Wigan Athletic (H)

[tomski]

Time to stop looking at these as rivals. Only for the border dwellers only. We are leaving them behind😂

Edited September 21 by tomski

[White Shirt]

Fucking get in. What a day 

[Mounts Kipper]

Cracking performance, composed mature and very professional. 

[masi 51]

5 hours ago, DazBob said:

Who was the dick that said JDC simply had to be replaced?

He does, as does George Johnston.....Both excellent today but we need better if we are to move up another level

Randal, Mcatee, Morley, Toal and Sheehan are all decent lge1 players as are Cogley and Johnston but if we are to get to the championship most if not all will be left behind.

[freds dad]

7 hours ago, Krimzon said:

 

Not the only Wiggin player to lose their bottle yesterday 

[paulhanley]

6 hours ago, tomski said:

Time to stop looking at these as rivals. Only for the border dwellers only. We are leaving them behind😂

I have come to the following opinion on this. I cannot describe myself as being unbothered by these any more. Neither can most Bolton fans and the delight at the drubbing we handed them yesterday is clear to see. However it is pretty much the same delight as (for instance) when we stuffed Blackburn 4-0 at home a few years ago. 

Wigan are not an arch- rival as per their ambition, but they are up there with Blackburn, Burnley and PNE now in the rivalry stakes. Probably not quite there among my generation but definitely among the younger lot.

Anyway they will be sulking in their hovels this morning. A brutal reminder of who is the biggest club: a 4-1 pasting in front of the kind of gate they could only dream about.

[DaveTheRave]

7 hours ago, Krimzon said:

 

That's quite amusing. Can you imagine the uproar if it was the other way round though. If one of those lads had chucked a bottle at a Wigan player he'd be banned and also be getting a criminal record.

 

[Domcarey1]

Yesterday was a belter & a statement win. Lowe’s 1st half tactics were woeful. The guy on the tannoy put the cherry on the cake. ‘Today’s attendance is 25k. Thankyou to 3.5k Wigan fans who were here earlier’ 😂

[Matt Lofthouse]

10 minutes ago, Domcarey1 said:

Yesterday was a belter & a statement win. Lowe’s 1st half tactics were woeful. The guy on the tannoy put the cherry on the cake. ‘Today’s attendance is 25k. Thankyou to 3.5k Wigan fans who were here earlier’ 😂

Missed that. 😂

Can’t hear anything in Lofthouse upper, the speakers are shot. Can’t hear substations or goal scorers. Thought Simons got our 2nd.

[perth_white]

25 minutes ago, Domcarey1 said:

Yesterday was a belter & a statement win. Lowe’s 1st half tactics were woeful. The guy on the tannoy put the cherry on the cake. ‘Today’s attendance is 25k. Thankyou to 3.5k Wigan fans who were here earlier’ 😂

Laughed out loud, cheers

[Cheese]

2 hours ago, masi 51 said:

He does, as does George Johnston.....Both excellent today but we need better if we are to move up another level

Randal, Mcatee, Morley, Toal and Sheehan are all decent lge1 players as are Cogley and Johnston but if we are to get to the championship most if not all will be left behind.

Our entire team is going to need replacing if we get back-to-back promotions and qualify for the Champions League in a couple of years. You absolute walloper.

[Eddie]

What a day.

Started with Wigan fans getting on the train at Chorley giving it the big’en - fair to say the Chinese tourists on their way to the airport peeling their boiled eggs were a bit shocked by the random illiterate bursts of “Wigan” and “ohhh wanky wanky” from the group of mid-40 year olds passing bags around and snapchatting it all (fucking Snapchat!! Grow up).

Genuinely nervous before the game which is rare for me. Say what you want about the rivalry but it felt like a big game and we haven’t had too many of them at the Toughsheet in the past 5 years, with there usually being a couple of hundred away fans in the corner.

