Wigan Athletic Preview

[speeeeeeedie]

I don't understand this line of thought.

Having two offside goals allowed didn't result in us losing the game? Explain please!

Den, the goals were offside in your eyes. The ref gave them so they become legitimate. Blaming the officals' for not disallowing goals gives the players and manager an excuse for some awful first half play.

If the 2 "offside" goals counted but the 3 first half ones were chalked off we would have won 3-2.

[den]

Den, the goals were offside in your eyes. The ref gave them so they become legitimate. Blaming the officals' for not disallowing goals gives the players and manager an excuse for some awful first half play.

If the 2 "offside" goals counted but the 3 first half ones were chalked off we would have won 3-2.

The goals were offside in everyone's eyes. I say again, we were poor in the first half, but could have, nay should have scored 5 goals ourselves. The linesman did us out of a point. That's all.

You can't argue with that.

[Wolverine]

Yet people rejoice Philips opinion, though he lives in Malta.

Really?

For the record, I am hardly a superfan. But I have made it to as many games in the flesh as I can ths year, and the last game really changed my mind on McCarthy. I truly hope he prooves his worth in the coming weeks because first and foremost I am a Rovers fan and I want the team we have now to perform. But something is not right and it was blindingly obvious to us at the JJB, just maybe not to the TV camera's who probbly spent a lot more time focusing on Wigan.

[Hannah]

It was just a horrible day all round. Dreadful inept performance, terrible hangover and sat directly in front of the drummer just to add to the woes!

Roll on tomorrow night againt the Arsenal kids.

I can beat sitting in front of the drummer - Sat next to the sodding thing in the second half! It is so loud and I ended up having to put my fingers in my ears it was that loud! It is also quite dangerous when some one is drunk with a drum and they seem to think it is necessary to keep turning round with it and knocking you!

[Hasta]

Den. Whilst the second killer goal was acres offside, I've seen the first several times and it's marginal. I'm certainly not as nailed on convinced as you that it was off. It was tight enough to not be blaming the linesman for not giving it.

[Mike Graham]

I can beat sitting in front of the drummer - Sat next to the sodding thing in the second half! It is so loud and I ended up having to put my fingers in my ears it was that loud! It is also quite dangerous when some one is drunk with a drum and they seem to think it is necessary to keep turning round with it and knocking you!

there were thousands of spare seats in our end.............why not move away from the pest?

[Hannah]

there were thousands of spare seats in our end.............why not move away from the pest?

From where I was sat you couldnt see any spare seats - if I had been able to I would have moved after 5 minutes of the first half when 10 drunk teenagers turned up and due to limited vocabulary used the c word which i HATE the whole way through the game!

[LeChuck]

I don't understand this line of thought.

Having two offside goals allowed didn't result in us losing the game? Explain please!

I've always believed that teams make their own luck.

We seem to have been involved in a lot of hairline decisions around our own box recently, that in itself suggests we're defending badly and living dangerously. The linesman are only human, the law of averages surely suggests that if we keep presenting opposition teams the chance to play these balls through our defence that a few are going to get called wrongly. Even if these decisions were called correctly, I hardly think we could keep hoping to catch strikers a fraction of a yard offside all the time. There's obviously something deeply wrong in defence, or possibly the midfield for not cutting out the supply of these passes through the defence.

In addition to that, because we're so damn slow all over the pitch, we play everything in front of the opposition defence, so we're rarely going to get the benefit of dodgy offside decisions because we don't have people running in behind.

[Jordan]

I saw the drummer (one at Wigan...not Billy) and I told him what people thought of it at away games....I also told him that someone would tw@t him if he took it to City.

I also did my best at breaking the thing but I think I did more damage to my hand than the drum.

[jonman105]

I saw the drummer (one at Wigan...not Billy) and I told him what people thought of it at away games....I also told him that someone would tw@t him if he took it to City.

I also did my best at breaking the thing but I think I did more damage to my hand than the drum.

good man!

[Wild Irish Rover]

From where I was sat you couldnt see any spare seats - if I had been able to I would have moved after 5 minutes of the first half when 10 drunk teenagers turned up and due to limited vocabulary used the c word which i HATE the whole way through the game!

Drunk or not, I always make a point of asking fools like that to moderate their language, and if they refuse I get a steward to turd them out. Its the only language they really understand and if you don't do a pattern interrupt they just continue to fester in their morbid lack of vocabulary / disregard for others. I would back up anyone else who was bothered by bad language or behaviour too - as would any other decent football loving fan. Yobs out, I say.

[AggyBlue]

Drunk or not, I always make a point of asking fools like that to moderate their language, and if they refuse I get a steward to turd them out. Its the only language they really understand and if you don't do a pattern interrupt they just continue to fester in their morbid lack of vocabulary / disregard for others. I would back up anyone else who was bothered by bad language or behaviour too - as would any other decent football loving fan. Yobs out, I say.

Perhaps you could try watching Crown Green Bowls instead of football.

There was never these sort of problems with terracing, it was easy enough to move away. With all seater stands it's down to the luck of the draw.

