Pre-Season Part Two - That's Better!

Boston United vs Wigan Athletic

York St from Boston Stump.

After the Boston Town debacle of the week before it could be said that some improvement was required.  A draw away at Stamford preceded Wigan's trip to York St.  I'll come clean here, it wasn't actually the Wigan full team.  In fact only three of the players on show had ever had first team squad numbers.  Still the team dispatched by the Premier League outfit was good enough to provide a stern test.  Good enough to demand a £12 entrance fee too, apparently.  Steep for a friendly!

Following a poor pre-season to date the formation was switched about a bit to a supposed 4-3-3 which ended up as more of a 4-5-1.  A couple of trialists, Ben Wilkinson and Ben Milnes, dropped into the centre of the park to accompany Chris Hall while Holsgrove and Semple pushed up the wings to support Newsham in the lone striker role.  The defence seems to be pretty settled with Parker and Austin in the middle, flanked by Canoville and Jelleyman.

United playing in the new white and blue away kit

Both teams started well, with United showing a significant improvement over the previous week.  Newsham, supplied by Semple, saw the first real effort of the game well saved.  Wigan's class was soon showing through as a belting shot onto the crossbar from 35yards out was shortly followed by an altogether less classy finish from a yard out.  Rugg played the ball around the stricken United defence and slotted home.  United fought back strongly but Milnes long range effort was saved and Newsham was judged off-side after tapping-in.  Another long range effort clipped off the bar from Wigan and another goal to follow only this time it went the way of the home team.  Newsham combined well with the superb Holsgrove who, through on goal, mashed the ball into the bottom of the net to bring United level just before half-time.

Half-time saw Suarez replace Newsham and more changes shortly after saw the introduction of Fairclough, Milson and Joachim for Parker, Wilkinson and Holsgrove.  United were looking the more dangerous in the early stages of the second period, the useful Milnes bringing the adjective wheel into use once again by tanning the woodwork from range.  Joachim used his "pace" to dive onto a Semple cross as yet another United chance went unconverted.  There were still opportunities left though, Milnes excellence setting up an opening for Jelleyman to cross to Suarez.  Jelleyman was provider once again as another cross to Suarez found it's way to Semple who nailed the ball home into the far corner to put United 2-1 up.

Wigan fought to get back into the game but with just over ten minutes remaining they were unable to beat the Boston back-line.  So United chalked up the first win of pre-season with a much improved performance in front of the 722 people at a sunny York St.  The 4-3-3 formation worked much better and the team seemed much more balanced.  Milnes provided a good threat in the middle and I'd love to see us keep him on as he and Sleath, with Hall playing a deeper roll would provide a strong midfield.  The defence looked much more settled and confident in each other's abilities while the front line looked sharp and dangerous, in the first-half at least.  All in all, a much better performance.

Since Saturday, Boston have defeated Lincoln United 3-1 in the Lincs. Senior Shield and go on to play Gainsborough on Tuesday night.  The 4-3-3 system was maintained and Milnes started!  Next up for the team is Mansfield Town at York St on Saturday.

Next up for me: Possibly Gainsborough away, probably Lincoln City at York St.

It'll be terrible but...

Bolton Wanderers vs Wigan Athletic

I've been putting off writing this post all morning.  What to say about this game?  Drab, dull, dreary and devoid of entertainment.  Like a standard episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.  The Stalybridge game fell early to the frost.  Not early enough to prevent me from having got half way there on the train already.  Rather than waste the tickets I looked for a plan B.  Sheffield Wednesday?  Been there.  Rochdale?  Hell to get too.  Chesterfield?  That'd still see me wasting half of my train tickets.  Bolton - Wigan in the FA Cup fourth round?  It'll be a terrible game but it's a ground tick and it uses almost all of my train ticket so it'll do.

The Wigan contingent of the 14,950.
NOTE: the empty seats which characterised this game.

£15 to get in and pay on the gate wasn't terrible and a programme for £2 meant that this game hadn't cost me much more than a pre-game trip to the Buffet Bar at Stalybridge.  The train station, Horwich Parkway, is right next to the ground so access is fairly easy.  My compatriot from More in Hope than Expectation and I considered which team to support.  We dredged through history and came up with the heinous slight inflicted on the Pilgrims by Wigan back in the 1977/78 season.  Boston won the Northern Premier League but were denied promotion to the Football League due to ground grading issues.  Wigan's Springfield Park was probably certainly worse than York St. but Wigan were put up for election to the League in Boston's place anyway.  Wigan won the tight vote at Southport's expense and the rest, as they say, is history.  That was enough for us to lend our support to the Trotters for this match at least.

Nat Lofthouse OBE; 27 August 1925 - 15 January 2011

The tribute to Nat Lofthouse OBE outside the ground was a moving reminder of the wonderful life of a true gentleman and one of the greatest strikers that the English game has ever seen.  Named the Lion of Vienna for his exploits in a 3-2 win over Austria, Lofthouse went on to score 30 goals in 33 England appearances.  Lofthouse died at the age of 85 on the 15th of January 2011.

Not a terrible view for £15.

Queuing up to get into the Reebok Stadium was an experience in itself.  Never before have I seen such an assortment of trackie bottoms, it was like being trapped in a JJB superstore. Which incidentally can probably be found in the retail park in which the ground sits.  For £15 the seats weren't bad and we took our places close to the away fans.  There was nearly a goal within seconds as Kevin Davies put through Ellmander who tested Mike Pollitt in the Wigan net.  The game was bubbling along nicely and only a lack of class in the final third from Wigan's own Moses; combined with some good goal keeping from Jaaskelainen, denying Gomez, kept the score at 0-0.  Petrov was forced to try and single handedly drag Bolton into the game before half time but couldn't hit the back of the net.

The Wigan fans providing the pick of the entertainment.
The attendance might have started at 14,950 but it finished closer to 14,940.

The second half was not the best half of football I have ever seen.  Robbie Blake's introduction threatened to spark some excitement.  Not much, just some.  The best chances of the half arrived in the last few minutes with Jaaskelainen doing well to keep out McManaman while at the opposite end Wheater couldn't hit the target, nailing a shot just wide.  It was never going to be the most exciting of games and the best entertainment was the banter between the two sets of fans combined with the occasional ejection.  The odd chant of "it's time to go home" when a fan gets thrown out is nowhere near as catchy as "cheerio".  The majority of other songs seemed to be exactly the same from both sides with only key words being swapped, the team name for example.  There was much contention amongst the fans over the allegiance of Ali Al-Habsi, on loan to Wigan from Bolton.  I'm not sure how that was even relevant as he wasn't playing.  The oddest of all the songs, however, seemed to be the "wanky, wanky, Wanderers" song.  Which was sung by both sides...  Maybe it means something different up there.

So it wasn't great but a ground tick is a ground tick and the local Tesco in the retail park did ensure there was some food on hand for the long trip home.

Next up: Boston away at Worcester.