No. 80: DW Stadium [Wigan Athletic]

Saturday, 21st March 2015
Wigan Athletic v. Bolton Wanderers [Championship] 1-1

My trip to Wigan was a little bit of a personal pilgrimage as well as a football trip, as my grandfather was born there.

He never really spoke about Wigan - he was one of Norman Tebbitt's "get on your bike" generation - with no work for him in a Lancashire in industrial decline in the 1930s, my teenage grandfather rode off to Huddersfield and found employment and founded a family on the other side of the Pennines.

Nonetheless, as I wandered round the streets and post-industrial canal tow-paths of Wigan yesterday I did so knowing my wonderful gramps had almost certainly once walked them himself, some 80 years previously.

Maybe he'd even paused by the canal side like this bronze fellow in the picture, looking out over Wigan one last time before he left his home town for the last time in search of work.

Wigan is perhaps most famous for its pier. It's even signposted from the motorway as a tourist attraction - which it isn't really. Even the lady I spoke to in Wigan's tourist information centre said she didn't understand why it was signposted, as there isn't really anything to see.

Wigan Pier: Post-Industrial.

The original pier, a coal loading jetty which would once have been the centre of a bustling industrial landscape, was demolished 90 years ago - there is a small reconstructed jetty built in the 1980s but it's easy to see why people would walk past it wondering "Where's the pier then?"

Wigan Pier was made famous by George Orwell's 1937 socialist polemic describing the awful living conditions of the working class in the industrial north - "The Road to Wigan Pier".

My own grandfather would have left Wigan before its publication but his family could easily have been a case study for Orwell during his visits here, so the deserted, post-industrial landscape of the canal felt eerie as I walked the tow-paths.

Amongst this modern tranquility it's not too difficult to imagine a busy, dusty tow-path alive with dozens of "Pit Brow Lasses" sorting through coal before it was tipped from the heavily-laden coal buckets off the pier into waiting barges. As such despite there being very little left to see, it's still worth a visit - and if on your way to the football (or rugby if you are oddly inclined), the canal tow-path is a really nice walk from the town centre to the ground.

Wigan Pier: Stimulating.

 Before all this though - I needed sustenance. And if the Pier is the first thing people think of when they think of Wigan, the second is probably pies. Pies, Pies, Pies. It's all about pies.

Wigan people are known as "Pie-Eaters" by their North-West neighbours, and it's true that they do like a pie - there are pie shops all over the town. But the term is not one of endearment, coming from the fact that during the 1926 General Strike, the Wigan miners were amongst the first to break the strike and go back to work, and thus eat 'humble pie'.

Gents Pie Shop: Standish

Wiganers have nonetheless embraced the pie and I wanted to sample the borough's best - and luckily stumbled across this You Tube video before my visit, telling me that the best pie shop in England was in the village of Standish, about 5 miles north of Wigan town centre.

Gents Pie Shop doesn't even have a sign outside - and they don't really need one. In the 10 minutes I was in there there was a never-ending stream of customers buying their breads, cakes and pies from the mother and daughter team of family Gent.

When I asked if I could take a picture, the daughter asked me if it was because I'd seen the You Tube video - apparently their sales of steak pies have gone through the roof since the video went online. The power of online marketing, eh? And well, I have to say, it was a pretty impressive Steak Pie - thanks Gents!

Gents Pie Shop & inset: My Tasty Standish Steak Pie. Mmm. 

I headed into Wigan centre and explored the town in the few hours before the game in the glorious sunshine of the first day of spring. I started in the small but impressive Museum of Wigan Life which only takes 30 minutes to walk around but is free and a good introduction to the town, its people and its history.

Museum of Wigan Life: Excellent.

The girl working in the museum sold me some of Wigan's own Uncle Joe's Mint Balls and gave me tips on what else to see in Wigan before the game. Which, she admitted, wasn't very much, but as the sun was shining - what did that matter? And she was right, it was a gorgeous day.

I strolled up Wallgate to the pedestrianised square known as Church Gates. In one corner was a Wetherspoons full of Bolton fans singing "who ate all the pies?" On this occasion I could be safe knowing it wasn't aimed at me - well, exclusively at least.

Left Unity Rally, Wigan. I've been spotted.

In the other corner was a small-scale political rally by the Left Unity party - Wigan's working-class industrial roots still represented in this corner of the country and Orwell's socialist message still has an audience and a relevance, it would appear.

I had a quick pint in the recommended Anvil pub at the bottom of the Victorian Quarter (which disappointingly just seemed to be one uninspiring street), then headed off to the game, a 25-minute walk down the Leeds & Liverpool canal tow-path.

Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Inset: Canalside View.

Wigan has historically been a rugby town - Wigan Warriors, who also play at the DW Stadium, can lay claim to being the most successful Rugby League side in the world.

