Five years ago today, 19th September 2013, Wigan Athletic made history, playing their first game in a European competition the Latics had made the journey from runners-up in the Northern Premier League to competitors in a prestigious UEFA competition in just 35 years.
As FA Cup winners the Latics gained automatic entry into the group stages
of the Europa League, drawn in Group ‘D’ against Belgium club SV Zulte Waregem, Slovenia side NK Maribor and Russian giants Rubin Kazan anticipation among the fans
was electric.
The first
game of the group saw the Latics travel to Belgium.
Zulte
Waregem, due to their ground, the ‘Rainbow
Stadium’ not meeting UEFA standards played their home fixtures in the
Europa League that season at FC Bruges’ Jan-Breydel
Stadium.
So the stage
was set, over 3,000 Latics fans decided to take at least a couple of days off
work, school or college and make the trek across the channel and onto Belgium, travelling
by air, sea and road this was one adventure shared by many.
My personal
trip was by coach via the Euro Tunnel, we set off just after midnight on the
day of the game arriving in Bruges just after lunch, I am not sure if it was
lack of sleep or copious amounts of beer, but getting off that coach were 70
odd supporters considerably worse for wear.
The city
square was already full of Wiganers when we arrived, awash with blue and white,
scarves, flags and banners, there was a carnival atmosphere undoubtedly fuelled
by some extraordinary beer with alcohol content closer to that of an aged
bottle of wine than the usual stuff you get in a Wetherspoons on a wet
Wednesday.
We bumped
into Neil Rimmer and Jonathan Jackson who were also ‘soaking up’ the
atmosphere, the scenes in the Grote Markt Square were incredible, non-stop
singing, laughter and a genuine feeling of disbelief that our little club,
Wigan Athletic, were competing on the European stage, we do believe in miracles.
The ground
was a good 3 miles from Bruges centre, it had started to rain quite heavily,
there was not a taxi to be had for love nor money and catching a bus wasn’t as
easy as jumping on the 626 from Wigan to get to Beech Hill, but with more luck
than judgement we found ourselves on a bus that was going in the general
direction that we wanted to, or at least that is what we hoped.
All part of
the adventure, we made it to the ground in time for kick off, just, having
walked the final mile and a bit, FC Bruges’ place wasn’t the super stadium I’d
hoped it would be, but that didn’t matter, we had arrived in the really big time.
The game
itself was something of a distraction, only non-alcohol beer sold inside the
stadium, though that didn’t appear to deter people from becoming more
intoxicated, the atmosphere was great, the game something of a non-entity, but
the sense of history was what this occasion was all about.
A drab
goalless draw didn’t spoil the celebrations; neither did the fact that a
certain Owen Coyle somehow found himself managing the Latics at the time, though
Coyle, like our European adventure, wasn’t going to make it through to the New
Year.
History had
been made.
Final word about the day goes to
Latics skipper and legend Emmerson Boyce
"This adventure is a reward for them (the fans), for their efforts
in making this club as special as it is and we as players have to do everything
we can to try and send them home with a smile on their face.
"From a personal point of view it will of course be a great honour
for me to lead out the team on such an historic occasion."
The starting XI that evening was:
Scott Carson
Ryan Shotton,
Emmerson Boyce (capt), James Perch, Stephen Crainey.
Chris McCann,
James McArthur, Jordi Gomez
Callum McManaman,
Nick Powell, James McClean
Ben Watson
and Marc Antoine Fortune replaced Gomez and McManaman on 66 minutes
Nouho Dicko
coming on for Powell on 83 minutes.
Unused subs –
Lee Nicholls, Adam Buxton, Juan Carlos Garcia, Roger Espinoza
A fantastic occasion and what an adventure!
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