The View From Churchmans

One of those glory, glory nights which will be a highlight of the
season’s memories. An end-to-end game with plenty of commitment and
incident, more exciting than beautiful to watch, but at the end the
good guys won. That’ll do for me.

We lined up in pretty standard formation, and it was great to see
Matt back and Fab playing on the right side once more. Darren Currie
played wide left allowing Westy to come into the centre, another
change which most of us would like to see more often. However, with
the midfield resources so stretched (there was no cover on the
bench), Jim knew he’d have to last 90 minutes and I’m sure he paces
himself accordingly. It does make a difference.

As far as footballing ability goes, both teams are better than this,
but the pressure was always going to make it a nervy affair. On this
display you’d have to say Wigan aren’t as good as, say, Leeds or
Reading, but I think on a normal Saturday they’d be more composed,
and I’m sure they’ll stay the course. They certainly took the game
to us for periods, although never with the panache they showed last
season. Indeed, I thought they were a bit clumsy at both ends of the
pitch. But they were very organised, and we could learn a lot from
that.

Some ratings:
(1-5 for effort, 1-5 for achievement)

DAVIES 4 (2/2): Although Wigan worked hard up front, they didn’t
really test Kelvin too much. The way he misjudged the shot for the
goal worries me, after two similar long-range calamities against
QPR. And there were a couple of heart-stopping moments in the second
half where he really didn’t communicate with his defence properly.

WILNIS 7 (4/3), DE VOS 8 (4/4), NAYLOR 9 (4/5), RICHARDS 6 (3/3): My
favourite defensive display of the season. You really couldn’t ask
any more of Bam-Bam, who made several crucial tackles but more
importantly made a lot of stuff look easy through terrific
anticipation. Jason was well up for it, as you might have expected
against Wigan. Fab was reasonable at the back and enthusiastic
coming forward, and Matt looked really solid in the tackle, with
only his distribution still giving cause for concern. But these
things are relative, and we’re not talking about Diallo-type cause
for concern here.

MILLER 5 (3/2), MAGILTON 5 (2/3), WESTLAKE 5 (3/2), CURRIE 5 (2/3):
I think they’ll all have known they were out there tonight – it was
a hard encounter – but no midfielder on either side really rose
above the rest. Westy didn’t make the difference in the centre we
all hoped he would; Darren Currie looks like he has some decent
skill but is going to have to up his workrate to fit in with this
barnstorming side.

KUQI 8 (4/4), BENT 6 (3/3): The usual manic never-say-die stuff from
Shefki, whose power-dribbling is one of the most unforgettable
things this division has to offer. Did really well in the air too.
Made a couple of poor decisions as to whether to shoot or pass in
the first half, but so did Darren, who was a lot quieter (although
marked heavily throughout).

The REFEREE made some poor decisions, most notably booking Fab for a
slightly poorly timed tackle which everyone could see was nothing,
even if it had a cracking sound-effect. Not one of the best refs we’ve
had.

The CROWD started slowly but by the end there was a great
atmosphere. Almost a full house, given the spaces in the Wigan
section (they brought about 200 supporters, the smallest travelling
support we’ve seen since Wimbledon last time).