Wigan Athletic, up until the arrival of Dave Whelan, were always in their egg-shaped neighbour's shadow. When my grandfather left Wigan in the 1930s, Athletic had only existed for a handful of years, and despite being a successful non-league side for decades, they were locked out of the Football League by the flawed 'old pals act' of re-election until ridiculously recently. It wasn't until 1978 that the Latics first played League Football.

A Wigan Fan: Dedicated.

Before Whelan's arrival in 1995 though, Wigan had never progressed beyond the bottom half of the Football League. His promise that year of buying Premiership Football with his JJB Sports millions, although having a precedent in the contemporary success of Jack Walker's Blackburn, must have seemed a long way off.

Whelan & The FA Cup

Ten years later in 2005, Wigan Athletic were promoted to the Premiership, where they stayed until 2013 - the same year they won the FA Cup. Whelan made good on his promise, and some.

But 20 years of a club on the rise seemed to plateau with that amazing cup win. Wigan seem now to be on the decline - how far or how long that decline lasts is still to be decided.  But less than two years since winning that FA Cup they could find themselves relegated for a second time to the 3rd tier come May.

Six points clear of safety at the bottom of the Championship going into today's game, coupled with an inability to win at home (they have't won at the DW since August!), and it would be one hell of a run should Wigan avoid relegation. Should they find themselves in League One next season, they will be right where they were when Whelan first took over.

DW Stadium from the South-East.

I wasn't sensing that there was much expectation of anything more than relegation from the jaded Latics fans inside the DW today. There was a few songs belted out with a drum chorus from the back of the Boston Stand, true enough - but there seemed to be a cold resignation that they can't expect miracles.

Perhaps this down-to-earth humility is a gift from a set of fans just glad for the success they have had in the past 10 years and don't wish to push their luck too much. Or perhaps not having a support base that expanded in the hot-tempered, violent terraces of the 70s and 80s, they've developed an immunity to getting too over-excited by the visit of a near-neighbour?

DW Stadium Frontage.

And fair play to them if that's the case. But this really didn't feel like a local derby with two teams only 7 miles apart - for whatever reason, there was an 'edge' missing.

Bolton of course, would like to tell you they don't give a monkey's about these young upstarts, their real rivalry is with Manchester United. But they travelled in great numbers and sang in great voice for much of this game. Their deflected 70th minute opener was also celebrated with as much gusto as a derby-day winner should be, and a winner that goal seemed destined to be.

Bolton Fans in the North Stand: Packed In.

The Wigan players, winless at home for seven months, must have been gutted when that deflected shot spooned past their Omani goalkeeper Al Habsi. Wigan had had numerous chances to win this game - they rattled the bar after 15 mins, had a point-blank header miraculously saved, and a goal disallowed for offside all in the first half.

In the second half, Jermaine Pennant had two great chances - a fantastic bending free kick tipped onto the bar by Bolton's keeper, and a spanking volley blocked from a wonderful cross from the marvellously-named Gaetan Bong.

A Late Wigan Corner as a lonely linesman watches on intently.

After Bolton's wicked goal, Wigan still wasted a number of chances to level the game - including their third crossbar-rattler of the game in the dying minutes. It all looked over, and surely, Wigan's stay in the Football League's top half was coming to an end?

Then up pops Wigan's Waghorn in the fourth minute of time-added on with an audacious bicycle kick from a corner, which also clipped the crossbar, but this time rebounded downwards and into the goal. What a way to end the game. And perhaps that point might save Wigan from relegation, come the end of the season?

Eat My Goal! Boston (East) Stand and South Stands taunt the Trotters.

Probably not, to be honest - but it's a nice romantic thought, isn't it?

It might not have felt like a real derby, but it was a great game and I found Wigan a pleasant town to spend a sunny afternoon in and WAFC a nice little family club. The DW Stadium is actually not a bad little ground - it's obviously lacking a little bit of character being a 1999 new-build on the edge of town, surrounded entirely by retail and car parks.

Final Score! I've been spotted, again.

But that seems to be the way things are going, and as new-builds go, it's not too bad - it has steep stands that look closely over a tight pitch and the gaps between the four stands are quite small so it avoids the 'bowl' stadia look, and also doesn't feel exposed. I'm sure when they were in the top flight and this 25,000 seater was packed to the rafters it created one hell of an atmosphere. With 10,000 empty seats in the Championship it would always struggle to be quite the same place.

Sadly, just as when it was first built whilst Wigan were in the 3rd tier, its probable return there next season and a likely 15,000+ empty seats will make it look something of a white elephant and reduce the atmosphere further for Wigan home games.

But at least its realistic, patient and unspoilt fans won't get too grumpy. They waited 65 years for 2nd tier football, after all. I'm sure a couple of seasons of rebuilding in the 3rd tier is not beyond their uncommon patience.

Mind you, had my grandfather had similar patience he might have stayed in Wigan and starved to death. Swings and roundabouts about staying calm under pressure, I guess.

With thanks to the very wonderful John Cumberbatch (@johndanbatch).


NEXT UP - Wolves' Molineux! Monday 6th April 2015.