Wigan’s one of them funny places. Famous for three things, none of which are football.

Famous for clubbing. If you don’t know then you should know that the whole amphetamine fuelled Northern Soul scene was based at Wigan Casino in the 70s. It was famous for all night raves before all night raves were even invented.

Famous too I guess for Wigan Pier and its literary links. Orwell anyone? 1984, On The Road To Wigan Pier and Animal Farm. I’m not being up my own arse here, just washing this introduction down with some musical and literarily references.

I digress, thirdly sport... but Rugby League and not football. Wigan rugby history is strong and successful. In fact when I first started going to away matches the thought of travelling to Wigan was not even on the agenda or map.

Aldershot may have been, so might too have Oxford and a few other clubs that have disappeared into the non league scene, but that’s where The Latics rose from like a mighty flame all the way to the Premier League, and as such Wigan has become one of the most popular away days on our social calendar. I guess it’s quite close, it’s relatively cheap £15/£20 and we get a good allocation.

We’ve had some good times there like sliding down the mud banks at Springfield Park (their old ground) in the Third Division (see YouTube) and seeing Marcus Stewart score early on as we took ten thousand down there and marched to the top of the league under Mick Mac. And we’ve had some bad times. Breen and Davis mix up#453 after 2.5 seconds and the pathetic collapse there two seasons ago under Roy Keane.

This time last season I hated Lee Cattermole, I thought he was a dirty little Smoggie shit. He got sent off against us in the corresponding fixture which ended 1-1 thanks to a Titus Bramble OG. However, he’s now our dirty little git who can also play a bit and all of a sudden I really like him. In fact what with their chairman’s daft comments midweek about Steve Bruce buying some crap players while at Wigan, it’s a shame Catts was still injured for what would have been a fiery return to JJB/DW/ALS Stadium.

On arrival at the stadium and despite my massive hangover we headed to the pub and it was at this point that it all started to go west. While queuing at the bar some idiot fan decided to racially abuse a black lady next to me. She not only turned out to be Darren Bent’s mam but she gave the guy so much shit back that it led to the stewards and then the police arriving on the scene and rightfully taking the bloke away. I understand that the perpetrator will be banned from the SOL for life.

The match itself was bizarre. In the first half we played five in midfield, but so did they and both teams cancelled each other out. I said to my old man at half time that Bruce should bring on Campbell and switch to 442. He did exactly that and we dominated that second half. But despite all our possession and pressure, Wigan broke away and scored what turned out to be the winner. Not good.

The journey home was dominated by the repercussions of the racist incident and when I checked Bent’s Twitter status it read “ So we get beat by Wigan and to make matters worse my mum gets racially abused by a SUNDERLAND fan. I won’t stand for that.” At that point the my mobile started ringing constantly with various papers looking for a quote the incident. Not a good day at the office/match.

Final Score: 0-1

ALS Man of The Match: Shirley Bent

Martyn McFadden

ALS Books click here