Will Grigg's on Fire - Top of the Pops!

After a season that saw Wigan Athletic win League One with a young, hungry squad playing brilliant football, it wasn’t likely to get any better as we all settled into our summer break. It just has.

‘Will Grigg’s on Fire’ a ‘remix’ of the Gala dance classic ‘Freed From Desire’ apparently spread like wildfire after the Swindon game in March. The song inspired fan Sean Kennedy to, quite randomly (and brilliantly!) film himself singing the song and posting it online. Many ‘likes’ and ‘retweets’ later, a good portion of the Latics fanbase were organised enough to belt it out en masse. Following the team’s great form and Grigg scoring goal after goal, the song became a viral hit and captured the imaginations of many people online, with Sean himself doing interviews with Sky Sports News (and getting a free season ticket for next season, as well as helping the club to promote the new kit!) The whole craze seemed to start to go viral just hours after we lifted the League One trophy, after the final home game of the season against Barnsley, as a crowd of Latics fans brought Wigan to a standstill (well, at least one bus) as they sang and bounced around to it in the street!

The last month has seen many parody videos – depicting scenes from popular television shows mainly, overlaid with the audio of Latics fans singing the song – continuing to grow in popularity, gaining well over half a million hits. House music duo Blonde, who have had two top 10 hits in the last two years, were just two of the many people caught up in ‘Will Grigg Mania’ and arranged with Sean and Latics Chairman, David Sharpe, to produce a version of the song, with the famous chorus, along with new lyrics and release it for Joseph’s Goal, a charity that has been heavily-related with the club in the past (who could forget that moment when Emmerson Boyce carried mascot Joe out, prior to the FA Cup Final?)

Joseph's Goal is a charity set up to increase awareness of NKH (Non-Ketotic Hyperglycinemia) and to raise funds for research to find better treatments and eventually a cure. We are supporting Dr Johan Van Hove at the University of Colorado, who is the world leader in researching this condition. Because it is so rare and so little research has been done, literally every penny raised can and will make a difference. – Joseph’s Goal

Aside from raising money for a great cause, it’ll actually be quite an achievement to get the song in the top 40 and played on BBC radio 1’s official chart show on Sunday – let’s make it happen! I’ve had it on good authority that the teenagers rate it as a ‘banging tune’. Whatever that means, I’m sure it’s positive. Well worth 79p of anyone's money.

At the moment you can purchase the song from the following retailers;

iTunes

Google Play
Amazon

Sean Kennedy Sings Will Grigg's on Fire (plus a few others!)

Wigan Athletic - Season Review 2015/16

It only seemed like yesterday that I embarked on my first game of pre-season, which saw me being sick in a bin in Southport, after a 2-0 win, plenty of ale and a spot of cod (and chips). Last Sunday was rounded off with a 4-1 defeat, lifting of a title and hundreds of idiots blocking roads and dancing on tables singing ‘Will Grigg’s On Fire’ in the town centre. Great scenes that was indicative of our season; for me, my most enjoyable season watching Latics for many a year.

Why was that? Why was it more enjoyable than being in the Premier League? Many feel that ‘we’ve got our club back’ after a period of instability and bad decision followed by bad decision, following our relegation to The Championship in 2013. I must admit that I experienced spells of disheartenment during periods of our spell in the Premier League, because I felt going to games was a chore that I couldn’t afford, whilst plastic Premier league ‘fans’, had a go at us for being a relatively-small club (by Premier League-standards). I want us to succeed at the highest level, but I felt that the club needed to reinvent itself in order for it to improve - if anything, I feel we got promoted perhaps TOO soon last time and we didn’t have that diehard supporter base to fall back on, when the club fell through the leagues. We’ve averaged just shy of 10,000 this season which is somewhat more than our average in our last season in the third tier and one of the highest in the division. There’s still plenty of work to do, but the season ticket prices for 2016/17 will be a massive help and the club deserve huge credit for all they’ve done this season.

With 2016/17 being the last season that we’ll be receiving the much-maligned ‘parachute payments’, it’s now more crucial than ever that we try to build up the supporter base and continue to improve our playing squad, by adding young and upcoming ‘assets’ to our squad, otherwise it’ll be a struggle in future seasons to sustain a Championship team, let alone one with ambitions of winning promotion from the league. Personally, I would take a mid-table finish with those improvements in place right now – but this is Wigan Athletic and by now, we should know that nothing we ever predict (or want) will happen!

With all that, here are my ‘awards’ for this season: 

Home Game of the Season – Gillingham. 2-0 down and getting battered by a side set to go top of the league, then all of sudden we turned it round to win 3-2, scoring the winner in injury time and all. Prior to that game, we didn’t beat a team regarded as a ‘top team’ and it may have caused a psychological issue. No surprise we didn’t lose a game in the league for 3 months afterwards. 

Away Game of the Season – Walsall, similar reasons to Gillingham; this was a marker for our season, a feeling that we were going genuinely to challenge. An injury time Yanic winner sending Latics into the automatic promotion places, leapfrogging the home side, and Latics supporters leapfrogging advertisement hoardings and running onto the pitch to celebrate like they always used to seem to do on a regular basis! 

Goal of the Season – Max Power, Swindon away. I just thought the way that he controlled the ball, getting it out of his feet then curling it in from all of 30 yards was just beautiful. The perfect goal for a central midfielder to score, in my opinion! 

Player of the Season – Michael Jacobs. Difficult to choose, I know (I even voted for David Perkins in the club awards) but just for an alternative take, I think Jacobs’ versatility and creativity was invaluable earlier in the season when the team was struggling to click. The industrious midfielder would have been a shoe-in for the club award if he hadn’t have been injured for the last few months, I feel. Those early-season winners against Crewe and Fleetwood in particular, stand out for me as highlights in a very inconsistent first couple of months – we’d be at least 4 points worse off without them and possibly out of the automatic promotion places! Like a few of our players, if he’s given enough of a run in starting games in The Championship next season, I can see him having a real impact as he continues to improve with this young and hungry team. 

‘OH FFS’ moment of the season – Chesterfield away. Listening on the radio is always an experience, due to your mind putting pictures with the over-excitable audio, but this game made it far more heart-stopping. 2-nil down with 10 minutes to go – I switched off in a fit of anger. I threw a paddy. A bit later, after I had calmed down with a brew and switched on Sky Sports News, I saw that we had got one back and tuned back in – just as Davies was about to take the penalty. The rest, well I’m sure you know what happened. Unbelievable scenes (in my house, let alone Latics supporters running on the pitch!)

And that brings me to away supporter of the year. This lad. His reactions to the Latics comeback is priceless!

Here’s to the new season and hopefully the continued upward trajectory of Wigan Athletic!

On The March With Parachute Payments FC

Have you ever noticed that when someone or something is doing well, people always try to find something negative to say about them? Maybe to use it as an excuse as to why they feel that they aren’t doing as well? We had that for years when Latics where on their way up to the Premier League (Whelan’s money!) now we’re back at the summit of League One, it’s all because of the Premier League parachute payments we’re still receiving and nothing whatsoever to do with the players and management team working hard over the course of the season.

