WASC News

Fan Power

We all know that our away form is something of a sore point, with only two wins away from the DW Stadium in the last 17 months.

Listening to Manager Paul Cook at the Fans Forum last week, he still pushes that his tactics do not change from home matches to away games. For those of us that travel to most away games we then wonder why the results are a far cry from the home matches.

Yes we have been desperately unlucky on our travels, but we need to make our own luck, stop the run of losses and climb the table. Looking at the latest odds with Ladbrokes sign up offers, Latics are 11/4 for the win tonight, which after the way we beat Nottingham Forest looks ridiculous.

But the fact is we are now looked upon as a team that can’t ‘buy a win’ away from home and it only the players that can turn that around. If we have the same training regime, same tactics and same desire away as home, then where do we look?

The atmosphere at home games is one of the best in the League; we create a cauldron of noise that I think lifts our players and unnerves the away team at the same time. What if we got that same noise away from home?

A catch 22 situation I know, as fans usually only travel to watch a winning team or one that is battling at one end of the table or the other. But facts are, we are a winning team at home and maybe that catalyst at away games is to get numbers to travel!

The Supporters Club provides all it’s members safe travel to and from all competitive matches, at a price that more than competitive in the footballing arena. Memberships are just £6, but the benefits go further than just travelling to away games. Click her for the full breakdown.

If Wigan Athletic could turn round just 33% of its away games, from losses to wins, we would be following a team that was challenging for the play offs, not wondering when we will hit safety. We still have places for Bristol on Sunday and details will be released soon for Stoke and Millwall.

So if you can spare the time and money to get to a few away games to help build up the atmosphere we create at home, maybe you will part of the away match revolution that turns our fortunes around.

The fan factor has been proven to be a huge advantage in whether a team wins or loses, ask any manager the value of noise from their own fans. Our FA Cup Final win was possibly the biggest teller in our short lifetime, outsinging our rivals even though we were outnumbered 4 to 1.

We hope to see at a few games in the future and hopefully we will be the difference that sees us challenging for promotion.