I was glad to hear that we’re assured of a very good crowd this afternoon and I’m looking forward to listening to or maybe watching the match online. It’s going to be strange to see Wyke, Power and Jones lining up against us and I wonder how many more of our players Wigan are planning to acquire – they can have Wright too as far as I’m concerned as long as we replace him.
Wyke proved his worth as a striker last season but once his supply of crosses was cut out, he didn’t do anywhere near as well whereas Stewart looks like he can create a goal himself. I think Power is a great lad but he typified what was too often our recent style of attacking i.e. stop near the half-way line, wait a few seconds and then pass it sideways or backwards allowing the opposition time to get into defensive mode easily. We never seemed to show any interest in signing Jones, which I can’t understand as he often looked a very good asset to me. Let’s hope we don’t live to regret it today.
I’m all for bringing on the youngsters and our pre-season has gone well but like everyone else I’m wondering which other players we’re going to bring in. Of course it’s our first proper league game at home since Gillingham seventeen months back so that big crowd will be roaring us on and I think we can get the win we need to set us up for a successful season. It’s teeming down here in London and if it’s as bad back home, it might well cause mistakes. Match prediction: 2-1 to us.
When I got the team-news around 2.15, I saw that Power and Wyke were both starting for Wigan while Jones was a sub. For us both Evans and Doyle were starting and Gooch, Embleton, McGeady and Stewart looked like they had a few goals in them. Pritchard was on the bench but the youngsters we’d seen in pre-season were nowhere to be seen. Grigg was on the bench too and he still has some supporters among our fans. We were playing with Stewart upfront backed up by Gooch, Embleton and McGeady. I got the audio online, after some difficulty, and awaited developments.
Our fans were in great voice pre-match and I presume the kick-off had been delayed due to a lot of fans still being outside. As the teams emerged there was a pent-up roar from our fans and hopefully that put fear into the Wigan players. I wondered what Lee Johnson made of it. The p.a. was certainly sounding louder.
We conceded a couple of free-kicks in the opening exchanges, the second of which was held by Burge. We also conceded the first corner of the game four minutes in but won a free-kick and the danger passed. Wyke was being booed by a small section of our fans. A Power shot was headed clear and Wigan were certainly having a go. We had to have a new ball as the first one had burst so I hoped we’d do better with that one. Ten minutes in we won a free-kick in a dangerous spot but McGeady’s shot was cleared. I wasn’t too surprised when Wigan took the lead in the fifteenth minute when Edwards fired into the top-right corner after a Keane shot had hit the post. Right from the kick-off Stewart ghosted into their penalty-area and was felled. McGeady took the resultant penalty and coolly drove it down the middle to put us level. It was the perfect reaction and we soon won our first corner. We were in the ascendency and an Embleton shot was blocked as our fans roared us on.
We were still sounding vulnerable down our left with Neil not being used to the left back position and McGeady not doing enough tracking back. Embleton had a decent header just over the bar with ten minutes to the break while Wyke had barely had a mention since the opening minutes. We were piling up the corners and a goal before half-time would be fantastic. Power was booked for taking a free-kick too early and that was cheered by our fans. It remained 1-1 at the break and after a wobbly opening quarter hour we’d battled back to gain control of the game.
We started the second-half strongly with Gooch sounding impressive. Commentators Barnes and Benno were having trouble identifying the Wigan players because their shirt numbers were very difficult to see. Eight minutes in we took the lead when from an Embleton corner Stewart glanced a header into the net. Winchester became our first player to get a yellow card this season, for a foul.
By the hour-mark we were still well in control and I fancied us for another goal before too long. Wigan had done very little upfront so far this half and Burge was sounding confident when called upon. I wondered which changes LJ would make if any. Midway through the half Gooch made a great turn and struck a shot that hit the angle of the bar and post. Next thing Jordan Jones was on the pitch, replacing Keane, and I was glad at least that we hadn’t seen him so far. I didn’t fancy Neil against him. Twenty minutes to go and still no changes for us. I hadn’t realized that we were back to only three subs per game.
O’Brien came on for McGeady, who’d been quiet in the second period, and before he could get started we had to wait for Winchester to receive some treatment. In the end Winchester was replaced by Diamond and Gooch went to right back. The rhythm of the game had been lost with the delay and with eleven minutes on the clock I was starting to feel edgy. The crowd was announced and it was over thirty-one thousand. Wright came on for Embleton to much applause all round and hopefully he’d beef us up at the back in the closing stages. I’d reckoned there’d be a good deal of stoppage-time and six minutes were announced. I had to get up and pace around a bit. Our fans were whistling like hell and after Wyke had been booked the important whistle finally went and we’d got our first win.
This was a great result and we showed that we could fight back after going a goal down and spread the ball around attractively. Stewart showed what an asset he is while it has to be said that Wyke achieved very little for Wigan and fears that our three ex-players would make us suffer proved unfounded.
