Ahead of yesterday’s game some things we knew: the shape – and bar one or two choices or late injuries the composition – of the team, that we would be competitive etc. But unlike last season, when we went into the first game at home against Orient quietly (arrogantly?) confident of victory, little suspecting then we would end up well below them in the league, our standing after the first game proving to be our highest for the whole season, nobody could be confident in the result. After all, what did we really know about Wigan? About their new signings, their expectations, even their formation? Happy to admit, personally not much, the bookies have them pencilled in for mid-table.
That we ended up with the same result/scoreline as a year ago was the outcome of some stout defending, including superb last-gasp interventions by Ramsay and Edwards in particular, and a goal curtesy of some poor defending on their part and an excellent finish by a central defender. Without the ball we were excellent; with it we were poor. Whether that was down to the clash of formations or some deficiencies on our part will only become clear after some more games. Probably a mix of both. You can’t say we were lucky to win. They may have had 65% possession and 13 shots on goal to our four, but they had only one on target, failing to take at least two clear-cut opportunities. I’d say if the game was played 10 times we would have won three times, lost three times, with honours even four times. So while we obviously embrace a splendid victory and take the positives, let’s not get carried away.
The contrast was provided by Wigan’s 4-5-1 and our 5-3-2/3-5-2. Wigan were bold in the sense that, as Peter Shirtliffe perceptively stressed, they were content to risk two against two at times and to get their full-backs forward. The result was we were usually outnumbered in central midfield and, with three centre-backs covering one forward, not able to do much with the possession we had, not being able to build through midfield and rather giving the front two just scraps to feed off. You would have thought that Campbell might have exploited the space available with his pace to get in behind, but that didn’t happen. In general I thought we failed to move/operate as a unit, with the available centre-backs and wing-backs not getting forward sufficiently to cause them problems. When we lost the ball we harried, covered, tackled, chased very well. Perhaps the conservative approach when we had the ball was all part of the plan, but I think we could have done more, which probably would have involved earlier and more substitutions since as it was many were out on their feet at the end.
With Godden still unavailable the starting X1 just about picked itself, the only decisions being to stick with Anderson over Berry in midfield and Ramsay and Edwards as the wing-backs over Watson and Small. As the three missing out were on the bench, along with the change of forwards and defensive cover, there were no last-minute surprises.
We had our best chance of the first half inside the first 10 minutes as a long ball was taken well by Ahadme and laid off for Docherty inside the box. He tussled well for it but the ball didn’t sit and he couldn’t get a shot away. Otherwise the contest was even, tight, the play generally messy and low on quality. The closest Wigan came to opening the scoring was a shot from distance which took a wicked deflection, one which on a bad day might have seen it fly into the net rather than behind for a corner. They also had a late free kick and a shot just over the bar but with Mannion having it covered. They had the bulk of possession but had done little with it, we struggled to get anything going offensively.
The second half was developing not necessarily to our advantage as Wigan’s substitutions seemed to give them fresh impetus. And they had three close calls in the period before 70 minutes were up. First, a ball into the box exceptionally found a guy in space, but he scuffed his shot on the turn from a very good position. Second, their main influencer Aasgaard took a ball well inside Ramsay and advanced into the box with just Mannion to beat. For some reason he hesitated for too long and Ramsay was able to get to him with a very well-time and legal challenge to snuff out the danger. Third, a cross from their left to the far post looked set to be headed home from close range only for Edwards to manage to get his head to it first.
There’s no doubt that during this spell Wigan were winning on points. If they’d scored they would probably have taken the points. We were creating nothing – a poor pass was intercepted and played on to Campbell, but his shot from a tight angle was easily saved. In that context our first changes came rather late, on 72 minutes, with Aneke and Kanu replacing Ahadme and Campbell, plus Watson coming on for Ramsay. Chuks always has an impact and, while not changing the course of the game, did help to balance things up.
It was still rather out of the blue when we took the lead on 80 minutes. An Edwards long throw was cleared and Watson’s ball back in looked rather aimless. But their keeper’s decision not to come and collect it seemed to cause confusion and left to head clear unchallenged their central defender made a mess of it, sending the ball sideways. It bounced past a couple and ran through to Jones, still up front for the throw, who hit it low on the turn into the net, a finish Super Clive would have been proud of.
Then just a case of whether or not we could see out the final 15 minutes. And with a couple more good defensive headers, plus a curled shot-come-cross from their left which went just wide, we did. Berry came on late for Docherty, while Mitchell somehow managed to stay on his feet for the duration.
It’s an excellent result to start the campaign. That there’s still ample scope for improvement is clear, perhaps involving one or two additions to the squad. The Carabao Cup game on Tuesday night is an unwanted distraction, one for Jones to ponder whether or not to send out Team B (I would). The two home games to follow, against Orient and Bolton, will be the ones that matter. Of course a year ago we followed an opening day 1-0 victory with four defeats on the spin and our first managerial sacking of the season (Holden). We expect shall we say something different this time.
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