True, we've been in an excellent position to be able to go out and strengthen at the right times, because we’ve had that money blanket to fall back upon but that money exists because the gap in revenue between the Premier League and the Football League is too wide to bridge. We earned that money fair and square by being in the Premier League for 8 seasons. Is it our fault that the gap in money exists?  Instead of having a go at Wigan Athletic, why not turn your attentions to the Football League for not trying to negotiate a better deal with their television partners and sponsors, so that gap can be made a tiny-bit smaller? SKY television show live games and now their betting arm sponsors the leagues...dare I say that the Football League should be trying harder to push for increased deals from them for such exclusive access?

Do parachute payments equal success anyway? No, I’m not sure they automatically do – no doubting that they’re an advantage but we had the payments last year and got relegated from The Championship, so did Wolves a few seasons earlier. The payments haven’t helped Bolton or Blackburn either, nor QPR who have had generous backing from their owners, as well as the (increased) parachute payments. Football, as it should always be, is all about clubs being ran well on and off the pitch. Good clubs are organised from top-to-bottom, regardless of how much money they have available to spend. Burnley, for example, have been able to spend the money they received last season to keep the majority of their squad together and to pick up a few exciting players and are now currently battling away at the top of The Championship. They are a well organised club. We just didn’t compete well enough last season, we used some of our money to make some shocking signings and paid the price. We just weren’t organised enough.

Despite the club’s bad decisions on the field, we at least can take pride in how its profit margins are maintained, because as soon as the possibility of relegation was looming, we immediately sold a vast number of players, brought in some lower-earners to try and keep us in the league and then got rid of them in the summer when we were relegated and replaced them with even lower-earners with League One experience. We adapted to our surroundings and knew that we had to save what is left of the parachute payments to build a younger, hungrier and less-expensive squad. We now have a future with these players, something we wouldn’t have had if we had used the payments to maintain a squad with Premier League wages. Surely that’s a tactic that should be commended and adopted by clubs who find themselves in similar situations?

What our negative detractors won’t take into account too, is that our payments go a long way to help to facilitate the cost of ticketing. We’ve all heard, I’m sure by now, that clubs in the Premier League don’t really need gate receipts to pay the wage bill any more – that money comes from television and sponsorship deals. So why charge the high prices they do for tickets? The answer is simply because they have people in the background wanting to make money. For nearly a decade now, Latics have been lauded for keeping prices as low as possible. Recently, the club announced that season tickets from next season will be £179 for renewals and £199 for new season ticket holders. A brilliant deal and one that I expect/hope will help the club to maintain a 10-15,000 supporter base next season, especially if we are successful in winning promotion this year. What’s the point in charging £300 for a season ticket when nobody is going to buy it? You might as well charge as low a price as possible and if we sell 2 season tickets for every 1 £300 season ticket, then that’s a profit right there.

Saturday after next, we’ll be heading to Blackpool, a club that shines a spotlight on how to run themselves badly, in spite of parachute payments. Well I say ‘run badly’ – critics of the Oystons accuse them of doing it purposely so as owners, they pocket the money earned by the club, without re-investing it back. Not me...I’m not accusing them of anything. That game could conceivably see us promoted to The Championship – and they relegated to the fourth tier. This August will mark 6 years since they beat us 4-0 at the DW in the Premier League. That just shows why it’s better for clubs to reinvest their incomes – because where would that money go if it isn’t reinvested? As a supporter, I don’t want to see faceless people pocketing the majority of the money that my club earns - I’m delighted that our club doesn’t do that. That’s why I can say it is MY club, because I feel involved, I feel that everyone is working to get it to be as successful as it possibly can be.

The question remains for some though; should Wigan Athletic spend their parachute payments, because the other 23 clubs don’t get the same money? Of course we should spend it; the club has earned the money and instead of the owner pocketing it, he has reinvested it into the club to build an exciting future, with exciting players, a new training ground, with cheap tickets thrown in for everyone. That’s all we should want from our football clubs, surely?

Don't Blame It On the Warriors...

As tempting as it might be to point the blame at them, it isn’t the fault of the Wigan Warriors that the pitch at the DW Stadium turned into a mudbath on Friday night and is, at time of writing on Tuesday morning, being replaced. Neither, may I add, is it the fault of the Latics’ U18’s who played out a rather thrilling encounter against Manchester City at the stadium last week, which gave only 2 days recovery for the pitch in preparation for Friday. No, there is only ONE thing to blame for this issue and if you haven’t worked it out yet, you’ve got another 30 seconds of reading this gubbins before you find out.

The Warriors’ 12-6 win over Catalan Dragons live on SKY became known by a wider internet audience as ‘Mudbathgate’. Or maybe just by me. Since then, the story has been the talk of Twitter, Facebook and the queue for the deli counter at Asda. There’s many a silly argument and wildly untrue accusations about key people behind the stadium going on and it makes amusing reading, as these Wigan internet titans go head-to-head, spouting their barely-literate abuse. But you know what? I can’t be arsed with these arguments, they are simply irrelevant; a good portion of Latics supporters might be of the Stone Island variety and fond of waving pyrotechnics, yes a good portion of the Rugby support might be from out-of-town and profess to hate 'soccer' when they 'support' another football team, but it really doesn’t matter. This is OUR stadium – both clubs lease the ground from one of the Whelan family’s various companies, so ultimately it is they, not the clubs, who should be responsible for the upkeep of the ground. So stop throwing those metaphorical pies, eh?

The stadium, built on a former rubbish tip and located as it is on a flood plain (as well as under a water table) has always been prone to rain water. In recent years, the ground staff have done a decent job with the pitch, especially in the winter months but this year, the rainfall has just kept on coming. Don't get me wrong, the pitch hasn't been brilliant in prior weeks by any means, but was certainly still playable up until after the youth game on Tuesday night, which was followed by continuous rain until Friday and the Warriors game. Just to underline this issue - there is a river, a canal and a water tank (that drains the water from the pitch) near the stadium – and they collectively couldn’t drain the rainwater from the immediate area fast enough. For me, it’s the speed of the deterioration that has been surprising, as the pitch was fine a few weeks ago, even after the Boxing Day game against Sheffield United was postponed due to flooding. Our next home game after that was on the 7^th January against Gillingham and the pitch looked fine, but it continued to pour down.  9 days later against Chesterfield saw snow fritter down as Max Power drove the ball in from 30 yards to set us on the way to another vital win. It was the hailstone storm in the middle of the Port Vale match that took the piss for me and started the rapid deterioration of the pitch, which I’d imagine was difficult to run on in the end. So that’s all varieties of water right there - and it’s been coming down for 2 months. We’re only missing acid rain – and that’s a top trumps card nobody wants to have.