Some sight to see the place that full. 25,500 - they could only dream of those numbers. That’s about 3 of their gates added together. Standing there when the teams came out, looking round at our stadium that nearly 30 years on still looks impressive, nearly full and the noise that came with it shows what this club is all about. There will be players that have come to us from higher leagues that would have been seriously impressed and probably taken aback.

As for the game. SS got his line up spot on. That centre mid pairing was exactly what this game needed and everything that we’ve missed in these games under Evatt and Forss showed how that ‘2nd striker’ role should be played - he looks a real player, someone who clearly has talent above this level.

As is typical, we lost the first 3-4 mins with them on top and I thought here we go again, but once we got our act together you could tell that we were right up for it and they were there for the taking. If I was a Wigan fan I’d be seriously concerned by Lowe’s first half set up in the 352 - everyone knows that you need to double up on our wingers and force things through the middle, instead they had the freedom of the wings behind 2 poor wing backs. Don’t get me wrong, we were fantastic and finally ‘clicked’ but it was a howler from Lowe to wait until half time to change it.

Second half we went through the motions and they finally made the change to match us up with 442 and killed it off a bit, but even so, the sight of their stand emptying with half an hour to go when Forss scored the 4th made that half very satisfying - after the amount of piss taking they’ve been allowed to do over the past 5-10 years, it was good to see them finally fucking off home with their tails between their legs.

As for the players, I thought all of them were brilliant.
I’ve given JDC plenty of stick this season, and I still think Christie comes in eventually, but to balanced I thought he had his best game for a long time.

Johnston also played well until he got that head injury after which he made some ropey decisions - I wouldn’t be surprised if that did actually impact him but he was just determined to play on.

ACD actually had a quieter game but Gale took the limelight instead (the benefit of having multiple options) and absolutely tore them apart.

Man of the match for me though was Forino. Sounds mad when we won 4-1 but he was immense. They had 16 corners and I think he headed at least 13 of them clear. All they had in the first half was a long ball and it caused us not one problem because he mopped everything up with ease. He’s a proper L1 centre back.

Burstow scores again, Forss shows how good he’s going to be, Conway does what he does for another game, the bench was stupidly strong, Sheehan comes on and just controls things / takes the sting out and you’ve got the likes of Taylor, Christie (and McAtee 🥴) not even in the squad.

We’ll be right up there at the end of the season, I’m sure of it (and Wigan won’t be close).

[masi 51]

8 minutes ago, Cheese said:

Our entire team is going to need replacing if we get back-to-back promotions and qualify for the Champions League in a couple of years. You absolute walloper.

You just talk your usual shite on all manner of topics.....You are very skilled

[L/H White]

8 hours ago, DazBob said:

Who was the dick that said JDC simply had to be replaced?

Someone wanted toal right back to

Edited September 21 by L/H White

[L/H White]

1 hour ago, Domcarey1 said:

Yesterday was a belter & a statement win. Lowe’s 1st half tactics were woeful. The guy on the tannoy put the cherry on the cake. ‘Today’s attendance is 25k. Thankyou to 3.5k Wigan fans who were here earlier’ 😂

That's funny

[masi 51]

Some are still pining for Evatt

 

 

[barrycowdrill]

Can’t really add to what’s already been said. But that performance, 1st half in particular had been brewing and the timing couldn’t have been any better. 
 

the greatest satisfaction for me was looking over to their end and knowing how much it was hurting them. Like to their core. Then waving them off after the 4th. Brilliant feeling 

momentum and confidence building through the side means we go in to the next 3 games of which 2 are against the bottom 2 with the real expectation of 9 points. 
 

That should sit us around the top 4 or so, a few points off the top as we go in to the winter slog. But with a deep squad with quality across it, many will be worried about us creeping up on their shoulders 

 

[paulhanley]

8 minutes ago, barrycowdrill said:

Can’t really add to what’s already been said. But that performance, 1st half in particular had been brewing and the timing couldn’t have been any better. 
 

the greatest satisfaction for me was looking over to their end and knowing how much it was hurting them. Like to their core. Then waving them off after the 4th. Brilliant feeling 

momentum and confidence building through the side means we go in to the next 3 games of which 2 are against the bottom 2 with the real expectation of 9 points. 
 

