Wigan v Man Utd, Sunday 11 May 2008, 15:00

Man Utd's most important game of the season.



League position:

Man Utd = 1st
Wigan = 13th



Wigan home record:

.. . . . . . . . . Pld . . W . . D . . L . . . F . . . A . . Pts
Wigan . . . . 18 . . . 8 . . 5 . . 5 . . 21 . . 15 . . 29

Man Utd away record:

. . . . . . . . . . Pld . . W . . D . . L . . . F . . . A . . Pts
Man Utd . . . 18 . . . 9 . . 5 . . 4 . . 31 . . 15 . . 32



Wigan's last 6 games: L L D D D W

Man Utd's last 6 games: W D W D L W



Reverse fixture:

Man Utd 4-0 Wigan

Man Utd: Kuszczak, Pique, Ferdinand, Vidic (Anderson 21), Evra, Ronaldo, O'Shea (Simpson 30), Scholes, Giggs, Rooney, Tevez (Nani 81).
Subs Not Used: Heaton, Eagles.

Booked: Rooney.

Goals: Tevez 54, Ronaldo 59, 76, Rooney 82.

Wigan: Kirkland, Melchiot (Hall 50), Boyce, Bramble, Kilbane, Scharner, Brown, Skoko, Koumas, Olembe (Valencia 66), Bent.
Subs Not Used: Pollitt, Landzaat, Aghahowa.

Booked: Skoko.



Last season:

Wigan 1-3 Man Utd

Wigan: Kirkland, Boyce, Hall, De Zeeuw, Baines, Teale (Valencia 69), Landzaat, Scharner, Kilbane (Todorov 69), Camara (McCulloch 60), Heskey.
Subs Not Used: Pollitt, Jackson.

Goals: Baines 5.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Brown (Giggs 45), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Solskjaer, Carrick, O'Shea, Scholes, Rooney, Saha.
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Smith, Richardson, David Jones.

Booked: Ferdinand, O'Shea.

Goals: Vidic 62, Saha 66, Solskjaer 90.

2-1 with Wigan getting the first to make us suffer.

Similar to when we beat Spurs in 99.

If Bruce goes for the win and plays a open and expansive game and as a result killed on the counter, he will be accused of giving the game away even though he set out to win and play positively.

Mattheus wrote:If Bruce goes for the win and plays a open and expansive game and as a result killed on the counter, he will be accused of giving the game away even though he set out to win and play positively.

As if.



United will win the Prem and Chelsea will win the CL.

I have a really bad feeling, and it's horrible!

Pierre Littbarski wrote:

Mattheus wrote:If Bruce goes for the win and plays a open and expansive game and as a result killed on the counter, he will be accused of giving the game away even though he set out to win and play positively.

As if.



United will win the Prem and Chelsea will win the CL.

So he will make his team sit back and try and sustain pressure from Manchester United and as a result possibly lose the game, he then will still get the same accusations, he’s definitely not in a win win situation unless Wigan manage to get a result

As long as Manchester United play their normal game and win in the right way he should not be blamed for handing the title over to his former club

Mattheus wrote:If Bruce goes for the win and plays a open and expansive game and as a result killed on the counter, he will be accused of giving the game away even though he set out to win and play positively.

If we win the game, everyone will blame Bruce without even questioning Megson or Bolton.

It's similar to how Fergie had it last season against West Ham. We missed chance after chance at the start of the game, yet Warnock made out like we didn't give a sh*t.

There is absolutely no chance Bolton getting anything at Chelsea hence why Megson is immune from any criticism, a lot has been made of the pitch at Wigan as being the stumbling block for Manchester United and Wigan recent run means they will give Manchester United a run for their money and anything less than a result for Wigan is failure hence why if they do lose it will be seen as a shock and Bruce will be accused of cheating his fans and handing the title to his former team (God bless conspiracy theories).

I think U*d will win but it wont be easy and the title race is not cut and dry. Wigan have not lost at home since January and have a great defensive record at home.

Come on Wigan and Chelsea !

The last side to win at the JJB was Everton who are a credible top 5 side at best top 6. Since then the home games Wigan have won were against: West Ham, Derby, Bolton, and Birmingham, they have drawn against Arsenal, Spurs and Reading since January.

That is a good record don’t get me wrong especially the draw against Arsenal, saying that Arsenal should have scored and possibly won the game under 5 minutes

Wigan’s recent home record will be put under the test; they will be up against a determined Manchester United team.

Steve Bruce gives even more help to Alex Ferguson

Wigan boss makes sure playing surface suits the Red Devils’ needs

When Arsenal visited the ploughed field known better known as the JJB Stadium back in March, Arsene Wenger furiously declared that the poor playing surface was ‘disrespectful to paying fans’. To avoid a similar conflict with Alex Ferguson, Wigan have cancelled the Warriors’ Rugby League match that was supposed to precede the final game of the season:

“The last thing we want is a worldwide TV audience with the pitch having suffered from heavy rain, and Wigan rugby league club having played a game on there a couple of days prior to the football match,” said Ian Lenagan, who bought Whelan’s majority shareholding in the rugby club last winter. “We have been wrongly blamed for the poor state of the JJB Stadium pitch and I don’t want Wigan’s name, and rugby league’s name, to attract wrongful criticism.”

They just showed the 1-2 game from 2005/2006 on MUTV.

If we have to go through that I'll have a heart attack. Amazing game but we left it far too late.

