Up fer't Caraboa Cup. V. Wigan away 24-08 21. 19-45...

[Prufrock]

I guess I'm somewhere in the middle generationally. And Wigan are the anti-Bury. I know about the Bury rivalry but we only played them I think twice as equals in my living memory and any rivalry was pretty soon after trumped by sympathy.

Wigan (no auto-correct, not Wuhan) are not the ones I look to, in fact I have a blind spot for them on the Sporcle/FFT quizzes where I always forget they exist. But it's growing, it's bigger in the younger generations and there's something to be said for exclusivity. We have lots of local rivals but, we're no-one else's main one.

I'll broadly in favour of it growing. But I'm from the Wigan side of town, and have no real worries they'll ever realistically over take us. It's a smaller town, and it doesn't really have any football heritage. All the mill towns are fighting the Premier League vacuum, but they don't have the generations of it in the family to hold on to much of a core. A minority of the RL fans, but not a tiny one also resent the football club.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I guess I'm somewhere in the middle generationally. And Wigan are the anti-Bury. I know about the Bury rivalry but we only played them I think twice as equals in my living memory and any rivalry was pretty soon after trumped by sympathy.

Interesting on generations. As I say in my first decade Wigan were the noisy neighbours who beat us more often than should have happened in The Natural Order Of Things. Bury did too but at least our rivalry went back decades and decades.

I guess for many members of a generation above me, Wigan are still and will ever be a minor irritant.

Truth be told, and trying to be as logical (rather than emotional) as possible, I'd say that our most "similar" neighbours are probably Blackburn, but that one never seems to matter as much to most people. Guess it doesn't help that they have their own ferocious rivalry with Burnley. Indeed our rivalries are all somewhat imbalanced in terms of history: if Non-League Wigan are indeed irrelevant to us, and we tried to affect the same haughty superiority with Bury, imagine how insignificant we are to United.

[The_Gun]

Is this another we can't watch on iFollow in the UK? If so, will a vpn do the trick?

Edit: Seemingly not available anywhere.

[Worthy4England]

So we should scorn it, Barnetto, in Sheffield Wednesday fans. No point giving me the team talk, I'm not playing. If you want to consider a novelty Subbuteo team as some sorta rivals, I'm fine with that. Honestly

But as with Tranmere, I'm not any more gutted if we lost to Port Vale. In my defence, I did suggest Evatt should be sacked if he lost to fckin Salford last season. They're tin pot, too.

It wasn't the dark ages when Utd and City pulled ahead on head to head matches v us on wins it was the noughties (and yes, I know when you were growing up we didn't play them too much).

Whose responsible for making up the rules on how far you can go back? Coz I missed the memo, so I suspect we all pick our own.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

So we should scorn it, Barnetto, in Sheffield Wednesday fans. No point giving me the team talk, I'm not playing. If you want to consider a novelty Subbuteo team as some sorta rivals, I'm fine with that. Honestly

For clarity, I think there's plenty to laugh at Wigan about, and I dearly wish they weren't at our level or thereabouts. As it goes, as a fan I'm not a big one for derbies, I find the emotional risk greater than the reward, and I'm sure Twitter will be a hellhole either way tonight, but I simply shan't look.

But as with Tranmere, I'm not any more gutted if we lost to Port Vale. In my defence, I did suggest Evatt should be sacked if he lost to fckin Salford last season. They're tin pot, too.

Presumably the hypothetical loss to Salford would matter because they're tin-pot, but in that case why would it matter any more than if we'd lost to, say, Stevenage? The answer is presumably to do with (your) locality, which is why Wigan and Bolton will bump up against one another.

And Tranmere will always matter more to me than Port Vale, because of that 90s rivalry. Same as discussed before, I guess: what we take on board in early life sticks with us. So f--k those guys too

It wasn't the dark ages when Utd and City pulled ahead on head to head matches v us on wins it was the noughties (and yes, I know when you were growing up we didn't play them too much).

There's such a thing as recency bias, and such a thing as too little of it. Are you saying that if we'd beaten them every game from 1890 to 1950 but then lost every game from 1950 to 2010, we'd be somehow level? Not sure on that. A bit like saying the UK is still more important than the US because our empire lasted longer than their global pre-eminence.

Whose responsible for making up the rules on how far you can go back? Coz I missed the memo, so I suspect we all pick our own.

We do indeed, and it's one of the things that makes football discussions so interesting. Personally, I'd say as a thumb-rule that anything which happened before any of tonight's players were born is pretty much irrelevant; I'm aware that such a rule eats into my own historical fandom, but here we are.

[Worthy4England]

No sense of history, some folks. Fortunately most of them will be from Wigan....

[BWFC_Insane]

I’d say our 90s rivalries with Wolves and Trampmere meant more than this Wigan thing. It’s an age thing but also a I’ve never cared about Wigan and won’t now.

I’m with Worthy in that I wouldn’t care any more or less about being beat tonight than I would have if Barnsley beat us last time round. Don’t care about the nonsense on social media or oneupmanship. Tonight is irrelevant by Thursday and whoever wins would swap that for finishing higher in the league.