That should sit us around the top 4 or so, a few points off the top as we go in to the winter slog. But with a deep squad with quality across it, many will be worried about us creeping up on their shoulders 

 

It would have hurt them to their marrows. Comparing themselves to us, obsessing about us, wanting to be as good as us - it is what is all about for them. Their three wins at ours this decade will have satisfied them almost more than a promotion. We are a part of their DNA and they will be sore today. Sackcloth and ashes time.

I just wish Evatt had never handed them those memories on a silver plate and we need to go to the Whelan peg leg stadium in 2026 and do only our second ever double over them (first one was 92/3 a promotion season from this level).

Three wins on the bounce v them regains lost ground in way our present two still does not quite do so.

[Lt. Aldo Raine]

 

[Wanderlust]

1 hour ago, paulhanley said:

I have come to the following opinion on this. I cannot describe myself as being unbothered by these any more. Neither can most Bolton fans and the delight at the drubbing we handed them yesterday is clear to see. However it is pretty much the same delight as (for instance) when we stuffed Blackburn 4-0 at home a few years ago. 

Wigan are not an arch- rival as per their ambition, but they are up there with Blackburn, Burnley and PNE now in the rivalry stakes. Probably not quite there among my generation but definitely among the younger lot.

Anyway they will be sulking in their hovels this morning. A brutal reminder of who is the biggest club: a 4-1 pasting in front of the kind of gate they could only dream about.

I’m with you on this Paul. Whilst a lot of teams look at our stadium, our history and our fan base and think of us as a “big team” that needs taking down a peg or two, the problem with Wigan is that they’re close and a lot of Wanderers fans live in their area or have to work with their lot. Add to that east Wigan and Leigh etc historically being Bolton-supporting and their jealousy has become an obsession which has become increasingly difficult to ignore. I’m also of a generation that never took them seriously, but Whelan’s money and our near-bankruptcy has forced me to reconsider.

[desperado]

A post just about how good our fans, our stadium, our support is.

Fucking immense at L1 level.

We proper showed up yesterday.

Still buzzing this morning. 

Edited September 21 by desperado

[desperado]

Some great clips/photos of our support yesterday 👏

[Zico]

19 hours ago, wakey said:

We paid more for Schon than we got Gale for. Bonkers.

 

 

Can't believe we only paid 300k for XS yet Wrexham paid 1.2m for GT

 

[W.cramp]

1 hour ago, L/H White said:

Someone wanted toal right back to

That comment is right up there.

[desperado]

16 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

That's the wierd thing, none of us can truthfully judge him.  Imagine being a scout watching him for the last 9 games, and you're supposed to be giving a professional assessment of his shot stopping! 

 

17 hours ago, Tombwfc said:

 

Conceded 15 shots on target and 8 have gone in. And I can't remember them all but my guess is most, if not all, of the seven saves have been very routine.

He might be shit, I don't know. But at the minute it's bad luck more than anything.

Yes, I agree, hard to judge him in a BWFC shirt on shot stopping

But not being able to judge him at all as a keeper or thinking until we see him make a world class save he might be shit, is an opposite extreme I can’t get on board with.

From memory our worst keeper in recent times was Crellin, his ability to deal with crosses, his general ball handling, his decision making, his leadership, ability to marshall defence, having that physical aura that everything in the box will get dealt with, was just rank.

TSL has shown already he’s spot on with those things, and as we all agree his distribution (apart from that crap throw yesterday! 😂) is fantastic.

There are so many attributes I feel you are not considering if you think there’s nothing to judge him on.

Ironically, the only positive thing I can remember Crellin doing was making a few decent point blank saves! 

I’m not hunting out videos from his season at Doncaster, but there’s no way due dilligence would have had us pursuing him if his shot stopping was something that might be perceived as shit.