I swapped seats at the JJB but I know that won't be possible at City. I can understand why it can spoil the match for some people, but they're just kids doing what kids do.

Perhaps the club should look at how seats are sold. Blocks of seats for the ruffians and seperate blocks for the Hob Knobs.

[Scotty]

Most of what I was going to say has already been said. Hughes has to take a lot of the blame for the defeat, but he can't be blamed for individuals making stupid errors like the one's Emerton, Nelsen, McCarthy and Warnock made at key moments in the game.

Reid and Savage, even when they were both playing at the top of their game, didn't used to work as a central midfield pairing as neither of them has the defensive discipline to cover and track back when the opposition has the ball. So why Hughes thought it would work when both players are nowhere near their best is beyond me. The way Landzaat (sp?) was allowed the freedom of the park to run through midfield untracked for the first goal was frightening. We would definately not have conceeded 5 goals had the much-maligned Mokoena been playing, and we'd have kept possession of the ball better had Dunn been playing.

Pedersen does a job defensively, but that job is miles away from being enough to justify his starting place. Bentley had a poor game by his standards but still looked our most dangerous creative threat.

McCarthy has either been told, or has taken it upon himself, to roam around into midfield or out wide, thus leaving Santa Cruz totally isolated. As a result we rarely keep possession up front long enough for our pedestrian midfield to join in. It also negates McCarthy's biggest strength, that of putting the ball in the back of the net.

Our defence was a shambles, and has been for a while, but we usually can cope because we out-battle teams in midfield. Well, Wigan won that battle by a landslide in the first half and, as a result, our defence was shown up to be the error-strewn mess it is. All four of them need to start putting the ball into row z for a couple of weeks and forget about dribbling round half the team before laying on a perfect pass. Especially away from home against a team fighting for their lives.

We need to get some solidity back into our play. I'd play Savage and Mokoena together in central midfield with Dunn and Bentley out wide. We also need to get our two forwards working together. We've got a great centre-forward in Roque, lets get someone playing off him. At the start of the season we were regularly getting crosses in from both wings. It seemed to work - so why have we stopped doing it? Santa Cruz scored from the only decent cross we put in on Saturday.

I'm not worried yet, I still think we've got good players and I'm sure we'll turn things around soon. I also think we'll beat Arsenal tomorrow and that might just be the lift we need to get back to winning ways over Xmas.

[RevidgeBlue]

McCarthy has either been told, or has taken it upon himself, to roam around into midfield or out wide, thus leaving Santa Cruz totally isolated.

I commented very early on in the season that Benni and RSC don't work too well together as a pairing with Benni not playing near enough to RSC. Since then the problem has got steadily worse with Benni dropping off deeper and deeper, his only decent patch of form coming for four or five games after his original rollicking and one on one coaching earlier in the season.

Does anyone really think Hughes (who was a wonderful forward himself and knows a bit about it) has actually instructed Benni to fart about where he is currently on the half way line? - because I don't. How many times has he been pulled off this season?. I suspect it's more a case of he's had his nose put out of joint with RSC's arrival, doesn't like not being the main man anymore, and isn't exactly going out of his way to help his strike partner look good.

As a pairing, the combination we've seen the least of is RSC and Roberts, and that looked extremely promising for part of the second half against Newcastle. I would like to see that given a go although regrettably, from what I've heard, some internal politicking means we might not be seeing too much more of Roberts in a Rovers shirt.

Him to start and score a hat trick tonight then!

[RevidgeBlue]

I saw the drummer (one at Wigan...not Billy) and I told him what people thought of it at away games....I also told him that someone would tw@t him if he took it to City.

I also did my best at breaking the thing but I think I did more damage to my hand than the drum.

If you could use your considerable influence to try and stop the "2 pound an hour" gang from goading the stewards for 90 minutes that would go a lot further towards improving the atmosphere at away games than intimidating the drummers imo.

[CAPT KAYOS]

I've always believed that teams make their own luck.

We seem to have been involved in a lot of hairline decisions around our own box recently, that in itself suggests we're defending badly and living dangerously. The linesman are only human, the law of averages surely suggests that if we keep presenting opposition teams the chance to play these balls through our defence that a few are going to get called wrongly. Even if these decisions were called correctly, I hardly think we could keep hoping to catch strikers a fraction of a yard offside all the time. There's obviously something deeply wrong in defence, or possibly the midfield for not cutting out the supply of these passes through the defence.

In addition to that, because we're so damn slow all over the pitch, we play everything in front of the opposition defence, so we're rarely going to get the benefit of dodgy offside decisions because we don't have people running in behind.

Agree Le Chuck - even though the officials where still poor.

Den I know where you are coming from - but in my book we did not battle back, moreso got back to basics and started to concentrate a bit more and it just showed how poor Wigan are really to allow us to do that, which in itself highlights how bad how our performance was.

Excellent post Scotty -was good to have a chat again again Saturday.

