On The Road
WIGAN ARE FLYING HIGH AGAIN AS THEY REKINDLE MEMORIES OF CUP GLORY
WiGANATHLETiC players are reminded of what lifting the FA Cup looks like each time they push through the green swing doors to their dressing room and see the giant mural of the club’s 2013 triumph on the wall.
Or when they walk by the bronze statue of owner Dave Whelan — rain- drenched at Saturday lunchtime — holding the trophy aloft.
That golden day against Manchester City was a guiding light in the dark years of struggle which followed.
They are finally rediscovering what success looks like, extending their lead at the top of the League One table on Saturday with a 2- 0 scoreline which flattered their opponents and telegraphed some menace to City. The sides meet again in the fifth round, two weeks tonight, here at a stadium where Bournemouth and West Ham have been eviscerated.
There is an air of mystery about the player at the heart of the re-incarnation. Nobody’s quite worked out whether it’s Nick Powell’s innate shyness or the damage done by being chewed up and spat out so young by Manchester United which has kept his profile so low. But make no mistake, he runs the side.
Powell played with his head up as his team swatted away anaemic Gillingham, with time and space to execute a repertoire of passes. He does not bring monumental pace, yet seems to be everywhere. On the Wigan right to deliver the pass which was the prelude to a first goal — Will Grigg’s 50th for the club. On the edge of the area for his towering leap above the defence for a headed second.
There were other outstanding contributors — Ryan Colclough and Michael Jacobs, breaking from deep in a first half display which sometimes took the breath away.
But it was Powell drawing opponents towards him and away from them. He pulled the levers. He is still only 23.
The club’s 26-year- old chairman David Sharpe — Whelan’s grandson — sounded like he could not believe his good fortune last week when Powell, aware of Brighton and Hove Albion’s two late deadline-day bids, told him: ‘if you do get another offer for me, reject it.’
it was Grigg who best conveyed why Powell might have felt that way. ‘From the inside we had no doubts (about him staying),’ he told Sportsmail. ‘We’re having a really good time. The atmosphere around the place is massive. Why would you want to leave?’
The fact that Grigg, at 26, was the oldest player in manager Paul Cook’s starting line-up, added to the appeal, though the residual problem is as old as the hills. How to get football fans through the door, up here in rugby league country.
There were fewer than 9,000 on Saturday to see a side who are top of League One. Let’s just say it didn’t feel like a party.
Some attendances are not even breaking 8,000, while neighbours and promotion rivals Blackburn have been drawing 12,000. A mere 4,709 saw Wigan put Bournemouth to the sword.
Whelan spent around £100m fighting this and other battles but his family now admits that the investment necessary to compete in the Championship is best found elsewhere. it has confirmed advanced talks with an unnamed Hong Kong group, though a mooted £20m takeover is unlikely to take Wigan back to the Premier League.
The more immediate preoccupation is whether manager Cook and his players can recapture the spirit of 2013 while winning promotion.
Copies of a book commemorating the triumph — reduced to £5 — were flying off the club shop shelves on Saturday, offering reminders of an open-top bus tour the entire town seemed to attend. ‘Believe in Wigan’, was the legend on the banner at the front of the double-decker.
The sentiment is beginning to apply once again.