Away from Mudbathgate, people have noticed that the Warriors have pencilled in a home game against Hull KR on the SAME DAY as Latics’ home game against Rochdale. There are rumours already afoot that David Sharpe is willing to move the Easter Monday game to a 12pm kick-off, allowing the Warriors to kick-off their game at 8pm.  Whether this is a workable solution, remains to be seen but if there’s no-one to blame, aside from the weather* for Mudbathgate, then this issue can be wholly blamed on the Super League for arranging this match without offering any consultation. For one, the football fixture list was out nearly FOUR MONTHS before they decided to give Warriors a home date that was already booked. Secondly – isn’t Rugby League supposed to be a summer game? Why on earth are they playing in FEBRUARY? Wouldn’t a March/April start time not be better suited to their ‘product’? Aside from making marketing sense (which the Super League rarely does) it’ll give chance for those multi-purpose stadiums to get their pitches in better condition, as hopefully, the weather will have improved by the Spring. I must be missing something, to me it makes common sense to not start your summer game in the last knockings of Winter, but I’m a Wiganer on the internet, common sense isn’t our forte it seems.

Hopefully both clubs can sort out this mess, because anything less will be a detriment to the both of us and that's something we all can at least agree on.

*likely to be caused by global warming of course – so it’s all our faults!

Wigan Athletic vs. Man City: In The FA (Youth) Cup

Wigan Athletic vs. Manchester City has always thrown up an interesting game; the FA Cup 3^rd round in 1971, the play-offs in 1999, the 4-3 on Boxing Day 2005 and of course, the FA Cup final in 2013. This trend continued on a cold February night in 2016 – this time in the 5^th round of the FA Youth Cup. This was the first time that Latics had been at this stage of the competition and a tie against a club with probably the most ambitious youth set-up in the world, was always going to be difficult. Latics lost 3-1, but only after extra-time (which turned out to be extra-extra time) and overall was a good nights entertainment on a cold Tuesday, well worth the five pound entrance fee.

Making my way into the West Stand just before kick-off, I notice the centre of the stand is fairly packed, so elect to take a seat just off-centre. Being the polite gentleman I am, I make sure not to sit in the way of two men on the row behind me. It turns out these chaps were City supporters (there were quite the number there) and they seemed to be regulars at City's youth games. A few minutes into the match though, I regret sitting there because all they did was moan! Moan, moan, moan, moan. Moaned at anything; their team, our team, the weather, the pitch, the fact there’s gaps in between the stand that let the wind in. No wonder City squads of the past are known for regularly messing things up if they have to deal with this type of negativity every week. Then again, I can’t talk being a Latics supporter!

To be fair to City though, it was great to see so many of their supporters interested in their youth team (on a night when the first team were in Premier League action at Sunderland), in an era when it’s becoming increasingly expensive to watch first team games, I can see the bigger clubs having quite the crowds at youth/development squad games, something which I hope clubs promote further; playing in front of bigger crowds will only help these young players to experience what it might be like playing in a first team environment. And the endless moaning makes the scenario even more realistic. Currently, the Latics youth games are played in the midweek, in the mornings, which is never going to attract any sort of crowd.

City, with their team made up of foreign, as well as locally-based players, dominated the ball but Latics counter-attacked well; the full-backs (Baxendale and Lingard) in particular were impressive and the defending was disciplined for the most part. Latics took the lead early in the second half when Callum Lang flicked the ball over a City defender, making his way into the box and squeezing the ball under Daniel Grimshaw in the City goal, which drew a huge cheer from the majority of the 650 crowd, who had been increasingly drawn into this game through its intense nature. City equalised through a Will Patching free-kick before that intense nature boiled over, as both sides got into quite the scuffle when City give away a free-kick in the last minute on the right touchline. Once things had calmed down, the free-kick was beautifully taken by Lingard and Thomas Powell managed to get his head to the ball...with Ben Watson-esq headlines ready to be written...and it hit the goalkeeper. So unlucky.

Extra time it was and I couldn’t help but feel that the chance had gone. Despite some great last-ditch defending, Latics looked knackered throughout extra-time and in the 5^th minute of added time in extra-time (!!!) City broke through the Latics backline which led to goalkeeper, Kelland Absalom, bringing down Lukas Nmecha for a penalty. Nmecha made it 2-1 from the spot and despite having a number of clear-cut chances in the second period (their decision-making wasn’t very good as they constantly elected to pass rather than shoot) it was only in the last minute of extra time that City wrapped it up, albeit with a finely-worked goal through Issac Buckley.

The young Latics team can take great credit from how they performed on the night, especially against Manchester City, who currently lead the top tier – Latics are in the third tier, as we strive to improve our facilities, which will enable us to move up the youth leagues. Latics are currently top of the Football League Youth Alliance (North-West) and are still in the Lancashire FA Cup, so hopefully some silverware will be on its way to the youth lads very soon!

Smashing The (Transfer) Window

“We want to smash it” said recently-installed Latics chairman David Sharpe at a fans forum event in the summer. His enthusiasm has since been misread by many as ‘arrogance’ – what he actually said was ‘we WANT to smash the division and get 100 points’ not ‘we WILL smash the division and get 100 points’. That’s an important difference. Personally, that's exactly what I wanted to hear after a terrible season full of changes and poor performances. Currently, we’re in 4^th place in League One, just 5 points off an automatic promotion place, with 18 games to go. We’ve not exactly smashed anything yet, but we’ve certainly shown signs of doing so, with our swashbuckling style of football led by our young officers on the good ship Wigan Athletic, which by the way, was sinking without trace 12 months ago.

We underlined our ambitions yesterdays by announcing the signings of Sam Morsy and Ryan Colclough from fellow League One clubs Chesterfield and Crewe. Both are highly-rated, both are under 25 and both reportedly converted by clubs in The Championship – the exact profile of player the club should be signing. We are rebuilding the squad with mostly young, hungry players who are on their way up – not players who are on their way down. It’s an exciting time to be a Latics supporter, as evidenced by the away followings this season, which have dwarfed that of our followings in the Premier League. The price of tickets, the shorter distances, new grounds to visit and of course, the competitiveness of the games have all contributed to those followings; the supporters are enjoying their days out, which is what supporting a club should ultimately be about. The transfer policy of the club this season has made it that extra exciting!

Signing these players has mostly been made possible by the fact the club are receiving parachute payments from the Premier League, which has riled some fellow League One supporters. Let’s get this right here – the gulf in television money between the Premier League and the rest isn’t the fault of Wigan Athletic; we earned those parachute payments by staying in that league for 8 years. The payments (which are spread over a four-year period) are designed to make up for the shortfall in television money following relegation from the Premier League to pay the wages of players acquired whilst you were there. Latics have been intelligent about this – we’ve traded and cashed in on two separate squads since relegation (even sacrificing a second relegation), meaning that in reality, we’ve got a wage budget of a Championship club, playing in League One, rather than a Premier League budget, which we couldn't afford to pay with the parachute payments anyway. This foresight has given the club extra room in the transfer market and freed up funds to bring in the two players mentioned, as well as Yanic Wildschut and Reece Wabara this transfer window alone. Young, exciting players who could help the club to The Championship and beyond, or be an asset for the club to trade on in the future. It’s great business, from a forward-thinking club and I’m very proud of them for being so.

