The Latics want auto promotion tonight!

Top team, in form and will be a great test of where we are.
With another terrific crowd behind us, I would like to see a cracking gane, and if we find our groove and get that 1st goal, we can spring a surprise.
Above all, a strong home performance will lift our spirits and show us the way to next season and give us soe thing to fight for and build on.

2-1 Town win. And Bonne on the scoresheet.

 

Hope Morsy turns up tonight.

 

McKenna obviously doesn’t rate any of the academy lads.

6-0.

 

Wrong game to experiment Hampy, bright start, playing well.

 

Good period for Town, nice to see Penney & Chaplin both playing well. Dominating as we often do.

Championship style footie.

 

Our best football for 4 matches. We can win this!

 

Just cant score can we?

 

Woolfy gives silly free kick away, as he does.

 

Wigan take the one chance from a corner. Against the run of play.

 

Same old, same old really. Never look like hurting them.

 

Chappers makes it 1-1, come on Town! Nice free kick from Celina too.

 

Get in. Great composure from Chaplin. Come on Town.

 

Morsy scores a cracker! 2-1 Town, this is more like it!

Beating the league leaders!

 

You could see the tails go up after the first Town goal. Wigan surprisingly complacent. I think we’ll have some defending to do now.

 

I turned in before last 10 mins, predictably Keane snatched a Draw. Town should have kept him!

My thoughts

Good game, pleasing performance, Championship level and showed once again where areas must improve.Baggot will get his chance. Burgess was terrific. McKenna made the right call
Burgess, Walton, Wolf, Morsy and Chaplin all played well. Penney ok too.
Chappers was very up for the game and grabbed it, his passing was excellent.

A very entertaining and exciting game and we rose to the occasion, with lots to prove and build on. Ipswich played some great stuff.

Wigan looked strong and managed our pretty possession game well. Keane showed everything we are missing in our centre forwards. Yes we dominated them, but they coped with our attacks first half, and then a brilliant set piece, following another silly Woolfy tackle, Keane scores.

First half was good but we weren't hurting them. Second half we upped the tempo, the speed of play and movement, and we got numbers forward and Wigan started to unravel.
.
Chaplin should have made more starts this season.

Overall a performance to give us real hope, but with some of the same old concerns.We know and KM knows where to improve

We will be up and ready for flying by August.

 

This game showed us what we need to do next season to do well in this division. We dominated possession, played some lovely football but really lack conviction in the final third and as I've said for the majority of the season I don't necessarily think the problem is the strikers. As Alex Mathie said at the weekend he would not like to play as a striker in this team. We build from the back and don't get it quick enough into the forwards by the time we've got near to the opposition box rather than putting it into the box first time and getting into the right areas we over play, play an extra pass, over complicate things by trying to score the perfect goal. Both goals came from just getting it in the box tonight and we looked dangerous when we did that. We definitely try to overcomplicated things in the final third and I think that comes partly from playing 2 number 10s. Our lone striker always looks isolated.

This is in contrast to Wigan who were direct, played off the second ball, when Keane got the ball he had options in front and behind him, when our striker gets the ball there's very few options for them and so 9 times out of 10 they lose the ball. Unlike Wigan we also very rarely won the second ball, we appear to only want to score the perfect goal from trying to build from the back. Wigan also made the most of set pieces. Our throw ins were awful today, set pieces weren't too bad but there seems no desire to put the ball into areas where we might hurt the opposition, we'd rather keep the ball a bit longer. The ball often dropped into the Wigan box from a set piece but apart from the Chaplin goal there was rarely a Town player near where the ball dropped.

We need to learn off Wigan as they did everything we didn't, we need to be more direct, play our football off the second ball, put in more first time crosses, put the ball in the right areas rather than trying to pick a player out with the perfect pass and make more of long throws set pieces. It's not hard to see why under McKenna we dominate possession, concede very few goals but also don't score many, his philosophy needs to change if we're going to be contenders next season.

 

First half we had loads of the ball but Wigan were very comfortable. There was a brilliant spell between our two goals when the passing was terrific, the tempo was terrific. We looked really dangerous. If we can play at that tempo for 60 minutes each game we’ll be unplayable.

The most impressive thing was that every player really showed up for a nothing game. Even Bonne who’s on loan and has not been involved too much. That shows how much they respect McKenna.

 

This game re-kindled my excitement and has lifted the Club and players out of their end of season torper.

 

Considering we had nothing to play for, I was really pleased with the performance. We played a high tempo and more than matched the league leaders. Thought Penney did well in the half he played and is definitely worth keeping as a back up providing we bring a new left sided player in which most think we will (although we do have Kyle Edwards waiting in the wings). Chaplin once again got his goal and played well and it’s a bit odd to me that he drifts in & out of the side so much. We definitely have missed Evans over the last few weeks as he is the 1 midfielder who has a killer pass in him. Celina is a strange one for me. He has the ability to tear this league up but seems to have 1 good game in 5 (if that) and feels to much of a luxury to keep around. Would have been nice had Bonne scored as I feel that the chances of him being with us next season are very slim.

 

A great match to be at with some great football played by Town, but also the same faults are still there, we had 6 corners in the first half and dominated the match without looking like scoring, Wigan had 1 corner just before half time and an unmarked Keane glanced in a good headed goal.
We really went for it in the second half and deservedly took the lead only for mis placed simple passes and needless free kicks handing possession back to Wigan so no surprise when Keane scored his second.
If Wigan win the title then there is no reason why we cant challenge next season because nobody i spoke to thought they were that good, in fact as far as quality goes Town were the better side, we just badly need goalscorers and midfielders who can win the ball and pass accurately.