I Was Once In Tears After Losing 9-1 In A Youth Football Match...

I hope I never remember the 22nd of November for as long as I live. A horrible, horrible day in the history of Wigan Athletic. A 9-1 defeat at Tottenham. There, I’ve said it - and I won’t say it again.

After only trailing 1-0 at half-time we collapsed like the England Cricket team to record the worst defeat in our history and the second worst in the Premier League. It can be too easy to blame the manager, I’m a massive Roberto Martinez supporter and there’s only so much he can do whilst the match is going on. It’s up to the players to go out on the pitch and perform, the ‘performance’ yesterday was the worst I’ve ever seen.

I remember losing a football game in my youth by the same scoreline, I was so upset at the result - I just wanted to hide somewhere and never be found again. To me, some of the Latics players didn’t look too fussed, as they let Spurs trample all over them at every opportunity.

I just feel sorry for the Latics supporters who made the long trip down, thankfully the players have took some responsibility and have offered to refund every Latics supporter who went. It’s a nice gesture but to be fair - it’s the least they can do.

8 of the goals were a result of terrible defending, the other was just down to bad luck. Sometimes, it can be too easy to rip into a teams’ performance - but there shouldn’t be a hiding place for our players. It’s not just this result that is the cause of all this - it’s the inconsistency which plagues us every other game.

I just don’t understand why Latics can go out and beat Chelsea, one of the best teams in the world, but look like total amateurs against Spurs. It stinks of bad attitude, maybe some of the players have got no respect for Bob? I’m not sure. The most likely reason is that we don’t have a leader on the pitch and the communication between the players mustn’t be the best. However, these lads are professional footballers, most of them are internationals for heaven’s sake. It’s up to Bob to kick some arse now, with messers Jones and Barrow at his side - I’m sure that won’t be a problem!

Of course the muppets on the Interweb and elsewhere have been having a go, but to be fair most fans seem to feel for us. It’s the reaction of our own fans which disturbs me - we should instead be pulling rank and getting behind the manager. As I’ve said, there’s only so much he can do, but when there’s a bad result he’ll always get the flak - its bang out of order as there wasn’t anything he could have done. Our back four yesterday have been at the club for quite a while now and they are all experienced Premiership players. There’s no excuse.

It’s difficult at the moment, but we just need to bury our heads in the sand for a few days, take the insults on the chin and pick ourselves up to get behind the lads against Sunderland on Saturday. With me being me - I can’t make it as I’ll be in London – bloody typical isn’t it? I was looking forward to venting my anger at our so-called supporters who moan at every given chance!

So let’s try and forget this result and show the lads our support. I know I’ve more-or-less called their professionalism into question here, which might be a bit unfair, but lets show them (and the rest of the country) that we are proud of our club and will support it whatever happens.

Come on Latics!

P.S. To make things worse, our Goldfish died on the 22nd November 2009 as well! RIP Millie