Meanwhile, down Horwich way, Bolton Wanderers have ran out of money in their final year of parachute payments, as they occupy bottom spot in The Championship and are looking likely to be in League One next season. I don’t know enough about their finances to make an in-depth comment, I just don’t understand how the club have lost all of that money (over £100m) when they too, have had a turnover of their squad in the last 4 years. They are an example of how having parachute payments DOESN’T mean an unfair playing field for the rest (in fact, if you look closely, those with parachute payments rarely win promotion back to the Premier League from The Championship). It makes me think how fortunate I am being a Wigan Athletic supporter (despite Bolton being a league higher – the long term is more important than the short term) which in itself is a fallacy, thinking myself ‘lucky’ for supporting a club who is able to responsibly run its finances. There’s a lot of myth about money in football and people do tend to look at short term success and equate it with throwing money at it in order to garner a short-term fix when a sit down and think, then eventually investing in the right areas is the right way to go to sustain success in the long term.

Port Vale are next up at the DW Stadium tomorrow, with new signings Morsy (a former Vale player) and Colclough (grew up around the corner from Vale Park) expected to feature and hopefully contribute to 3 points in our bid to reach those automatic promotion places. And you know what? I’m more excited at the prospect than a match against a Man Utd or an Arsenal.

Let’s smash it!

Jeff Stelling Isn't A Football Supporter

As part of my ongoing book series, chronicling the 92 clubs of the English professional leagues* I found myself at the West Brom vs. Bristol City FA Cup tie on the 9^th January, which finished 2-2 with a last minute equaliser for the home side. A great cup tie, something that would made a good watch for any neutral. Before the start of the match however, I was browsing Twitter and those who I follow were moaning about Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday presenter Jeff Stelling. It wasn’t long before I found out that Stelling had made a derogatory remark about Wigan supporters for saying that they preferred the FA Cup win in 2013 to a place in the Premier League. “Their next away game is at Crewe” sings ringleader Stelling, as his panel of monkeys guffawed at the remark, pointing out our fall from grace; not playing the Premier League's big guns each week.

Firstly – we’ve got to look at the bigger picture here. Stelling is very much a cheerleader for Sky television. A company who is constantly telling us that the Premier League (which they extensively cover) is the ‘best league in the world’. The FA Cup, which isn’t covered by Sky, is shunned away and only covered by Sky as an afterthought – so it shouldn’t really be a surprise that Stelling’s agenda is to make the Premier League look more attractive than it actually is. They’re basically a magazine airbrushing an old, knackered model whose only positive is that they've got a few bob to spend on trying to garner a good reputation.

The thing is though Jeff, the Premier League isn’t the best league in the world. And going to Crewe – is a far better away trip for Wigan Athletic in every aspect than one to a Manchester United or an Arsenal. If you were a proper football supporter, then you’ll understand that. Your remit is to promote your employer's product to people who don't go to football matches, not to tell us how supporting a club who finishes 17th in the league is better than supporting a club who have won a trophy. The oldest trophy in association football. The cost is a huge factor - a ticket for Manchester United and Arsenal will cost £50+ for Crewe – it's £20. We aren't treated like cattle to be milked when we turn up to a town or city with our money; these places actually try to make your day enjoyable for your money. Just to underline what I'm saying, just days after tickets for the match went on sale we’ve sold our allocation and at the time of writing, have received even more tickets, which will mean we’ll be taking 2,000+ to Crewe – something which happened on rare occasions in the Premier League. It’s great when you go to the grounds of the country's biggest clubs for the first time, I’ll admit, but once the novelty has worn off and you have to go back, time and time again, you see it for the extortionate scam that following football can truly be. It’s interesting if you take into account that Stelling professes to support League Two’s Hartlepool United – but if he indeed does hold the attitude we’ve discussed, I doubt that he truly is a supporter.

At the West Brom match and with his side 2-1 down and seemingly on their way out of the competition to Championship opposition, a bloke near me (and I make no apology for the language, as it’s exactly what he said) - imagine this in a black country accent, like Noddy Holder or summat - bellows “47 years of age and I’ve never seen us in a bastard cup final...useless wankers” – I wonder what his opinion will be on sacrificing an FA Cup win for relegation? Will he take a year or two in the Championship for an FA Cup win? Course he would. The fact we got relegated from the Premier League had very little to do with the FA Cup (we had rotated our side even for the 6^th Round at Everton) but more to do with injuries and making mistakes against a Swansea reserve side in a crucial league match a few days before the cup final. Our relegation from The Championship had nothing to do with the FA Cup either – more to do with bad decisions in hiring players and staff. But Sky, in the face of real competition from the likes of BT Sport, are more desperate than ever to push their products, so any decent opinion from their employees is muffled as the 'Premier League is the best league in the world' jingle is played over and over again, like an annoying ice cream van. With Stelling as the vendor. Don't fall into the trap of believing these people know about football - they're just on to push a dishonest agenda.

I suppose we’re lucky as Latics supporters to be in the strongest position we've been for quite a while now (ridiculous as that sounds seeing as we’re currently 5^th in League One) because apart from having more local away trips at decent prices, we have a squad of young, hungry players who care about the club, want to help it to succeed and are ran and managed by young, hungry people who are Wigan Athletic Supporters. And yes – I do include Scotsman Gary Caldwell in that. Why WOULDN’T anyone with a passing interest in Wigan Athletic not be attracted by that? This is something we rarely had in the Premier League, many supporters even didn’t bother going because of the affordably and even perceived bias from the powers-that-be towards the bigger clubs, but we feel the club is ours again, we feel more attached, in what is a more competitive league. We even have two Wiganers in the squad for goodness sake! Yes, of course I want my club to be back in the Premier League again, as it constitutes long-term success and the financial implications alone would secure the future of the club for years to come, but it isn’t (and shouldn’t be) the be-all-and-end-all for clubs and supporters.

But you don’t get it, do you Jeff? Because you’re not a football supporter.

*See, even I have an agenda. But at least I’m honest about it. Buy my book, it’s great.

Amr Zaki - A Cautionary Tale

If you look hard enough, football will offer an insight into life - despite it looking and feeling like another reality altogether at times. This is a tale of why perhaps, we should be judging footballers as humans, not highly-greased machines here to do a job (okay, they ARE highly greased and here to do a job, but they aren’t machines). It’s a tale of why we shouldn’t perhaps treat them as heroes or saviours – we should treat them as you would any other ‘normal’ person.

