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It wasn’t Torquay – he scored a last minute looping header of a winner at home to Torquay in the league in 1996 to preserve our 100% home record & spark my one man pitch invasion but that was relatively early on in the season
he never got a hat-trick of hat-tricks either. he got 2 hat-tricks in consecutive matches (Leyton Orient & Darlington having just checked on the stats page) & the press started talking about a hat-trick of hat-tricks. That would have been in a game away at Doncaster which we lost 2-0 & i think Diaz got arrested for allegedly slapping a ball boy.
The only thing I remember about any of the goals in the 2 games he did get was that one against Darlington came from a quickly taken free kick following a back pass & the 3rd against darlington may well have been a header & he then ran half the length of the pitch in front of the St Andrew’s stand kissing the ball in his hand
How come I can’t remember something someone asked me to do at work 5 minutes ago yet i can remember all that useless $h!te????
Twas a cold day back in February of 1987.
Manchester United had been knocked out of the FA Cup in the 3rd round i think (possibly by Coventry) & as a fresh faced 11 year old I was at a bit of a loose end one Saturday afternoon when my dad asked “Do you fancy coming watching Wigan Athletic? They’re in the 5th Round of the FA Cup against Hull City”
I hadn’t really taken much interest in Wigan Athletic up until then apart from wondering whose ground that was I could see from Robin Park when I was on the Bobby Robson Soccer Funweek in 1985 & hearing a bloke with the same surname as me (David Lowe) regularly get mentioned on GMR & Piccadilly Radio Sports updates but i thought “well I lived in for a couple of years (between the ages of 1 & 3) so i guess I can claim them as a second team & my dad’s paying so what the hell
As someone who’d only ever been to the bigger stadiums (Old Trafford, Anfield, Maine Road, Bramall Lane, Hillsborough, Wembley) Burnden park had been a bit of a culture shock (I had a mate who was a Bolton fan who took us there for his birthday a few times) so ramshackle ol’ Springfield Park was like stepping into another world when i emerged from those turnstiles near the supporters club.
Don’t remember anything at all of the game other than where I stood (by the front wall, underneath the turnstile, near the supporters club) other than the score (3-0) and some old bloke talking to me periodically throughout the game who I couldn’t understand a word of – wiganese was like a foreign language to someone raised in Tyldesley who always talks proper!!!)
But I was hooked – even though I would now be classed as a bandwagon jumping, part-timer i felt a sense that as a Latics fan you were far more a part of the club than you’d ever be at United
i went 3 more times that season (leeds in the 6th round, Borunemouth in the league & Swindon in the play offs) and whenever i wasn’t at a United home or away game I’d blag my dad into taking me to watch Latics
I became full time at the start of the 1990 season I think when my dad tok a stand & refused to pay the 50% price increase on our United season ticketsMy dad (god rest his soul!!) always maintained however that when we lived in Wigan & Latics were non-league he had taken me to a couple of games. I’d have to take his word for that but I guess that would make me a real superfan!!
20k I could just about believe – 32k Warriors fans there is stretching things somewhat when you consider they only sold 6k (if my memory serves me right) for a challenge cup final at Murrayfield the other year (admittedly a bit further away than Old Trafford but still)
On the website I believe you can choose the section you want to sit in (Wigan or St Helens) but as fans from all the clubs in RL go for the day out choosing to sit in the Wigan or Saints section or indeed even cheering em on for the game doesn’t make you a Wigan or Saints fan so to claim there will be 32k Warriors fans there isn’t true
As a comparison if I got offered a ticket for an FA Cup Final & it was Aston Villa v Man City I’d want Villa to win & would cheer em on. Don’t make me a Villa fan just someone who dislikes City
“Martinez’s attacking and eye catching football”
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :?
“There is no doubting that Martinez is a great manager”
:? :? :? :?
i drove through Goole in 1994 on my way to see a mate in Hull & after having watched Latics get beat 3-1 by Scunthorpe
Does that count??
Or maybe have an adult equivalent of Juniior Stripes, for those that can’t go to every game for what ever reason, where a £20 membership guarantees them tickets for a reduced rate. Obviously this would have to be thought out as it could and would be abused, but its another idea on the table.Does anybody remember the student/unemployed gate that they trialed for a season at Springfield Park which must have been some point between 1995 & 1998?? The queue for this turnstile used to snake on to First Avenue at times whilst all the others had tumbleweed blowing through them
Me thinks that idea was abused somewhat!!!!!Back on to subject the Junior Stripes idea is extremely good value for money but surely the people on the ticket office should push be told to push it more
If we take the story of the original poster at face value would he have been more tempted to fork out £50 (£20 adult, £5 Kid x2, £10 junior stripes x2) if he’d been told that membership would have entitled him to bring his kids to any further games for the same £5 price? I think they might have been & his kids may have been hooked for life.
