TyldesleyLatic

I actually mean the one worn by the guy on the right holding the big stick

Quite a few of em had big feathers sticking out of em n’all from what I remember

It was genuinely a good atmosphere TL, especially prior to the game. I think they thought it was going to be a walk-over, so there were bagpipes everywhere round the ground, and generally a good vibe about the place.

The team were booed off at halftime, but other than that, there was a lot of humour about the place, and some very vocal Aberdeen fans who didn’t stop singing for a second throughout the game. I missed the Liechtenstein goal as. I’m ashamed to say, I was still in the midst of half time prawn sandwiches.

Yes, they booed Liechtenstein’s national anthem, but it was expected and a lot of the people I was sitting with were embarrassed about it and apologised. I said it was fine as England fans boo everyone’s national anthem.
The Scotland goalkeeper (Griff, can you remind me of his name?) was booed every time he touched the ball, but again, England players are never booed are they?[/quote]

Before the game was fine & the atmosphere in the pubs (those that would let us in) was good too but inside the ground in was really weak – “flower of scotland” was about the only song they had & everyone seems to only know the first couple of lines which if i remember rightly was somet keegan commented on at the time

What i did find odd & in some ways slightly sad was the amount of people dressed up as if they were off to fight at Bannockburn or Culloden with their military tunics and those little beret type hats. traditional dress I can understand such as your kilts & sporrans but coming dressed as an extra from braveheart seemed to me to be taking things a bit far

Coz I think its become the fashionable thing to do (just like when loads of English clubs tried to play the sweeper system after Englands 1990 world cup campaign – when the fact of the matter is that for every “succesful” team that uses it & are held up as a reason for it being “the best way to play football” there are just as many (if not more teams) trying & failing miserably to make it work e.g. Latics
As I’ve said before many times, I don’t think any system is the right or wrong way in itself to play – it all boils down to whether you have the right personnel to play it. England failed in the world cup in part coz we didn’t take the right squad to play 4-4-2. Latics for the vast majority of last season & two thirds of the current one have looked awful coz we don’t have the personnel capable of playing that system
United use both 4-5-1 & 4-4-2 depending on which players they have available & who the opposition is coz their manager & squad are adaptable enough

It don’t matter whether you’re a premier league manager/player or a scum sucking message board dweller, its basic common sense that you’ll have the most success if you base your tactics/formations on the players you have available as opposed to rigidly sticking to 1 system regardless of the players you have available
Despite having had 3 transfer windows I still don’t think Bobby has brought in the right type of players to fit his system but time will tell & I hope I’m wrong

That all depends on how you look at it really

Before he left we had the following pool of centre halves – Alcaraz, Gohouri, G Caldwell, Boyce & Bramble
We now have – Alcaraz, Gohouri, G Caldwell, Boyce & S Caldwell

Whilst it aint a position where the squad is particularly thin on the ground I’d say that its now a poorer group of players just due to that one change

Obviously there’s the dressing room influence etc.. to take into account as well but I think purely from a footballing perspective it could be viewed as a mistake. Time will tell I guess

“The constant factor above was that Sunderland either sold out or came damn close to selling all their tickets”

Err no they haven’t – I can’t be bothered to mention the other years but I know in our first season up they only brought just over a 1000 (a stark contrast to a few months before when they sold out the East Stand for a Championship game)

The only clubs that either sell out or come close to selling out the away end every season are United, Liverpool, Everton & possibly City. Newcastle have when they’ve played & Arsenal, Chelsea & Spurs always bring a good few (but not sell outs) but Sunderland don’t

Sun May 8 2005. Wigan v Reading. The most important game in Wigan’s history as a victory would secure promotion to the premiership.

Attendance 19662.

Empty seats – approx 5500.

Kind of blows your theory right out the window….[/quote]

If I remember rightly that game was played when the club (on police advice) still used the east Stand to house away supporters
If I also remember rightly all the home tickets sold out several days before the game coz I remember a few people on this board moaning that when they turned up to buy tickets they’d sold out – despite the club telling them for days that they needed to buy their tickets as soon as possible

Anyway, so the long & short of it is Mr Pies that despite that day having less available seats for the home fans for that Reading game Latics still managed to get a bigger crowd than the rugby’s game last week

So what exactly was your point?

I know who the story on here referred to at the time and so know who lowton is referring to, but “scouser with a split forehead”????????

That one has gone right over my head

To be fair to Nathan Ellington i think at the time moving to West Brom (who had survived the previous season & were probably expecting to “push on”) was a more attractive proposition than staying at Latics (who were expected to get stuffed out of sight every week).

On the “greedy” side, Ellington admitted that potentially he had the opportunity to earn more money at Latics but his salary proposal was heavily linked into appearances & bonuses for goals & he wanted it all up front which WBA were prepared to give him. In hindsight I think Latics got it spot on