On 22^nd July 2008, Wigan Athletic confirmed the signing of Egyptian International Amr Zaki. At this time, Zaki (or technically, Zaky) was the highest-rated striker in the world by FIFA, due to his goals-to-games ratio and various other stats. At one point the deal looked in doubt, the saga went on for a couple of weeks before finally, Steve Bruce landed his man. Doubts amongst supporters still remained though, due in small part to the club shelling out a couple of million for fellow highly-rated-at-the-time African prospect Julius Aghahowa, who didn’t score a single goal. Would Zaki be another foreign player who wouldn’t offer much before leaving with his credit card fattened up? If so, he was only on loan – the only clause being a £1 million payment to his club if he scored 10 goals in the Premier League.

The doubts were quickly banished as his first-time volley from inside the area halved the deficit on the opening day at West Ham - he was magnificent. Truly magnificent. Technically superb, strong, good in the air, passionate and most of all – a goalscorer. He was an immediate hit with supporters, some of whom even took to wearing a fez in tribute and stooping as low as sauntering into the JJB five minutes after kick-off just so cameras could pick them up. Sports shops in the area even ran out of Z's for printing on the back of shirts, which Zaki himself thought was amusing. I will never forget his performance in a 2-1 win over Man City (who had just been taken over by the investors from the Middle East) as he lived up to his nickname (The Bulldozer) as he ran everywhere and constantly pressed and harried the City defence. He would slot a penalty past Joe Hart in that game, which turned out to be the winning goal and at the end of the match he continued to run around, applauding each stand as ‘ZAKI ZAKI ZAKI’ rang out and many a fez slipped off in pure excitement. He was loved by the supporters and importantly for us, he loved us back. That's everything you want to see from your star striker. That and the goals, of course.

His goal rush would continue – the undoubted highlight being his two goals at Anfield. The first, showing an opportunist streak that any decent striker needs, as he robbed a dawdling Daniel Agger of the ball and calmly slotted it past Pepe Reina. The second – forget Wayne Rooney’s goal against Man City – THIS bicycle kick was better. He had to stoop down low and twist his body before connecting first time with Luis Antonio Valencia’s cross. It’s a goal that would be constantly shown everywhere, if scored by a player playing for one of the bigger clubs, as it is, it’s only shown in Egypt and Wigan. Sadly, the referee would win the game 3-2 in favour of Liverpool, or else those goals would have further cemented themselves into Wigan Athletic folklore.

His goals continued – press speculation linked him with Real Madrid and Liverpool, Latics supporters were worried about his availability, before understanding that his loan was for the entirety of the season, so he couldn’t be plucked away mid-season. He reached those 10 goals on the 28^th December as his penalty gave Latics the 3 points at Bolton. As it happened – that was his last goal for the club. It soon emerged that Zaki was constantly late back from international duty and that off the field, he wasn’t exactly professional. The club signed fellow Egyptian, Mido, on loan from Middlesbrough partly to help with goals (he would score 2 in total) but I reckon, mostly to get his fellow countryman back on the straight and narrow (and not to mention giving the stadium an opportunity to play an EXTREMELY embarrassing snippet of the Bangles hit ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ when he scored the first of those two goals, a penalty, against Liverpool). Mido’s walking into the club didn’t work though and Zaki’s last appearance on a teamsheet was as a substitute at West Brom in the 3-1 defeat on the 9^th May. The club sent him away, meaning he wasn’t to play a part in the remaining three games and handed him a (further) fine with Steve Bruce describing him as 'the most unprofessional player I ever worked with' and that Zaki ‘had already been fined considerably more than the average person in Britain earns in a year and he will now face another heavy fine’. During this period, the form of the club dipped too – winning only 3 of the last 10 games, drawing 1 and obviously losing the others. In fact, Zaki failed to turn up on time after international duty on FOUR occasions, so it was no surprise to see Bruce take his frustrations out so publicly. Interestingly, during this fourth and final episode, Mido also played for Egypt and managed to return in time just fine. Maybe he should have locked Zaki in his suitcase? Bruce sounded so exasperated towards the end; Zaki's constant lateness, the speculation about his future as well as his drying up of goals, got to the manager and the club, who I believe did everything they could and more to try and help the situation. It just wasn't to be.

After (officially) leaving Latics at the end of the season, Zaki returned to Egypt before another loan spell in England 8 months after he left Latics, this time at Hull City where he scored 0 goals in 6 league appearances. His biggest contribution being helping to break up the Jimmy Bullard-Nick Barmby fight in sight of the Humber Bridge and experienced women from the local WI. His loan spell was terminated in April and he returned to Egypt.

In the 5 years since then, he has signed for no less 6 different clubs, making just 17 appearances with them all, scoring 2 goals. On the 16^th August 2015, Amr Zaki announced his retirement from football at the age of 32.

What went wrong then, for a player that had made such an impact in the ‘biggest league in the world’

and, if you believe the press, was being courted by Real Madrid and Liverpool? It’s fair to say that the recent political and social problems – not to mention the football leagues being suspended – didn’t much help Amr kick-start his career back in his homeland. However, with spells in Turkey, Kuwait, Morocco and Lebanon, the sympathy cord must be snapped at some point and you’ve got to ask if he wanted it as much as his early appearances for Latics showed. I refuse to believe that the change in climate saw his performances dip in England – there isn’t enough temperature difference to affect his performance, not if he managed and trained himself properly, anyway. Whether his career went downhill because of injury or personal problems, only Amr truly knows. What I DO know, from a Wigan point of view of course, is exactly what I thought when his loan spell ended – it’s a sad end to such a promising start. Perhaps if he managed to return from international duty and kept in regular contact, the club may have gave him another chance the next season and he may have kicked on from there. We haven’t had a striker like Amr since and it’s a case of what might have been, for the pair of us.

As football supporters, we all would like to believe that we would give more effort than the majority of football players if we had their talent, it may not be true in some cases, but in this case, I can safely say that I wish that I had just half of Amr Zaki’s talent, because I’d at least score goals for Latics in League One - and turn up on time. Bus times permitting.

I'm A Believer (taken from 'Playing Offside')

Recently, I've just published the first volume of my journey to visit every club in 'the 92'. The book is basically written as a 'light-hearted travelogue', as I attempt to visit all of the grounds. This isn't an original idea by any means, but I feel that there aren't many books on the subject that try to positively promote the role of each football club in its community, its history and why the role of the supporters is so important. The book also has a somewhat personal touch, as I try to relate myself (and Latics!) with each club and sum up why football is so important, so loved by many people.

