they need solving quick or we’ll be back in League 1 before that Saturday 3pm record is ended!
Talking Wigan 