Wigan (a), FA Cup 3rd Round, 8/1/21

[Admiral Nelsen]

Hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here, but as one of the surprisingly decent number of Rovers fans with a WN postcode, I thought I'd start the match thread for our (well, not mine obviously) short trip south in the cup this Saturday. As an aside, I've had a fairly complicated relationship with the club of my hometown over recent years. It was simple enough to wish them well when they were miles below the Rovers in English football's pecking order. Even when they found themselves in the same division - almost entirely because of the generosity of wealthy Rovers fan Dave Whelan - it was hard to dislike them too much when they were a source of an easy 6 points and the simplest of local away trips. All this changed after one of the more eventful games in our recent history in 2007, where a Santa-Cruz hattrick wasn't enough to stop a 10-man Rovers going down to a 5-3 defeat. Despite our record at Ewood remaining very strong (that game in 2012 notwithstanding), this fired the starting gun on a truly woeful run of form at their place. We haven't won in 10 attempts at the JJB/DW Stadium, stretching back to a routine 0-3 win almost fifteen years to the week, including a goal from a young Matt Derbyshire.  A simply unacceptable record against a jumped up non-league team.

 

Back onto the here and now, whilst we have bigger fish to fry, there are grounds for optimism in finally putting our recent run at Wigan to bed. Rovers are flying, and possibly a mere few months away from returning to our rightful position of at least two divisions above the Latics in the football pyramid. That said, after a year or two off the pitch that I wouldn't wish on the fans of any club, even genuine local rivals like Burnley, Bolton or Morecambe, they too seem to be on the up under new ownership. Callum Lang in particular has been banging them in, and with the form of both teams this has the makings of cracking cup tie.

 

Impossible to predict the XI of cup fixtures, but hopefully we'll get the proper balance with giving some squad players a runout whilst being confident of getting into the next round. Ideally I'd like to see something like this, with Butterworth getting decent time on the pitch too:

 

                      Kaminski

            Carter     Ayala     Van Hecke

Nyambe                                               Edun

                  Johnson    Davenport

        Dolan          Buckley           Gallagher

 

A sold out away end seems unlikely at this point, but the price of tickets are very reasonable so hopefully a decent crowd will see us through to the next round. 

 

[Guest]

Watched Wigan last night live in stadium. Oldham are terrible, in fact that's probably not even strong enough, they're the worst side in the entire EFL. However, Wigan looked bloody good. Set pieces are really strong for them and they have a very solid system that they know well. It's a well drilled 1-4-2-3-1 and they won't be easy to play. As much as I'd enjoy seeing some changes, I think we should keep the back 5 at a high level. 

Kaminski

Nyambe
Lenihan
Ayala
Wharton
Edun

Travis
Rothwell
Butterworth (#10)

Gallagher
Dolan

[JHRover]

I agree the League is the focus and priority.

However winning is a habit and I don't accept the Cup is an unwelcome distraction. A good cup run can help keep momentum going.

We are playing in a local derby against a side in the division below us with a healthy travelling contingent so that alone requires it to be taken seriously.

[Devon Rover]

This is really difficult to predict.

Our line-up could be anything, as key first team players rightly get a rest/protection from the standard Wigan shithousery. I suspect TM will be dusting off the old Tombola for a right good go, for old time's sake. From the above suggested line ups, I'd personally be surprised to see Kaminski or Rothwell out there. I'd guess that Pears, Nyambe, Ayala, Edun, Johnson, Butterworth, Davenport, Dolan, Gallagher are all very likely to start (tombola-allowing). JRC off the bench? 

With the likely scale of changes, I'm not confident at all, but who knows. And do we really care?! For me, I'm about 24 hours away from my usual 'tipping point' from "I don't give a monkeys about the FA Cup", to "It's the FA Cup, of course I care: Can't wait !"

[TonyM]

Much as I care very much about our FA Cup runs and would love to see us progress, I think we will see as few of the settled first team players as TM can get away with involved in this...... I expect starts for Pears, Carter, Ayala, Magloire, Johnson, Davenport, Butterworth, Gallagher, Dolan  and maybe even a couple of the other U23s involved.