As a sneak preview - here is something that isn't technically part of my 92 journey - but is very much at the heart of why I love football and wraps up the first volume. The day Wigan Athletic won the FA Cup. It's a rather long article, so if you would like read it offline at your leisure you can download a PDF of the chapter here

I hope you enjoy reading - for more information on how to purchase the book (and how to read it if you haven't got a ebook reader) please visit the book's blogsite

“I’m A Believer”

11^th May 2013
FA Cup Final
Manchester City vs. Wigan Athletic

I’m up earlier than I really should be, I never do that. I’m like a dog that hears the patter of feet approaching the front door - my tail is up and I’m visibly excited. Take that clumsy innuendo as you wish, I don’t care - my team, the one who I’ve supported since I was a child, whose ground is five minutes away from my house, are going to their first Cup Final. THE Cup Final! For the last few weeks, I’ve been checking my ticket. FA CUP FINAL it says. Manchester City vs. Wigan Athletic. I keep checking every day to see if it’s still there. It is. This wasn’t some hoax. We are definitely in a FA Cup Final!

I want to enjoy the day, I don’t want to be thinking about the game and worrying. I’ve become superstitious (other people would say I have OCD – I can’t leave a coin on ‘tails’ or the volume on the telly at an odd number, for example) and some of my football superstitions leading up to a big game are not to make any predictions, don’t insult the opposition (jokingly or otherwise) or analyse our chances in any way. I’ve done this too many times and we’ve been battered, including the League Cup Final in 2006. So it’s all my fault, obviously. Like all Latics fans, all I wanted was for the lads to put in a good performance on the biggest stage, make us proud for supporting our team and as they say, whatever will be, will be. We’re going to Wembley. Again.

Wembley seemed a million miles away on a gloomy afternoon in January. Cold, wet and slightly peeved that we were missing the omnibus edition of Coronation Street, we took our seats for the third round game against Bournemouth and as per usual in a cup game against a lower-league side - we struggled. Bournemouth went a goal up after a great strike from outside the box by Eunan O'Kane. Here we go again. The second half was a slight improvement – Angelo Henriquez (on debut) and Maynor Figueroa hitting the bar and a few half-chances were created, but still no goal was forthcoming. When the tie started to look like it was slipping away with 20 minutes to go, we got a lifeline as Figueroa was adjudged to have been pulled down in the box and the ref gave a penalty. Jordi Gomez stepped up, his penalty was saved (typical of our luck!) but the ball fell kindly (unlike our luck!) and Gomez put in the rebound. It was to be a replay at Dean Court and despite everything indicating that the result was going to be an ‘upset’ (BBC Radio 5 even covered the game live, just in case) Mauro Boselli struck a first half screamer to win the match. We were on our way.

Conference side Macclesfield were to be our next opponents. Away from home, eager Wigan supporters snapped up the allocation in hours, as the prospect of going back to a ‘proper ground’ excited many. Macclesfield had pipped us on goal average to win the Northern Premier League title in 1970, so revenge was very much on the cards.  It was to be another slightly edgy game, one that we were always in control of, though. Callum McManaman was hauled down in the box on 7 minutes and Gomez, this time, scored from the spot. 1-0 it stayed and the draw saw us away again, this time to Championship Huddersfield - live on ITV! Apart from the game being our ‘live on ITV debut’ (and only the second time we’ve been live on terrestrial, free-to-air, television  - the other occasion being in the third round of the FA Cup at home to Chelsea in 2008, which we lost 2-1) this was the first time we’ve appeared in the fifth round for TWENTY SIX YEARS! Despite ITV wishing it to be an upset for a Premier league team against a Championship one, we dished out a great performance, dominated the game and won 4-1, with Arouna Kone helping himself to a double. We had matched our best performance in the FA Cup, but the fates were against us as a Wembley semi-final was just 90 minutes away – we drawn away again. To Everton.

With this being the quarter finals (the official name being ‘sixth round’) all of the remaining ties were to be on telly and we were to be on ITV again, on Saturday dinner time (or ‘lunch time’, if you’re wrong) which also happened to be my birthday. Some birthday this will turn out to be; Everton were playing well, looking on course for a top 6 finish in the Premier League and the overwhelming favourites to reach Wembley. Both sides started brightly; Wigan’s Joel Robles had to parry away a shot by Nikica Jelavic and at the other end, Shaun Maloney hit the inside of the post, the ball trickling agonisingly away from the goal. We were making a real game of this and we’re looking confident - McCarthy hit a volley, which the goalkeeper pushed over his bar for a corner. Gomez stepped up to take the kick, the ball going straight from the corner to Figueroa - who headed in! 1-0 Wigan!

What followed next was a quite insane 3 minutes, as first, McManaman pounced on a mistake from Phil Neville, running away from everyone before chipping the ball over the goalkeeper and into the corner! Just 2 minutes later, Gomez struck in a cheeky shot from the edge of the box. We screamed the house down as we were THREE-NIL UP! I just couldn’t believe it. Where on earth did this come from? Everton didn’t know what to do and Wigan just played them off the park, passing the ball around them like they were cones on a training pitch. We never let our concentration slip for a minute and held on for a Wembley semi-final. After a night of celebrating, it took me about a week of watching and re-watching the game again to fully understand what had happened. We were at the ‘new’ Wembley for the first time!

After a painful few weeks of waiting, which culminated in watching the entirety of two awful sixth round games between Blackburn and Millwall, we arrived at Wembley to play Millwall - the last team we beat at the ‘old’ Wembley, in the 1999 Auto Windscreens Shield final. It was a close game that day, Paul Rodgers (a midfielder, not the frontman of rock bands ‘Free’ and ‘Bad Company’ - although that would have been incredible) scoring the winner in the 90^th minute. We didn’t have to wait 90 minutes again, as we dominated the play and won 2-0, Shaun Maloney volleying in and McManaman rounding off a great move, latching on to one of the best through-balls you’ll ever see from Gomez. Everything was all right now - we were in a FA Cup Final!

The day of the final arrives, I’m catching the coach from the DW Stadium with my dad and sister, it’s rare that we go to games together these days, so it’s always nice when we do and an occasion like this just seems perfect for us to be together. I’ve never seen as many coaches in my life though - with us and City occupying the same region of the country, I predicted that there weren’t many coaches left in the entirety of Northern England. Our coach, organised by the club, came from Middlesbrough! All of this could have been a lot easier if the FA/television hadn’t have insisted on a kick-off time of 5.15pm and Virgin Trains not running services back to Wigan or Manchester. But we needn’t have worried, as the FA kindly pointed out that their partners, National Express, were providing their services too. It’s nice to know that supporters are well thought of! I can’t be too angry today though, we’re off to the final - and it seems like a dream. On the journey down, we’re hearing rumours on the radio and in the newspaper about how Man City manager, Roberto Mancini, is facing the sack. Will this help our cause? The City players can’t be too up for it if they’ve heard whispers that their manager is going to get the boot? No, this is an FA Cup Final and they are top professionals, they’ll be well up for it.