[Harry Genshaw]

We've never had a direct rival, who were close geographically, in terms of stature and who didnt already hate somebody else more.

Utd as rivals is as laughable as Bury. Blackburn would be ideal but have the whole Burnley thing going on. In the absence of anyone else close by with some standing in the game, Wigan will have to do. My previous experiences in the town and with the residents, has been largely negative so i really hope we turn them over tonight but also in the league, in the papa johns, pre season friendlies and at any other sport too.

Josh Sheehan to play the Jeff Chandler 1983 role with a headed winner at the far post, in front of a packed away end and a sparsely populated home end. 《Prays》

[TANGODANCER]

I’m with Worthy in that I wouldn’t care any more or less about being beat tonight

I would. I had a shop in Wigan for a couple of years back in time. Strange, strange people. I care about losing to anybody,especially Wigan and Tranmere. Okay, league before cup always, but a supporter is a supporter, sine die. COME ON YOU WHITES..

[nicholaldo]

I think we'll lose tonight. McClean to score, or be involved in a pivotal moment.

It just has that feel.

Unrelated to tonight's match but in the absence of an appropriate thread, it seems like Josh Sheehan has missed out on selection for the Welsh national team, meaning he'll be available for the Burton Albion match.

[Bruce Rioja]

I see that Sharron's released a statement asking our numpties to behave themselves. I do hope that it's just a general request and isn't linked to anything by way of more solid information, but furthermore I just hope that they respect her wishes. .

[DJBlu]

Is this another we can't watch on iFollow in the UK? If so, will a vpn do the trick?

Edit: Seemingly not available anywhere.

Only radio commentary, either FM or on Ifollow.

I'm sure the goals if any will be shown on Sky Sports News.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I see that Sharron's released a statement asking our numpties to behave themselves. I do hope that it's just a general request and isn't linked to anything by way of more solid information, but furthermore I just hope that they respect her wishes.

Yeah there does seem to be a lot of "noise" about. I'm not ITK, either at boardroom or knobhead level, but Evatt seems to have multiply mentioned our fans should go about the rivalry in the right way. Maybe they got a bit spooked by the MU-Leeds knuckle-draggers. Guess we should be glad they're being proactive - wouldn't surprise me if there's a determined effort under this ownership to root out wrong'uns. I suspect they foresee a future that's more "families on the concourse" than "fireworks in the arse-crack", and I for one applaud our new overlords.

[The_Gun]

Is this another we can't watch on iFollow in the UK? If so, will a vpn do the trick?

Edit: Seemingly not available anywhere.

Only radio commentary, either FM or on Ifollow.

I'm sure the goals if any will be shown on Sky Sports News.

So annoying.

I kind of understand the rationale for not showing it in the UK, but why they wouldn't allow people outside the country to watch is beyond me.

[KeyserSoze]

We're 13th in the all time Division One table, having played 2,400 more games than them in it. A lot of that is long time past memories. But they're part of what we are.

I did a lot of scrolling to get to Wigan.

Are you sure you didn't just have the table in alphabetical order?

[Harry Genshaw]

Probably a good move by Sharon. Our last visit there was one of the most toxic atmospheres I've ever encountered watching Bolton. Undoubtedly, there's a much greater connect now, than there was then, between owners, manager, players and fans but we've still a sizeable minority of bell ends who follow us home and away.

Hopefully no nonsense tonight, best team wins (us, obvs) and our supporters support, as opposed to hurling insults at their fans. However much they might deserve it being Wiganers

[Spartan2]

Is this another we can't watch on iFollow in the UK? If so, will a vpn do the trick?

Edit: Seemingly not available anywhere.

Only radio commentary, either FM or on Ifollow.

I'm sure the goals if any will be shown on Sky Sports News.

So annoying.

I kind of understand the rationale for not showing it in the UK, but why they wouldn't allow people outside the country to watch is beyond me.

I think outside UK is still video.

[Spartan2]

Is this another we can't watch on iFollow in the UK? If so, will a vpn do the trick?

Edit: Seemingly not available anywhere.

Only radio commentary, either FM or on Ifollow.

I'm sure the goals if any will be shown on Sky Sports News.

So annoying.

I kind of understand the rationale for not showing it in the UK, but why they wouldn't allow people outside the country to watch is beyond me.

I think outside UK is still video.

Seems it's not? WTF! Is it on sky or something?

[The_Gun]

Is this another we can't watch on iFollow in the UK? If so, will a vpn do the trick?

Edit: Seemingly not available anywhere.

Only radio commentary, either FM or on Ifollow.

I'm sure the goals if any will be shown on Sky Sports News.

So annoying.

I kind of understand the rationale for not showing it in the UK, but why they wouldn't allow people outside the country to watch is beyond me.

I think outside UK is still video.

Seems it's not? WTF! Is it on sky or something?

Nope, it's not on anywhere either here or internationally as far as I can tell.

[bw@bw]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... SApp_Other

McClean?
Abuse?

Well I never