Lies, damned lies and now the damned tics. Wigan (H) Saturday 12.30pm

[TonyDomingos]

Our issue is our slow starts in games. We’re playing a poor team at home - I’d start Williams and Schon if Tutu is being a fanny. Cogley more often than not wastes possession in the attacking third. We need to be going at these from the off.

Agree that poor spells are bad, and when they're at the start it renders us particularly vulnerable. What we don't want is three hundred pie-fans singing "It's happening again".

I agree that Williams is an option, especially if we're persisting with inverted wingbacks. Williams and Tutu are the best at being able to "go either way" so it would be good to have at least one on the pitch at all times. But as The Gun says, JDC is likely to start in this must-not-lose game.

It feels like a scrappy win over Wigan won't do. It feels like we need to go out there and give them a good pasting.

Oh it will.

Just win.

Owt more than 1-0 would be a lovely bonus.

A 1-0 win would do for now. A big win would help reclaim some trust (but still not all IMO)

Wigan don't score many (15 in 18 league games and 7 of those came in 2 games), but they have one of the meanest defences in L1: just 16 conceded. That's the same as Birmingham; only Wrexham have conceded fewer. So, a 1-0 win wouldn't be bad in that context and anything more than 2 would be the most they've conceded in the league since April.

[Mar]

Regarding the 1-0 won't do comment.

It was more to do with resolving the Evatt hoodoo and general malaise around the club. If we get a 1-0, sure that's 3 points in the bag, but it still will feel like Wigan have Evatt's number and bragging rights for quite some time. Nor will it seem like we've turned a corner.

Smashing our local rivals after being battered in the last two home games by them will certainly go some way to sorting that out.

We need a win to progress our season objectives. We need to comfortably start beating our rivals in tough games. Last time we had that (IIRC) was the Bolton 6 Sunderland 0 game, more of that please.

[boltonboris]

Any win will do!!

Missing this one as I'm on my Xmas do

[TonyDomingos]

Regarding the 1-0 won't do comment.

It was more to do with resolving the Evatt hoodoo and general malaise around the club. If we get a 1-0, sure that's 3 points in the bag, but it still will feel like Wigan have Evatt's number and bragging rights for quite some time. Nor will it seem like we've turned a corner.

Smashing our local rivals after being battered in the last two home games by them will certainly go some way to sorting that out.

We need a win to progress our season objectives. We need to comfortably start beating our rivals in tough games. Last time we had that (IIRC) was the Bolton 6 Sunderland 0 game, more of that please.

We beat rivals Oxford 5-0 in March and look where that got us!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We need to comfortably start beating our rivals in tough games.

I agree, not least as playing host to a team 1pt above the dots shouldn't be seen as 'tough'. But then, when Shrewsbury (then 2nd-bottom, now rock-bottom) visited us they were 2-0 up at the oranges. And we know there's a whole host of history with Wigan. But the point is, a team targeting the top two can't be so scared of things.

[The_Gun]

I’ll be happy with any win given the recent historical context. I think it’s understandable if the players aren’t quite as loose for this one as they would be for say a Crawley or a Northampton.

I’m sure the fans in the stands will be nervous, and I hope that’s not transmitted onto the pitch too much.

[officer_dibble]

Do you know what I’m not nervous at all.
It’s been that pants in this fixture for so long it will either be more fuel to the Evatt out fire or a pleasant surprise. There’s no halfway (not even a draw!).

[truewhite15]

I was thinking the other day, as we played the 2nd half vs Huddersfield - we look a far better side, in the main, when we've got a lead to protect. Going ahead against the Terriers seemed to give us the freedom to try different things, to take more calculated risks, to keep the ball better. Then I wondered - why is it that, given we look better with a lead, we don't go all-guns-blazing in the first 5 minutes of a game to get in front?

Get at this lot straight away. Get the lead. Then play football.

[boltonboris]

Apparently they've got the best defence in the league, but are 2nd (?) lowest scorers. If we do go behind, it'll be a long afternoon

[Harry Genshaw]

I’m sure the fans in the stands will be nervous, and I hope that’s not transmitted onto the pitch too much.

That's certainly a possibility but you know what? If they can't handle and thrive, under the pressure of a big, expectant crowd then they've no business playing for this club. Close to 25,000 for a mid table 3rd division clash is phenomenal support. Let's do this!

[Frank Drebin]

I watched the last 30 mins or so last week, on Saturday lunchtime, of the Wigan v Orient game on sky.

Wigan we’re really poor, so on that basis, I’m going for a home win.

[Worthy4England]

4-0 Whites.

[TonyDomingos]

Apparently they've got the best defence in the league, but are 2nd (?) lowest scorers. If we do go behind, it'll be a long afternoon

They have the joint - with Birmingham, Huddersfield and Stevenage - second best defence in the league (conceded 16 in 18). Wrexham have the best defence (11 in 19).

[HMX]

Anybody said “we’ll shit ‘em” yet?

We’ll shit ‘em.

[BorsdaneWhite]

In the words of Han Solo…







We’ll shit ‘em.

[KeyserSoze]

Shit them, we will.

[Worthy4England]

Can someone tell Domingo's he's not allowed to post first on a page? My browser keeps trying to translate from Portuguese! He's broke the internet.

I did say 4-0 Whites, but to be clear, we'll shit 'em.

[DJBlu]

So, Evatt was bluffing.

Tutu is in the team.

[jmjhb]

I'd have potentially started Lolos and Collins but that's fine

[TonyDomingos]

Can someone tell Domingo's he's not allowed to post first on a page? My browser keeps trying to translate from Portuguese! He's broke the internet.

I did say 4-0 Whites, but to be clear, we'll shit 'em.

Desculpa. Eu não o farei de novo.