Wigan Athletic are currently 23rd in the Championship in what seems like a far cry from our Premier League days. Despite the Lactic’s poor form of late, tipping experts such as Big Free Bet don’t foresee relegation. With the wealth of talent the club possesses, they can easily, ‘do a Leicester’ and stay up.
With this positive in mind, let’s look back at some highlights of the 2016 season.
Star striker Will Grigg was of course the centre of that famous: “Will Grigg’s on fire, your defence is terrified” chant which went onto become a chart hit. The Northern Ireland international, who also enjoyed a great Euro 2016 campaign with his country, scored an impressive 25 goals to help Wigan win League One.
Gary Caldwell and the team won the league with 87 points to take the trophy and automatic promotion. Losing just seven games all season, there was plenty to sing about at the DW Stadium and on the road. At the DW, Wigan lost just three games, won 14 and drew six, with just one of those losses coming in 2016.
Our biggest win of 2016 came away to Shrewsbury Town at the beginning of April. Lactics ran out 5-1 winners, after coming back from a goal down. Conor McAleny equalised for Wigan five minutes after Shrewsbury’s equaliser and then the Lactics run riot in the second-half.
McAleny chested it down and caught it on the volley to send the ball bursting into the Salop net. The goal was billed as one of the goals of the season but the youngster missed out on that final accolade to Jordan Flores, who impressed with his goal vs Fleetwood Town. Yanic Wildschut put the visitors ahead and four minutes later Jason Pearce made it 3-1. No more than five minutes had passed before star man Will Grigg had made it 4-1 from the penalty spot meaning we had bagged three goals in nine minutes. Impressive stuff! Grigg notched his brace in injury time and rounded off what was a sound 5-1 victory.
Though as impressive as that goal fest was, I’m sure us Lactic fans would agree that it has nothing on our 4-0 win away to Blackpool.
Wigan headed into the game knowing that a point would be enough to secure automatic promotion but not to be content with a point, Caldwell’s side more than dominated the game at Bloomfield Road. Much like their showing away to Shrewsbury, Wigan didn’t really get started until the second-half, Chris McCann opened the scoring on the hour mark with a deflected shot from outside the box.
Moments later Yanic Wildschut grabbed a brace in quick succession to put the game out of sight. Having assisted Wildschut’s second with a clever flick, Grigg rounded off the scoring with a leaping header to send the 3,000 travelling fans into raptures.
The following game was not so jubilant as Caldwell’s men suffered a 4-1 hammering at home to Barnsley but that result did not stop Caldwell and the Wigan fans from enjoying a party atmosphere: “I have never celebrated losing 4-1 like that in my life before!” Caldwell joked.