It was our second visit to the stadium in a month. The journey though a long one, was enjoyable, culminating in spotting some bus spotters on the Wembley car park. For us, Wembley is the national stadium, a good day-out and the culmination of the season. Or it should be. For these bus spotters – it’s exactly the same. Imagine all the attractive coaches and buses, from all over the country, that come here. It’s like a red light district for vehicles, and the honey is free. Some people might see it as a bizarre hobby, but they probably think that following a football team all over the country is bizarre too. For a laugh, I snapped away at them on my phone - let’s see how they like it. Thankfully, I was still on the coach, so they couldn’t get me. It’s a good job people aren’t permitted to drink on the coach, or else a lot of mickey-taking would have been directed at the poor bus spotters, who are probably lacking a bit of self-esteem as it is.

When we get off, my dad and sister are mysteriously ill and push what looks like a bottle of coke in my hands. It was probably cheap out-of-date cola or something, because it didn’t taste like coke and as I said, the pair of them are behaving funny. Thankfully my mate Chris turned up on one of the other coaches, so at least two of us weren’t ill. We decamp to the nearest pub for a few drinks and a bit of a sing song, as you do for any big match. I didn’t want to get overly ill as I’d like to remember some of the day, but 7 or 8 or 9 (I can’t really remember) drinks later, seemed to calm the nerves somewhat. In what seemed like no time at all (but was probably about 2 hours) we made our way to the stadium. Wembley, as you’d expect, is impressive. It’s massive - you could probably fit the entire population of Wigan town in it. The Council taking the corporate seats for free of course. A part of me wanted to waive the fact that it cost £900 million, but then I thought again. £900 MILLION! You could buy the whole of Wigan with that and have change to repave all the roads. I even had a bit of repartee with the stewards on the gate, which could have seen me denied entry if they didn’t have a sense of humour. Thankfully, they did.  Ignoring the overpriced concourse, we go to our seats and observe our surroundings. We happen to be on the last row of the top tier – and my seat is at the end of the row! It’s a great view though. Looking around, I’ve never sobered up so quick as it hit me again that we were at a Cup Final and now I saw it with my own eyes. The band of the Grenadier Guards are marching around, playing music. We have the people on the pitch who just stand there doing nothing and everyone in the stands has a flag under their seats. My seat didn’t have a flag under it though - obviously some scamp had stolen it prior to my arrival.

Abide With Me. It evokes memories for some people. Those who are with us now, but mainly, those who aren’t. Those people who you used to go to Latics with, those who you shared the good and bad times with. Those who used to go when it wasn’t fashionable, when times were hard and those who threw money in a bucket to keep the club going to allow us all to be here now. Everyone who has ever gone to Latics, who aren’t with us now, would be equally bursting with pride at seeing their club here. Without trying to sound condescending, Wigan Athletic is a club for the people of Wigan, rather than a brand to be sold all over the world. Even though many of the players aren’t even English, let alone Wiganers, we all feel represented whenever they play. We’re not the biggest club in the world, but we don’t want to be. We want to represent our town and ourselves at the highest level possible. We’re up against a club that is on the verge of becoming a world power in the sport and we have as much right to be here as they do. This is why we watch football and this is why we are so proud of our club when we hear this hymn, even though we can barely hear it and some of us are wiping tears away.

The teams come out. Dave Whelan, who has done so much for his hometown and football club, leading the Wigan team out. Next comes Roberto and Emmerson Boyce, our captain, carrying our mascot, Joesph Kendrick, a 4 year-old with NKH, a rare debilitating genetic condition, just summed up our club and our town in one image. The charity which he represents, Joseph’s Goal, aims to raise money and awareness to find a cure for NKH.  Boycey made the comment that Joesph is one of us – he epitomises the fight to be here, like Wigan in many respects. What a top man, the very example of a leader. Then the national anthem started and it finally hit me as I looked down at the players and all around me, what on earth am I doing here? This is an FA Cup Final, I shouldn’t be here! I notice that I’m shaking a bit, this is why I’ll be no good in America – they play the national anthems before any sporting event, here, it’s just for the major ones - that’s how you know this is big. I felt proud, proud of my team reaching the FA Cup Final, whatever happens, this will go down in history. We all will, just by being here. The anthem finished and I was worrying about the game all over again, although this may have something to do with a bit of the alcohol wearing off.

We’re tense in the stands, but the players aren’t. From the kick-off they get into their opponents, pressing them, attacking them and passing the ball around brilliantly. It’s like a chess match – you don’t really know who has the upper hand or what will happen next. We have the ball for a bit, then City have it, then we have it again - both teams looking for any gaps in which they can slip a ball through or run into. City have a few early chances, only half-chances, not enough for us to panic about. In fact, is it good for us that City had these half-chances so early on? It certainly put the players on high alert and if we just dominated possession of the ball, we may have got caught out if City made a meaningful attack and the players got caught cold.

As soon as my own confidence started to grow about our chances, City come streaming up the pitch and after an exchange of passes sees Nasri in space, he plays it towards Sliva, who passes it back into the box and Tevez has a chance, he must be in. I’m waiting for the net to ripple. Somehow, Joel flies across the goal, saves with his boot and the ball spins over the bar. Big moment. A moment that will undoubtedly give the goalkeeper – and the team – some confidence. Not me though, I was still doing my nut in, high up in the stand. The chance for City seemed to have made Latics more determined. Callum McManaman is up the other end, exchanging passes with Maloney and Kone and being an absolute nuisance to the City defence, and in particular, Gael Clichy. He twisted and turned past a few defenders, and Joe Hart, THE GOALKEEPER! SHOOOOOOOOOOOOT! was the cry. He did, but it was blocked.

It’s half-time. Phew! The team is cheered off, they’ve certainly put in a shift already. I’m that nervous, I even hand over the best part of a FIVER for a beer. Because of the extortionate prices, I never wanted to buy anything from the stadium, but because of my current disposition, I simply had to have something to do at half-time. Staying in the toilets, muttering to myself, could see me arrested. The chatter during the break was all about the fact that we were playing well but needed to continue to keep things tight at the back and not try to force a goal, in fear of them picking us off. The £5 beer helped immensely and I returned to my seat as the players returned to the pitch.

The second half starts as the first ended – both teams having the ball for long periods, working out who’ll be making which move and when. The weather was changeable and I was still on the edge of my seat. At least I made a friend this time - the steward who was patrolling the area near us seemed up for a chat. Seemed up to it to me, anyway. 66 minutes in and strains of I’m A Believer can be heard from the Latics fans. City fans respond with Blue Moon, but as Latics continue to press, Believer continues. We’re starting to believe in the stands, it seems the players already do. You Are My Sunshine is also belted out by Wiganers - the sun kept disappearing and re-appearing all day, almost as much as the possession of the ball changed from boots with blue or black socks emanating from them. Every Wigan player seems to be on top form, as they need to be, attempting to win their own personal battles on the pitch - and if the players can win their personal battles against their opponents, that’s half the job done.

