After a well deserved victory over Birmingham, we travelled to the DW Stadium to face off form, and bottom of the league, Wigan. They were heading into this game after back to back 4-1 batterings; surely this would be an easy test for us?
Winning this meant that we would go 16th in the league, sitting below QPR, on 33 points (that could change if QPR win). We have won one, drawn three and lost one in our last five games. We, also, had a seven – now eight - games unbeaten run on the road, considering where we where in the table before the World Cup.
First, I took advantage of the free travel that they offered and made the journey down to Lancaster, with my brother. We brought 28 coaches and 2,520 fans coming down in support. This was a great confidence booster for the team.
Brilliant! I have witnessed, for the first time, us win away from home. I have previously been to QPR and Huddersfield, where we were defeated 3-1 and 2-0, respectively. I also had the choice between Wigan and Birmingham; I am pleased to have chosen Wigan. Despite winning at St Andrew's Stadium, I thought that being victorious at the DW was much more pleasurable and we scored more goals. Definitely my favourite game of the season so far.
The squad consisted of: Matt Ingram (in goal); Cyrus Christie; Sean McLoughlin; Alfie Jones; Jacob Greaves (as the back four); Jean Seri; Regan Slater; Greg Docherty (in the Midfield); Ryan Longman; Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Oscar Estupiñán (up front ). The squad was unchanged, meaning that Rosenior was happy with how we started on Friday.
In the first half, we started off superbly; keeping the ball well and pinging the ball around brilliantly. It was great to see the team play as well as they did on Friday as well. There was a lot of energy and determination, alongside being hungry for a goal, which was a good sign for the rest of the game. There were a couple of problems, though; we were still going backwards, and we did not make any long passes, which was a shame as a lot of our players were making runs and asking for it too. Oscar Estupiñán seems to have a lot of space; however he is not getting the ball played to him. Now, him being the top goal scorer for us and having a lot of space should have been a great reason for his teammates to thread the ball through to him. Yet, they did not.
It was not long until we were on the score sheet, though; the ball was played into the box, Sayyadmanesh messed up his shot, however he recovered well, and passed it to Greaves, where he curled it into the left-hand side of the net. He scored in front of the away crowd, who went crazy. It was my first time seeing us take the lead on the road. What a great start, and we were only 15 minutes in. After this, we dropped off for a while and let Wigan have control. We always do this, and instead we should have been going for the next goal. However, towards the last ten minutes of the half we regained control, but some bad news came our way. Sayyadmanesh went down in the last minute. He had just come back from being out for four months, played two games and now he is injured again. My brother said he reminded him of Sturridge. It is so annoying because he has been a huge help since coming back to the squad; he lights a spark in the other players, he is always driving down the wing and he delivers the ball accurately. How are we going to cope without him again?
Both teams failed to score for the remainder of the first period, and we were heading into the second half with a one goal cushion. It was our fourth time this season being in front at half time, so it shows how much we have been struggling at the start of games.
Sayyadmanesh coming off injured, meant that our squad had one change coming back onto the pitch; Tyler Smith was brought on.
To be honest, for the first 20 minutes of the second half I was not at all impressed with our performance. Most of the players were sloppy, tired and the defence was breakable. A huge difference from the first half, as Wigan struggled to get past us. Now, they had multiple chances to go in front. It is always the same with the way we play: defence becomes weak; we become tired; we sit back; and struggle to get a threatening counter attack going. Eventually, we conceded, and our lead was lost. Wigan won a corner, and I have to say the delivery and finish was exquisite; the cross was accurate, and the header was unstoppable. I was starting to worry at this moment, and I was thinking ‘how did this happen’? They did not stop coming at us after this, and I was worrying that it was going to be a repeat of our last meeting, only the other way around.
A few changes were made by us: Ryan Woods replaced Ryan Longman and Ozan Tufan came on for Jean Seri. I do not know how Rosenior does it, but he makes the most vital changes at the right time. Three minutes after Tufan was brought on, we regained our lead; their defender, Curtis Tilt, made a mistake and set up Estupiñán, who went on to shoot poorly at Jamie Jones; however, he made one of the worst saves and Oscar’s shot was deflected off him. There were chants of ‘who are ya’ coming from my end, because when they scored they did the same thing.
This was not the end of it, though, and just as I said to my brother ‘we need another, to make it a definite win’ we went on and increased our advantage to two. Sean McLoughlin booted the ball towards Tyler Smith, who managed to stay onside, beat the defender and keeper, and score from the tightest of angles. We went wild in the away bit, and we started singing my favourite chants: ‘you’re getting mauled by the tigers’ and ‘jump up if you love City’. This was the most enjoyable and entertaining game I have ever watched.
Surely, we could not repeat what Sunderland and Middlesbrough did to them? However, we did and just as I thought it was over for definite, Tyler Smith banged in his second of the night and third of the season. The ball was played into the box, by Regan Slater, where Smith was free to make the net bulge. All the Wigan supporters started leaving after this, and we kept on celebrating until the final whistle was blown. It eventually sounded, and we got our second win on the bounce.
Well, what a game and it is great to know we are clear from the relegation zone. Liam Rosenior is doing an amazing job in charge of us, and I believe he is going to do well. Four goals in one game, I remember struggling for just one. A great start to the year and our next game in the Championship is Huddersfield at home on 14th January; however we, also, host Fulham in the FA Cup on 7th January. I have confidence going into both these games, and I hope to keep up our unbeaten run that we have taken a long time to get back. Let’s proceed into the next round, and, also, rise higher into the table.