TyldesleyLatic

And that’s why they probably won’t do it – and it works both ways.

There are rugby fans on Twitter saying they are going to buy tickets for the Rochdale end and turn up with Wigan RL flags.[/quote]

All bravado behind a keyboard – unless the tickets are free, can you really see any Wigan RL fan forking out £20 to watch a sport they claim to hate just so they can wind up some football fans with a Wigan RL flag??

When the first spade was put in the ground the stadium was designed to be used for Latics & Orrell RU so it was always intended as a dual use stadium.
Admittedly that would have given a May to August rest for the playing surface but that wouldn’t have mattered as you’d have still had the problems with the drainage & the pitch condition would have been even worse coz instead of a Feb-May & Aug-Sept overlap both teams would have been pounding it every other week over a 8 month period.
The problem isn’t the dual use its the drainage – I remember when the stadium first opened Latics players complaining that when it rained the water didn’t drain properly but just sat beneath the surface & made footing difficult & caused the pitch to cut up

Do you have an official link to that fact, or are you assuming because JJ was interviewed, then Latics have put up the money?

Does the cost of pitch relaying or ground maintenance feature in the Latics Annual Accounts?

I agree that the pitch is a mess, but as Egg has said, its the location – Huddersfield & Hull play as many league games on their pitch without it turning into a mud bath every February. In fact, when you were premier league, there would have been 7-8 less games played on it at this time of year and it still always looked shite.

I read somewhere that there is a giant septic tank under the pitch that would have been costly to remove at the time of construction, so DW went for the cheaper option and left it in situ to send its poisonous gases up through the land, which prevents the grass from growing during the cold months.[/quote]
Considering it is JJ who has come forwards to talk about the pitch, and he makes reference to the Wigan Athletic Head Groundsman working with turf consultants would strongly suggest to me that the football club have paid for it to be relaid.

It’s more in the interests of the football club to have a decent playing surface than the rugby club anyway.[/quote]

I would imagine that considering both clubs pay rent that the groundsman is employed by the stadium company as it doesn’t make sense to have 2 sets of groundsman working at cross purposes.
I believe that the company with a controlling stake in the stadium is called Wigan Athletic Holdings & that might be why JJ has been talking about the Wigan Athletic groundsman
On the other hand I could be talking total rubbish (it has been known once or twice before) which was why I asked Garswood if he had proof of that or whether he was just guessing.

As it happens, professional rugby league also needs a decent surface. Not to the extent that a football team does but it still needs it.
For a game played at high speed it’s no good having a surface that gives way beneath your feet why you try & change direction or when you’re pushing in a tackle – as it was last week.

That’s why I think it stinks if it is Latics as opposed to the stadium company footing the bill whilst the rugby pays doodley squat

The first one was an own goal, and it’s only my humble opinion but even though its his own defender who puts it past him, Nicholls is caught in no mans land- he starts to come for it then stops & winds up neither coming to collect the cross or being in the best position to stop an attempt at goal. I’d also guess from the defenders look & body language to Nicholls, that he didn’t get a shout. A couple of guesses in there but to me he hasn’t covered himself in glory
For the second he drops an absolute b0ll0ck

For the third one, I don’t know whether the ball takes a deflection or a big swerve, but he seems to dive at waist height & the ball is over head height which to me shows he may have misread the flight of the ball or moved too slowly

And for the fourth I just think that he’s beaten by a good strike

Personally I’d love to see him succeed at Latics but I have my doubts as to whether he’s good enough due to no manager being prepared to install him as #1, what I’ve seen of him & when a manager of a League 2 club where he’s just spent 3 months describes his spell as “hit & miss” then I’m not sure that he’s good enough to fill in for either of the other keepers

I haven’t seen a massive amount of him but I’ve never been overly impressed when I have seen him play.
Saw him in a reserve game once away at Liverpool & he was awful – feet stuck in concrete all game & his positioning at free kicks was poor too
Saw him play against City in a league cup game in 2013 in our first championship season & (whilst the opposition were obviously of top quality) I thought that he showed the same deficiencies in terms of his movement & positioning.
Seemed to be doing okay when he got a run in the side & then came that horrendous gaffe against Waregem which brought them back into a game that Latics had been dominating, shook the confidence of the team & they wound up losing.

He obviously came back from Northampton with rave reviews but, as Abram has pointed out, no manager we’ve had seems to have had much faith in him. Even Coyle (who gave him most games) purchased a keeper as one of his first buys after realising he only had Ali & Nicholls (which admittedly since Coyle sold Ali at Bolton may say as much about his opinion of Ali than it did of Nicholls). He hasn’t come back from Bristol Rovers with rave reviews either

Judging from his comments, I’m not sure he did think that but IMO anyone that did was living in cloud cuckoo land.
Last night was one of those occasions where possession mean nothing coz until a couple of scrambled late, almost simultaneous efforts, the team created almost nothing all night. Burton were comfortable & if anything it was Latics would looked the most vulnerable when put under any sort of pressure.
If Caldwell’s game plan had been to get a 0-0 draw then you might have a point but I’m pretty certain that it wasn’t.
He’s said himself what the problems were (bar his original team selection) but last night he just seemed unaware what or reluctant to do about it

I thought the same last night & according to the BBC stats Latics only managed 3 shots all night, none of them were on target & 2 of them came in the move that wound up with James hitting the post when it was easier to score (I know that coz I’d looked at the stats on my phone just before that move & it was 1 shot all game & none on target at that point)