If people who phone up just get told “1 adult & 2 kids? That’d be £50 mate” its a fair old wedge of money to expect a casual fan to fork out (even if it is extremely good value when compared to other permier league sides) & I can understand people just saying “I’ll leave it then”My message to the original poster would be to tell his mate about Junior Stripes & the extra value that brings. If he still thinks its too pricey tell him to begger off & stop taking the pish
To be fair dave, if I was a supporter of both clubs & due to finances, grief from the wife or whatever had to make a choice between the 2 games then I would choose to go to the Grand Final so i won’t knock anyone who makes that decision or tell em not to come back
That said, i don’t think the rugby game will make much difference to the attendance which will be low anyway due to it being on the telly & the dreary standard of footbal that (IMO) Bobby’s team produces
Oh & come on Saints – as my adopted home town team!!
Darren Patterson v Coventry in 1991 – a last minute screamer if memory serves me right.Paul Rogers v Millwall in the Auto Windscreens Final as well – our best ever last minute winner at Wembley – till this season at least
Patterson’s goal was last minute alreet & it sparked one hell of a celebration from the large latics following that day but a “screamer”??? From what I remember it was a header from about 5 yards out
That said, this was the first football match i ever got drunk before so my memory may be a little sketchy!!On initial viewing (admittedly only on Football First) I thought the red card decision was very harsh
As soon as I saw the replay however, there’s no doubt in my mind that Clattenburg got the decision spot on – both feet off the floor, studs showing & connected half way down Di Santo’s shin
It wasn’t a malicious challenge where he’s gone in to hurt him & the ball was definitely there to be won but the challenge wound up being dangerous & reckless
Can’t remember who scored the PNE goal but I remember it being a good un
To be honest I didn’t go to the 2nd leg as I was forced by my mother to go to some elderly relative’s birthday do in Sale so I couldn’t vouch for who had a good game, although I’m sure I remember our manager (which must have been Deehan) slating Seba for fannying around with the ball near his own box, getting caught in possession & it eventually leading to Preston’s winner & he was released not that long afterwardsSpeaking of Graham Lancashire I ref’d a game at Everton Academy last month & he was the manager of the Burnley U14’s side that they were playing. They got absolutely mullered 10-0 so I’m not sure that a glittering managerial career awaits him!!!!!!!!
A marvellous article written by someone who is moaning about people moaning and turning on their own fellow supporters in an article complaining about supporters turning on their fellow supporters and in a fanzine & messageboard that has been directing vitriol towards its clubs own supporters since it started!!!! :roll: :roll:
Praising Bolton fans as an example of a clubs supporters sticking together through adversity when their attendances are dropping, when they were turning on their manager & each other all through Megson’s reign and when their average attendance dropped by around 40% last time they were relegated. Dear oh dear!!
Some, though admittedly not all in all their cases, of those accusations could be levelled at the fans of the other clubs the writer hailed too (Sunderland, reading, derby)
i don’t think they mean that they would be happy if the team loses just that we’re losing alot at the moment & they would feel a bit better after those defeats if they could see that the formation & system were improving, but they can’t
IMO there aint much wrong with a statement like that
I knew what you meant but I don’t think it’d work in a million years
Diame just doesn’t track back & I don’t think its in his game to be the anchor man
Gomez certainly isn’t your man to track back & if he has a best position its the “in the hole”/forwardy type one.
Di Santo is a centre forward & we’ve seen with Rodallega how exposed your back line gets by having an out & out centre forward on the wing
N’Zogbia can do & is asked to do it in his current role but it aint his forteSo as with Bobby & his 4-5-1 I’m not saying that the formation couldn’t work, just that we don’t have the personnel to play it
Bobby will continue to play 4-5-1 & from what I’ve seen of the squad his best personnel for doing that would be (when all fit):
Al HabsiStam
Boyce/G Caldwell
Alcarz
FigueroaN’Zogbia (RW)
McArthur
Diame
Cleverley (LW)Di Santo/Moses (in de hole!!)
Boselli
Bloody hell if you think our defence is left exposed by our midfield line up at present, it would be like the British army at Rourke’s Drift with that line up
In effect you’d be playing with 1 midfielder, 1 winger & 4 forwards. Now I’m all for a bit more umph goign forward but that’s taking things a bit too far!! :lol:
As for Gomez, yes he may well have looked half decent against a 3rd division side & one staring relegation into that division in the face but he’s very rarely shown it in the outings he’s had against top flight opposition. I’m not saying he deserves the stick he gets but he aint good enough nonetheless