Oh just remembered another thing that is really irking me and has been for a while - we started to do it a couple of times last season but it appears to be every game now this season including home games .... Why the hell do we not leave anybody on the half way line when we are defending.. we have no outlet and always end up putting ourselves under even more pressure which was obvious on Saturday and contributed alot to our downfall. Maybe this is what McCarthy should be doing as Santa always seems to be defending but he is not doing it either.

[USABlue]

his only decent patch of form coming for four or five games after his original rollicking and one on one coaching earlier in the season.

Which just happened to coincide with his pal Jose being ousted at Chelsea.

[Eddie]

Does anyone really think Hughes (who was a wonderful forward himself and knows a bit about it) has actually instructed Benni to fart about where he is currently on the half way line? - because I don't. How many times has he been pulled off this season?. I suspect it's more a case of he's had his nose put out of joint with RSC's arrival, doesn't like not being the main man anymore, and isn't exactly going out of his way to help his strike partner look good.

It seems unlikely, but then so does the fact that an experienced striker would choose to do that. It also surprises me that if he were doing it and hadn't been told that it wouldn't have been sorted out by way. Any way you look at it, it sort of works it way back to Hughes. He needs to stop it from happening.

[waggy]

here is what is wrong with samba seems every one we give one to goes awol

[thenodrog]

Bit harsh... I was sat right in front of about 4 or 5 big lads behind me, probably early to mid 20s... hardly kids, but drunk all the same. The language they were using was atrocious but what really bothered me was the way they called some of the Wigan players on the pitch and yet we have similar players on our very own team. Really really disgusting stuff coming out of their mouths. I'm not the biggest of lads and I was with my sister but there isn't a chance of me standing up for myself in this one because of fear; they were drunk, obviously aggressive and I'm not going to get myself into a conflict with 5 of them even if there is a chance of other people agreeing with me.

It's of no consequence (except to opposing clubs income) but this along with so often being reduced to 10 men and seeing any match over as a contest is a big reason why I rarely go to away matches. It's simply not a nice way to spend half my weekend. At ewood I used to sit in the Riverside and now sit in the Jack Walker to be amongst nice people with normal behaviour so I'm damned if I will pay good money to be in close contact with our racous low life, ne'er do wells at away games. Obviously I am not alone either cos no one with any sense would want to take their families to an away day.

Whether some sort of segregation would work I don't know but maybe it's worth a try. We have the space to offer a family stand for away fans (might be a workeable marketing ploy) but I doubt many clubs could.

[BRFC4EVA]

I saw the drummer (one at Wigan...not Billy) and I told him what people thought of it at away games....I also told him that someone would tw@t him if he took it to City.

I also did my best at breaking the thing but I think I did more damage to my hand than the drum.

Thank God for that! I was pleading with my mate to allow me to go over and try and pierce the drum with some sort of large and sharp object. Having it home is one thing, but away? Everybody is up for singing anyway-the atmosphere is better whenever the drum is not there -which thankfully he isnt usually! What annoys me, is how rythmatically challenged he is-can he not hear the drum cutting across the singing costantly!!!

Hope to God he aint at Man C or Derby!

[Wild Irish Rover]

Perhaps you could try watching Crown Green Bowls instead of football.

There was never these sort of problems with terracing, it was easy enough to move away. With all seater stands it's down to the luck of the draw.

I swapped seats at the JJB but I know that won't be possible at City. I can understand why it can spoil the match for some people, but they're just kids doing what kids do.

Perhaps the club should look at how seats are sold. Blocks of seats for the ruffians and seperate blocks for the Hob Knobs.

I'm no Hob Knob, my friend but following the Rovers for 35 years has given me enough of a perspective to know that things are going down hill, behaviour wise. These aren't always 'just kids' either, though that doesn't influence whether I request that people respect the right of others to enjoy the football without having to listen to mindless yobbery.

The point is, unless somebody objects, the problem doesn't go away. Sometimes ordinary honest folk just have to make a stand. I do.

[the original david brent]

I'm no Hob Knob, my friend but following the Rovers for 35 years has given me enough of a perspective to know that things are going down hill, behaviour wise. These aren't always 'just kids' either, though that doesn't influence whether I request that people respect the right of others to enjoy the football without having to listen to mindless yobbery.

The point is, unless somebody objects, the problem doesn't go away. Sometimes ordinary honest folk just have to make a stand. I do.

presumably then you had your head in the clouds in the 1970's and 1980's?

[SouthAussieRover]

presumably then you had your head in the clouds in the 1970's and 1980's?

Or he just walked away and left the yobs to it for a few years.

I know I did.

[blue phil]

I'm no Hob Knob, my friend but following the Rovers for 35 years has given me enough of a perspective to know that things are going down hill, behaviour wise. These aren't always 'just kids' either, though that doesn't influence whether I request that people respect the right of others to enjoy the football without having to listen to mindless yobbery.

I was sat right at the back with my youngest in front of what I presume were the "£2 and hour" crew .....living proof that our education system is in serious decline Even I can remember when swearing in front of women and kids was unacceptable and self policed ; those days have gone out the window .

Every time I go to an away game I end up vowing that it will be the last . It's just more civilised to watch in the pub .