Before

It’s 7.15 on Saturday morning and I’m heading off to work in a minute. I’ve got to supervise a load of students through an oral exam and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to hear anything about the match. If I can figure out how to work the radio on my new mobile, then I could be in business but being wired up in an exam room isn’t really on.

Anyway, I think we’re going to beat Wigan despite the fact that they’ve soundly beaten us twice this season. We’re on something of a run at home and with the arrival of Prica are looking like we can knock a few goals in. Our midfield area is looking fairly decimated but if Leadbitter plays I think he can put in one of his typical battling performances.

After

Well, apart from one quick check on the internet around the 40 th minute, I wasn’t able to keep in touch with the match at all and so can’t comment on the game itself. I was of course delighted with the result and even though all the commentators seem to be saying that Wigan deserved to win, I can just refer them to the Villa and Reading matches when we came away with a total of one point and should have had four. Today’s result was all the more pleasing because we achieved it without a good number of key players and we can only speculate on how much better we’ll be when they all return. Reid did well, apparently, and so with Evans, Prica and Bardsley that makes four more lousy signings Keano’s made in the transfer window (ha, ha).

Apart from after the Wigan F.A. Cup defeat I’ve always been confident that we could stay up and am even more so tonight. We’re showing winning form at home and with away games against Derby, Fulham and Bolton coming up I reckon we can actually get a number of away points too. This is no time of the season to be hitting a bad run – who would you rather be now, Roy Keane or Steve Coppell and Kevin Keegan? Our nearest and dearest are very much in our sights now.

So, we’ve got two weeks off to bask in the glow of recent results and regularly glance at the Premier League table, even though we know full well what it says, before we take on Portsmouth. They’ll be a different side with their four African players back from the Africa Cup of Nations and Muntari, who really caught my eye for Ghana, is a man to watch. See you there.

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