Edited January 5, 2022 by TonyM

[Mattyblue]

It will be good just to enjoy a pressure free local away day. Bask in the great season so far with a few pre and post game scoops. 😎

[Kie_BRFC]

Anyone know what's going on with tickets for this? Tried to buy online and not showing up - assuming we've sold out the first allocation but not seen an update from Rovers

[Admiral Nelsen]

11 minutes ago, TonyM said:

Much as I care very much about our FA Cup runs and would love to see us progress, I think we will see as few of the settled first team players as TM can get away with involved in this...... I expect starts for Pears, Carter, Ayala, Magloire, Johnson, Davenport, Butterworth, Gallagher, Dolan  and maybe even a couple of the other U23s involved.

 

I'm definitely in favour of making a decent number of changes, but I hope the changes aren't quite as sweeping as that. I think it'll be prudent to give game time to established squad players who are essentially first teamers who have only been kept out because of how the current XI are performing - i.e.  Ayala, Gallagher, Johnson and Dolan. After that there are others you can make a case for, but putting Pears (who admittedly did well a few weeks back) and Magloire in there is going a bit too far for me. 

[arealbrfcfan]

Just booked tickets for this one. Anyone know what the rules are in place for this ground? is it mask coverings? PCR lat flow test?

 

Prediction-wise... We should manage at least a draw even with our 2nd team fringe players/our form. But I'll go for a 3-0 win. But they are doing well too

[arbitro]

3 minutes ago, starscascade said:

Just booked tickets for this one. Anyone know what the rules are in place for this ground? is it mask coverings? PCR lat flow test?

 

Prediction-wise... We should manage at least a draw even with our 2nd team fringe players/our form. But I'll go for a 3-0 win. But they are doing well too

There has to be a result on the day and if necessary extra time and penalties.

For anybody booking the train this should be factored in.

[arealbrfcfan]

14 minutes ago, arbitro said:

There has to be a result on the day and if necessary extra time and penalties.

For anybody booking the train this should be factored in.

Open return anytime ticket sounds the best bet then.

 

Is it true we havent won here since 2007? I just scanned the H2H page stats

[Admiral Nelsen]

9 minutes ago, starscascade said:

Open return anytime ticket sounds the best bet then.

 

Is it true we havent won here since 2007? I just scanned the H2H page stats

Amazingly, it is. Couple of draws, but we haven't won there since Sparky was in charge. We've had away wins at United, Arsenal and Spurs more recently!

[neophox]

13 hours ago, Admiral Nelsen said:

Hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here, but as one of the surprisingly decent number of Rovers fans with a WN postcode, I thought I'd start the match thread for our (well, not mine obviously) short trip south in the cup this Saturday. As an aside, I've had a fairly complicated relationship with the club of my hometown over recent years. It was simple enough to wish them well when they were miles below the Rovers in English football's pecking order. Even when they found themselves in the same division - almost entirely because of the generosity of wealthy Rovers fan Dave Whelan - it was hard to dislike them too much when they were a source of an easy 6 points and the simplest of local away trips. All this changed after one of the more eventful games in our recent history in 2007, where a Santa-Cruz hattrick wasn't enough to stop a 10-man Rovers going down to a 5-3 defeat. Despite our record at Ewood remaining very strong (that game in 2012 notwithstanding), this fired the starting gun on a truly woeful run of form at their place. We haven't won in 10 attempts at the JJB/DW Stadium, stretching back to a routine 0-3 win almost fifteen years to the week, including a goal from a young Matt Derbyshire.  A simply unacceptable record against a jumped up non-league team.

 

Back onto the here and now, whilst we have bigger fish to fry, there are grounds for optimism in finally putting our recent run at Wigan to bed. Rovers are flying, and possibly a mere few months away from returning to our rightful position of at least two divisions above the Latics in the football pyramid. That said, after a year or two off the pitch that I wouldn't wish on the fans of any club, even genuine local rivals like Burnley, Bolton or Morecambe, they too seem to be on the up under new ownership. Callum Lang in particular has been banging them in, and with the form of both teams this has the makings of cracking cup tie.

 

Impossible to predict the XI of cup fixtures, but hopefully we'll get the proper balance with giving some squad players a runout whilst being confident of getting into the next round. Ideally I'd like to see something like this, with Butterworth getting decent time on the pitch too:

 

                      Kaminski

            Carter     Ayala     Van Hecke

Nyambe                                               Edun

                  Johnson    Davenport

        Dolan          Buckley           Gallagher

 

A sold out away end seems unlikely at this point, but the price of tickets are very reasonable so hopefully a decent crowd will see us through to the next round. 

 

Think Wharton will play instead of Carter.... otherwise this seems the likely formation. He may rest Buckley for Butterworth...

