Small club visit the Turf

Wigan are one of the fortunate clubs in football today in that they have someone prepared to dip his hand into his pocket to provide funding. It doesn’t mean they have become a big club, they are just a small club with a bit of money.

We played them back in the middle of September on a wet Tuesday night, it always rains when we go to the Concrete Jungle, and won ourselves a point in a goalless draw. Thankfully the Burnley fans turned up in numbers and it nearly took the attendance into five figures.

It was the eighth game of the season and Wigan were unbeaten. That unbeaten run was to continue for a while longer and they had stretched it to seventeen games before Plymouth beat them 2-0 at Wigan.

They lost the next game too and went on a run of four without a win before bursting back into life with a 5-0 beating of Preston. Two defeats in the last week though mean they have won just two out of the last eight games and this is why they have decided to strengthen their squad.

Click HERE to see all Wigan’s results this season.

They decided to look for new players in the most public of ways by targeting Robbie Blake and allowing manager Paul Jewell to talk about it as much as possible, newspapers, radio, internet and television – he’s used the lot.

His behaviour on last week’s Granada Soccer Night alongside the embarrassing Alistair Mann was nothing short of scandalous.

They haven’t got Robbie despite him shouting from the roof tops that he wanted him to makes his debut against us at Turf Moor and no matter what happens to Robbie I think most Burnley fans would prefer him to go anywhere but Wigan.

This dreadful club have even chosen to use their own official web site to continue the story – no we won’t be providing a link other than perhaps pieeaters.com.

Whether Robbie plays for Burnley or not tomorrow we don’t know but he certainly won’t be playing against us and so Jewell will have to find someone else to play up front instead of the suspended Jason Roberts.

The striker picked up his fifth yellow card of the season last Tuesday at Ipswich and so will automatically have to sit out this one game.

Although the manager was not happy with the performance against Derby yesterday replacing Roberts is likely to be the only change to the side with Gary Teale expected to come back into the starting eleven on the right hand side and David Graham moving up front.

If that is the case Wigan will line up: John Filan, Nicky Eaden, Matt Jackson, Ian Breckin, Leighton Baines, Gary Teale, Jimmy Bullard, Alan Mahon, Lee McCulloch, David Graham, Nathan Ellington. Subs: Gary Walsh, Emerson Thome, Michael Flynn, David Wright, Steve McMillan.

With the Clarets not having played yesterday it means Frank Sinclair remains suspended and so Gary Cahill and John McGreal will continue in the centre of defence.

Much will depend on Robbie Blake but again I think he will play and I expect the Burnley side to be the one I thought would be named for the visit to Crewe which is,

Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Ian Moore, James O’Connor, Tony Grant, Micah Hyde, Graham Branch, Robbie Blake. Subs from: Lee Roche, Paul Scott, Neal Trotman, Amadou Sanokho, Joel Pilkington, Richard Chaplow, Matt O’Neill.

Wigan’s last visit to the Turf provided them with their first ever win at this level in the third game of last season. Goals from Peter Kennedy and Ellington gave them a 2-0 win.

It was a game we could have got something from but poor defending on the two goals and a failure to convert chances at the other end left us without a point from the first three games.

The teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West, David May, Graham Branch, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Paul Weller, Tony Grant (Richard Chaplow 67), Luke Chadwick (Alan Moore 79), Ian Moore, Robbie Blake (Arthur Gnohere 74). Subs not used: Paul Scott, Matt O’Neill.

Wigan: John Filan, Nicky Eaden, Matt Jackson, Ian Breckin, Steve McMillan (Paul Mitchell 39), Andy Liddell, Jimmy Bullard, Jason Jarrett, Peter Kennedy, Mark Burchill (Nathan Ellington 54), Lee McCulloch (Neil Roberts 20). Subs not used: Gary Walsh, Gary Teale.