If you were watching on telly, you could be forgiven in thinking the match was boring, as clear-cut chances were hard to come by. It was anything but in the stands and as time slowly passed by, you could sense something big was about to happen. We had them pegged back as we continued to press - and they didn’t like it. Foul after foul, the City players couldn’t handle the direct running of McManaman, nor the trickery of Shaun Maloney.  The red card was the clincher for this nervous, slightly drunk, worrier – we’re on top here, we actually might win this! I’m stood up at this point, I literally can’t watch sitting down. McManaman is through. GO OOOOON! Then Zabaleta comes from nowhere to haul him down. I forget during the many howls of derision that he’s already been booked, for an earlier foul on McManaman.  My steward friend tells me ‘he’s off’, ‘He’s already been booked?’ He didn’t need to answer – I saw a flash of red and arguably City’s most influential player was stomping off. What a chance. Prior to the incident, the noise had been steadily growing as Latics were looking comfortable, confidence was high. We’ll do it in extra time, I thought, as I was watching Zabaleta walk to the tunnel. Plenty of time to take advantage of 10-man City. Maloney hits the free-kick just over, but all you could hear was an encouraging cry of COME OOOOOOOOON! Men and women of all ages were screaming, sensing this is our chance.

As the clock ticks towards 90 minutes, the players are still passing the ball calmly, waiting for any gap in the City defence. McArthur plays the ball down the right and McManaman cuts inside Clichy. GO OOOOON! The desperation from everyone was vocal. He glides into the box and is brought down. PENALTY? Surely?  No, it’s a corner. What a crap decision - Clichy clearly brought him down! FUMING! As if the referee will give a penalty against Man City in the last minute of a cup final! Frustration all around – we’ve been robbed there. What happened next was like a moment after you take a picture. Just imagine you’re lining up the shot, trying to find the right image, the perfect image and then you press in the button. Now just imagine that picture taking what must seem like hours to take - that’s what it was like. The ball floating its way in from the resulting corner, somebody in a black shirt rushing towards it and the next moment something white in colour was nestling in the corner of the net.

It can’t be the ball, can it?

It seemed to nestle in that corner for what seemed like an age. 

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Looking around, it was pandemonium. People jumping all over the place, throwing children in the air, complete strangers were hugging, crying and laughing with one another. Men kissed each other and even hugged the nearest steward they could (guilty!) Some were still screaming as if we’d just scored, about 3 minutes after we actually did. Some lunatics (just men, unfortunately) were even taking their clothes off in a fit of unprecedented, hypnotic joy (or at least trying to take their shirts off over their ale-filled bellies). I was convinced the goal wouldn’t be allowed. This can’t happen. Wigan scoring in injury time of a Cup Final? No, wait, he’s walking away, the Ref’s walking away! He’s not blown up for a foul, IT’S A GOAL! I went mad all over again, hugging people.

Right, CALM DOWN! I was telling everyone who would listen. Nobody did listen. At this point, I was standing up and screaming at the game below (as if they could hear me) like I was Martinez, directing play and kicking every ball. They didn’t listen either. I don’t care how much of an idiot I looked - I was right in the top tier, on the back row of Wembley’s East Stand and my team were minutes away from winning the FA Cup. It didn’t matter though - EVERYONE was screaming their heads off, wanting that final whistle to sound. We still had 3 minutes of injury time to go.

All I remember is Roger Espinoza putting in a few tackles and the backline, made up of the entire team it seemed, heading everything away. My head was banging due to desperation and remnants of alcohol. My heart stopped when Joel sprinted out of his goal and his area to boot a ball into the stand WHAT’S HE DOING??????????? I screamed (Yes, with that many question marks and slightly more colourful phrases) 

Thankfully, he knew what he was doing. 

I needn’t have worried. We held on. We’ve won the cup! 

WE’VE WON THE CUP! 

WIGAN ATHLETIC HAVE WON THE CUP!

I said earlier that going to the final seemed like a dream, but that’s rubbish really, because you don’t have a say in how a dream turns out. If you could, then I WOULD be a hero and decapitate all those zombies that invade my local Asda (instead of hiding in the stockroom eating all the biscuits, whilst people bang on the door wanting to be let in as they are eaten alive). Yeah, getting to the final is a great achievement but winning it is the real dream. Can you imagine the feeling of winning something before you actually experience it? I don’t think you can. It’s something that you didn’t expect to happen. Scoring in the last minute. What chance did we actually have? This now, as I’m embracing my family, friends, stewards and total strangers as the Wigan players celebrate, could never have been predicted. You can predict having a nice day out and watching your team play in a major final when you’re sat down on the coach yeah, but you can never predict the emotions that go through you during the day, as your team edges closer to winning. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what makes supporting a football club worthwhile.

Emmerson Boyce and Gary Caldwell lift the FA Cup for Wigan Athletic. Madness. Growing up, I’ve seen other teams lift the cup and I never in my wildest dreams expected it to be my team one day. Even the ridiculous version of The Great Escape theme didn’t spoil the moment. I’m speaking to a lad of about 9 and I can just imagine how he’s feeling - I was 9 when I first saw Latics in the fourth tier and loved it. Imagine being 9 and seeing your club, the town where you’re from and where you live, winning the FA Cup. Him and thousands like him, will be Latics supporters for life now, surely. They’ll always remember this moment as being one of the happiest of their lives. That’s what football should be like. It shouldn’t be about out-spending other clubs and striving to have the most fans from all corners of the world, just so you can sell them tat. It should be about creating memories, moments you’ll remember for the rest of your life. Nobody will remember a season that saw you finish mid-table in the Premier League, or in our case, 17^th and just avoiding relegation. It’s a pointless existence.

Dave Whelan, whose personal history with the competition is well known, has been provided with the perfect ending - he’s someone who has also invested so much into the club and the town, and I’m delighted that he has got his reward. I can’t think of a worthier goalscorer than Ben Watson, another member of the broken leg club who has spent the last few months trying to get fit. He’s your typical midfielder, who regularly slips under the radar - works hard, without getting many plaudits. Before the game, the media were lamenting the lack of English players playing in the Final, the irony of an English player settling the final wasn’t lost on us.

Fair play to the City fans, who were very gracious after the game, when they could be forgiven for not being so. We met them outside and at service stations on the way home and all of them were congratulating us, shaking hands and saying that we deserved to win. I didn’t point out that I didn’t play in the game, so had very little impact on it, though. The majority of City supporters have experienced the ups and downs with their club, so they seem to understand how much the win meant to us. They get it. Apart from one woman, who screamed ‘GOING DOWN’ at us. She doesn’t get it.

It must have been about 1am when we got home, but I didn’t care, time didn’t matter at this point. I even made myself sick, not because of the ale – in all the excitement I had drank too much fizzy pop on the coach and it wouldn’t go down (it wasn’t the out-of-date pop either), I didn’t care though. Would the club go down at Arsenal on Tuesday? If we do, we have a bit of jewellery to go with, a sign of our achievement, that will make it all these years of being in the top division and struggling for the most part, worthwhile. Do I really care? Well, we’ll see. Will anything that may happen on the pitch to this club in the future take away what today meant and my love of my football club? Never.