Was that RVN last game for the club or one of his last games. let’s hope Ronaldo scores at the JJB again ..

Nah he played after that. Mainly as sub.

He came on in that game with 20 minutes left when it was 1-0 to Wigan.

Pierre Littbarski wrote:
United will win the Prem and Chelsea will win the CL.

I am also thinking this will happen, cant see United losing the league to be honest. But the final gaisnt Chelsea will be hard.


Good luck United, I hope you take the title

It was a Chimbonda o.g as well wasn't it?

I want lots of twists and turns on Sunday, like the last day of the 2005/2006 season.

Yep, Chimbonda o.g. after constant pressure. They were excellent for the first 60-70 minutes of that game.

Even Fergie said they deserved a draw that day.

Pierre Littbarski wrote:
As if.



United will win the Prem and Chelsea will win the CL.

f@ck, I wanted to make some nice money in that Wigan match but the house ain't stupid. They opened with the Mancs favorites at 1.2, and Wigan are underdogs at 15. The biggest favorites I've ever seen was when Germany played San Marino. The Germans were 1.15 favorites!

The worst Wigan was at home was something like 3.25 against Arsenal. There is no fucking way the Mancs don't win, and the bookies KNOW it.

L.r.d wrote:I have a really bad feeling, and it's horrible!

Check the odds LRD! If it helps you any.

I've NEVER seen a team not win when they were favorites 1.25 or lower like your Mancs are now. FFS! Wigan haven't been these low as underdogs EVER. The lowest they've been at home was 3.25 against Arsenal, and now they're 15 against your Mancs! Do the bookies know something about Bruce and Ferguson?

Congrats LRD homeboy! Your Mancs are the '07-'08 EPL Champs!

Puro wrote:

L.r.d wrote:I have a really bad feeling, and it's horrible!

Check the odds LRD! If it helps you any.

I've NEVER seen a team not win when they were favorites 1.25 or lower like your Mancs are now. FFS! Wigan haven't been these low as underdogs EVER. The lowest they've been at home was 3.25 against Arsenal, and now they're 15 against your Mancs! Do the bookies know something about Bruce and Ferguson?

Congrats LRD homeboy! Your Mancs are the '07-'08 EPL Champs!

The odds mean nothing, nothing. We havent won away in 2 months. They havent lost at home in longer than that!
I don't buy it for one minute that this game is a foregone conclusion.

I might put a lot of money on Wigan to win or a draw just to cover this possibility if the odds are that tempting. Hopefully they will just be to strong and want it more than Wigan, but just have a really bad feeling about this day.

We'll never lose a cl final though

Same odds more or less on it being 1-1, 1-2 and 1-3, which is rather revealing.

Why does every Chelsea player come out and say Wigan should do this , should do that and Ballack comparison to Leverkusen was hillarious I dont know whos feeding him what but we are the Bayern Munich of EPL.

Whelan got a bit pissed off yesterday and said his players will be taking the game very seriously. Pretty disrespectful from Chelsea for me, I can't imagine Fergie or our players banging on about Bolton taking it seriously.

That's because Ferguson does things in private...was it Mark Hughes last month who claimed he got 2 calls in the space of a week from Ferguson in the buildup to their game, even though he usually never calls?

Isn't that precisely what SAF did in 1996 that led to Kevin Keegan's famous 'I would love it' outburst?

Ok then leave it to the manager shouldnt we , the mind games , why does every player has to come out and why should Wigan do Chelsea proud , they have done themselves proud by staying up.

You can’t blame the Chelsea players, they have nothing but to clutch at straws, more hope than expectation. Deep down they know Manchester United at their best can dispatch and overwhelm Wigan.

kas wrote:That's because Ferguson does things in private...was it Mark Hughes last month who claimed he got 2 calls in the space of a week from Ferguson in the buildup to their game, even though he usually never calls?

I think it was Steve Bruce before the Wigan-Chelsea game actually...Fergie must've given some good advice "Perhaps you could score a last minute equalizer" "Sure thing, boss. Gee, I never would've thought of that, being a potato as I am"

Roger Hunt wrote:Isn't that precisely what SAF did in 1996 that led to Kevin Keegan's famous 'I would love it' outburst?

Yes, exactly. He called the Leeds players 'cheats', arguing that the only game they tried in all season was against Man Utd, suggesting they wouldn't try in their upcoming game against Newcastle (and that was the game after which Keegan gave his 'I would love it' speech), and claiming that they were letting their manager, Howard Wilkinson, down. And he also questioned the fact that we had agreed to play Nottingham Forest in Stuart Pearce's end of season testimonial, implying this meant we would get an easy time in our upcoming league game against them.

Man Utd fans have no right to criticise anything Chelsea or any other team do or say, unless they're willing to criticise their own team just as severely - whether it's banal psychological mind games, calling opposition cheats, haranguing referees on or off the pitch, Man Utd had it all mastered ten years ago, and they are responsible for such things being so widespread in the Premiership today.

12 years later it appears Newcastle fans still aint over it.

Anyway personally i don't blame Chelsea, they need Wigan to get a result for them to win the title, so it's natural they want to make sure they do give it everything.

But there's nothing in it for them, they cannot even finish a place higher in the league. So i don't see why you would play it like a cup final. They would save money on bonuses to lose, and the pictures of us lifting the title on their ground would make Wigan more widely known across the world. It's better for Wigan that Wigan lose