[Admiral Nelsen]

2 minutes ago, neophox said:

 

Think Wharton will play instead of Carter.... otherwise this seems the likely formation. He may rest Buckley for Butterworth...

 

You're probably right. I hope Wharton get's rested though - all three of our centre halves have been excellent but I've been so impressed with how well he's come back from a serious injury. The fact that he's the only left footed centre-back would lead me to wrap him in cotton wool, but on balance I think you'll be right and he'll play.

[JHRover]

An extra 500 tickets released for sale today - presume that  means at least the initial allocation of 2,000 has sold out or is likely to do soon and takes us to 2,500 total

Only releasing an extra 500 suggests not much confidence of shifting many more.

[Mattyblue]

The fact we took comfortably more across to Hull, 2 hours plus trip with no public transport, then we’ll be doing to a £15 game down the road, makes it fairly clear to what the fanbase see as the priority in the second half of this season… 

[Admiral Nelsen]

2 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

The fact we took comfortably more across to Hull, 2 hours plus trip with no public transport, then we’ll be doing to a £15 game down the road, makes it fairly clear to what the fanbase see as the priority in the second half of this season… 

 

Only 8 quid for juniors too. Thought that alone would turn this into a bumper crowd. There's still time for it to be decent I suppose, but it doesn't seem like pay-on-the-day will be available, which would probably make a big difference. 

[ABRAM ROVER]

Maybe people are planning to buy on the day with it being local but I wouldn't bank on this. Depending on how Wigan are selling this will most likely be under the 10k covid measure threshold hence why no mention so far of any covid measures so I would buy now in advance and spread the word to any others hoping to buy on the day. 

Interesting game, my wife is a season ticket holder at Wigan and having lived here now for 10 years I have been to a fair few games myself recently. They always seem to score late goals so something to watch out for. They haven't had a game for about three weeks now and last night demolished Oldham in the Autoglass Pappa Johns tinpot trophy (not that impressive I know) and had a near full strength team out. Maybe they will use the FA cup to get the first team up to match speed again? I cant say I have been massively impressed with Wigan when watching but they are doing well under Liam Richardson and Lang is the key man for them along with James Mclean (BOOOO) and Max Power. 

If Rovers make 11 changes I wouldn't be too confident. Is a Rovers 2nd strength 11 better than top of the table League 1? You would like to think Gallagher/Dolan/Butterworth/Ayala have a point to prove as do the rest. We will  find out on Saturday. 

Regardless of the result it will be a good day out on the booze. Some decent pubs in the town centre including Wigan Central for you real ale lovers. Come out of the north western, turn left and left under the bridge in the arches. 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I hope we win for the fans that are going.

A loss will be met with an apathetic shrug of the shoulders from me and another swooning glance at the league table...the only priority for Rovers this season is promotion back to the big time.

[Oldgregg86]

Is it ok to pay on the day ?

always had a soft spot for Wigan and watched them many a time at Springfield park and the jjb when I was to young to get to ewood. I always want them to do well ….. but not on Saturday. Been along time since we beat them on there own turf. Time for that to change.

COME ON YOU BLUES 

[ABRAM ROVER]

8 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Is it ok to pay on the day ?

always had a soft spot for Wigan and watched them many a time at Springfield park and the jjb when I was to young to get to ewood. I always want them to do well ….. but not on Saturday. Been along time since we beat them on there own turf. Time for that to change.

COME ON YOU BLUES 

See my post above. I wouldn't bank on it if Wigan want it to be under 10k without the need for any covid measures. Better to buy them in advance. 

[BlackburnEnd75]

I'm in the make sweeping changes camp.

                 Pears

Carter      ayala    Wharton     edun

              Davenport    Johnson

Khadra       butterworth      dolan

                  The Horse

 

[speeeeeeedie]

I'll be able to watch this game. 

The last Wigan game I saw was as dull as dishwater highlighted by Dack getting whacked.

Hopefully Rovers win and get a glamour 4th round tie.

 

[Oldgregg86]

56 minutes ago, WhartonisSuperman said:

See my post above. I wouldn't bank on it if Wigan want it to be under 10k without the need for any covid measures. Better to buy them in advance. 

Ok thanks Al ring now

[G Somerset Rover]

1 hour ago, BlackburnEnd75 said:

I'm in the make sweeping changes camp.

                 Pears

Carter      ayala    Wharton     edun

              Davenport    Johnson

Khadra       butterworth      dolan

                  The Horse

 

Not far off, but I definitely wouldn't change the system. We need the stand-ins to know how to play our new way too.