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Happy Winterval! Hope you’re all having a brilliant time. And if you were at Braintree on Saturday, I hope you dried out in time for Christmas Day.
Timehop reminded me once again last Saturday how far we’ve come as a club. It was three years since I shared a photo I took on my way to work of someone standing with a banner outside the main entrance after the ridiculous letters banning people for ‘promoting dislike of the club’ were sent out. By contrast, last Saturday, one of the banned lads was having our current owner have a look at the engine on the booze bus. (Don’t worry, they made it).
What a pretty little ground Braintree looked on the photos, all surrounded by trees. Not such a pretty place to watch a game of football in the pissing rain, or such a pretty pitch to play on. We HAVE to get out of this league.
And, if we can keep Stones and Clucas for the rest of the season, I’m confident we will. Our midfield maestro bossed the centre of the park again and was involved in a lovely passing move that led to the opening goal. He passed to Lundstram, who laid it off to Kitching, who put a trademark cross into the box for Stones to head into the net. They make it look easy.
📸 Graeme Wilcockson
Stones was unlucky to not make it 2-0 when we hit them on the break, but Covolan made a good save with his legs. It got soggier and soggier as the game went on, so kudos to you if you came back out from the beer tent for the second half.
Not only have Mellon and Stones got Norwood scoring, they’ve even got him celebrating. After he intercepted a sloppy back pass, took the ball round the keeper and finished well to put us 2-0, he reprised the fist-pump celebration that he debuted after bullying children at Whitegate End Primary School. Glorious stuff.
📸 Graeme Wilcockson
We could easily have won by more – Stones put a shot hilariously wide, and another Clucas-initiated break down the middle almost resulted in Garner playing Fondop in for another goal, but the keeper made another good save. In the circumstances, in the rain, on a heavy pitch, 3 points and a clean sheet was a pretty good early present. And you even got to watch a pretty sunset.
📸 Mayoski
Mellon praised the solid, professional performance, and again thanked the fans for their fortitude in the conditions: “they didn’t stop, they got right behind us…We don’t take you for granted.”
Frank certainly doesn’t take the fans – sorry, supporters – for granted, and took the time and trouble to shake hands with them to thank them for travelling and wish them a Merry Christmas. The video of it has gone viral, with social media accounts all over the world applauding him and saying this is exactly what everyone wants their club’s owner to be like. And one bitter pisscan was raging on social media about it at 2am on Sunday All the best everyone!
The ‘dad and lad’ love-in between Norwood and Stones continues. Seriously, Wigan, you cannot split these two up. It would be in contravention of Article 8 of the Humans Rights Act (“Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life”). Come on. It’s Christmas.
This tweet from Norwood was intriguing. Have we offered Stones a contract? Has Norwood been told to let this be known as a teaser, or to put pressure on Stones and/or Wigan? We can only hope.
Congratulations and well done to our women’s team, who won 4-1 away at Swinton in the 3rd round of the Greater Manchester Women’s Challenge Cup last Sunday in conditions possibly even worse than those at Braintree. Academy player Holly Forder-Brown equalised a minute after the hosts had taken the lead in the 20th minute, then put us 2-1 up just before half-time. Winger Ruby Crossman’s ball into the box was deflected in off a Swinton defender to make it 3-1 before the break. Paige Stopford made it 4-1 six minutes into the second half, and the win could have been even more emphatic had Caitlin Knowles’ 20 yard thunderbastard not been ruled out for a foul.
📸 Oldham Athletic
It was the team’s first game after three weeks, and the coaching team highlighted how the disruption is hampering their momentum: “The performance was okay but it’s hard to continue a good run of form when teams pull out of fixtures… It’s nice as a team to finish the year with a win, and we hopefully will pick up where we left off after Christmas, to try and build momentum.”
Here’s hoping they do, especially as their next game is away at Rochdale at Hopwood Hall College at 2.30pm on Sunday 5th January. We beat them 2-1 at home in November and it’d be very nice to do the double over them. Let’s hope that the women are better at getting their games on than the men, who once again called off their match last Saturday due to a waterlogged pitch.
Wadmin gave us all an absolute treat yesterday. Norwood singing All I Want For Christmas Is You to Stones is exactly what I wanted. I love this club.
Ho ho ho!
I hope you’re having a great festive season, and special Yuletide greetings to our neighbour Dean, who has once again won Christmas with his window decorations.
Let’s hope we get the present we all really want today. Three points against York would be huge. As much as I’m enjoying us being dark horses, a win today would be massive statement in the title race. I have to work tomorrow, lads, make sure that my hangover is a happy one. KTMFF.
📸 Graeme Wilcockson
Written by Arlene Finnigan
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