The blackpool reds were on the march again myself red jim scott and Darren lees with his preston supporting step son Nathan .The short journey for us was a bonus, setting off at 11 am up the M55 down the M6 and bingo .We arrived into the away fans car park paid the customery fiver and made the trek through a development of new retail outlets...this is usual for new out of the way faceless stadia...on arrival behind the away end two friendly uniformed gents tried to entice us in to the DW away fans lounge( above picture is outside away fans bar) . We kindly declined and made our way to the Red Robin pub a further five min walk,My previous visit 9 years ago had involved the red robin pub on that occasion we drew 2-2 and wigan were promoted that season ,funnily enough we were expected to fly it that year too, Makes you think !! anyway...the beer started to flow and a steady stream of reds filled the pub dwarfing any home support that might have been presant. Very friendly atmosphere made for quite a confident feel about the days events , few coupons were showing wigan to score first forest to win 2 or 3 ..1i even managed to meet up with a few of the twitter reds to name a few parny,nick parker Ally (princess tricky) geordie dave and a few more .We made our way to turnstie P1 paid our £20 which must have helped to swell the large support (aprox 4,100)..i was sat (stood) in the left hand corner near the wigan drum contingent .Although we gave them some stick regarding empty seats i dont think it was a bad turnout for them either for a egg chasing bunch!...As per usual in the North west there was a large contingent of forest support which in my opinon failed to get any noise generated( apart from the goal)...maybe its the stadia im not sure but it was quite half hearted.
The game kicked off ...Forest started again with Halford up front which suprised me as cox was fit and derbyshire has proved his worth just recently. The game had only been going 7 mins when a free kick was awarded just outside the wigan box There was only one man for this free kick Mr andy reid..even before he took the kick we were adjusting for the goal celebrations ..and as promised he delivered, as the ball hit the net the red army went mental. But this happy feeling wasn't to last too long ,Wigan started to attack the forest goal and with the help of Mr pawson giving every decision to the home team it was a formality for him to point to the spot after Fortune went past Hobbs who subsequently made a rash challenge..but to be fair it was a right decision Maloney scored the pen although i and a few others did a little yes/no dance as we thought darlow had saved it..As we restarted forest through the impressive lansbury tried to get back the lead but the referee was having none of it..from our position fair challengers were being punished 2 bookings for lansbury and lichaj helped wigan pile pressure back on the forest goal and in the 34th min Darlow made a great save tipping a shot onto the bar but bad news for us was Gomez followed up and scored a easy goal...2-1 to the empty seats was the taunt ..i wouldnt say they deserved the lead but our failures up front would always be our undoing.
HT came and went and pep who was poor was replaced by halford ..we started brightly and to be fair had a good half but just couldn't find that inspiration .cohen was fouled in the box which incensed the red army "we always get shit refs" was the shout " ..cohen was causing a few problems but we huffed and puffed without causing wigan much trouble. when patterson and miller came on billy was really hoping for a piece of brilliance but like we all thought were is it going to come from ? Miller and Derbyshire along with a few other fringe players need to be offloaded and a real goalscorer like Rhodes brought in or dare i mention Billy sharp!!!! ( hides behind sofa) ....Wigan saw the game out to the final whistle and forest had lost the unbeaten run and our lofty position at the helm of the championship although we had a decent go in the second half i still think we were under par and maybe changing the whole team from the millwall game might be a bit to drastic, but dont get me wrong im fully behind billy and his decisions and we are not going to win every game......As we emptied the ground in our hordes and made our way back to cars and coaches there was a sense of the usual disappointment when losing but unlike previous years there is a sense that this year will be different with king billy and our very own sheik ,Fawaz....i for one am putting this defeat down to a learning curve which hopefully we shall learn from , so onwards and upwards lets see what transfer deadline day brings.
...i wannna go home, i wanna go home wigans a !!...cheers from the part time Blackpool reds.
All comments welcome...
wigan v forest andy reid goal
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