Wigan Athletic - The Darkest Hour

The darkest hour comes before dawn, surely we are now at the darkest hour in our club’s history.

 

We recorded a podcast immediately following last night’s home defeat to Hull City, in retrospect it was wrong to do so, personally I made comments which I now feel guilty about, we should’ve given ourselves time to reflect not only on the game, but also the situation, which is getting more difficult to bear each passing day.

 

Criticising players and tactics was an emotionally driven response to suffering a third five goal to nil thumping, at home, in the space of three months.

 

In normal circumstances it would be right to do so, right to question where the club was heading, but these are far from normal circumstances and we know exactly where we are heading and we know exactly who is to blame, more importantly, we know who isn’t to blame.

 

Following the podcast being published I read, via Paul Kendrick’s twitter feed, comments made by Leam Richardson in his post match briefing. It made me ashamed of what I’d said.

 

Richardson’s statement wasn’t something that I didn’t know, the gravity of the conditions in which he, Gregor Rioch and Frankie Bunn are trying to work is well known to me, but I was caught in the emotion of losing a football match which, hand on heart, I thought we’d lose anyway before the game started.

 

We are a club that has been ripped to shreds, there is no infrastructure, no support network within the club for the people who have stood by us and are still there. Players have come in, into a shit-storm, left stable clubs behind to come to a club that, if it isn’t sold within the next five months won’t be a Football League club come next season. Their livelihoods and futures are at stake. And yet, I gave them grief.

 

Another night of not much sleep for myself, and I’m sure many of our supporters, this is truly the darkest period in the life of Wigan Athletic and the affect that it is having on a great many in the fan base should not be underestimated.

 

The administrators’ weekly statement is due out tomorrow (Friday), I’d urge them to find some positivity to put in that statement, something more than ‘its with the EFL’. At this moment Begbies Tarynor are the custodians of the club and they need to consider the largest stakeholders in Wigan Athletic, the supporters, the effect that the uncertainty and lack of information is having on us. Give us something to grasp, Gerald Krasner and Paul Stanley may say that legally they are not obliged to, but I’d argue, especially in these times, morally they are.

 

The darkest hour comes just before dawn, the light and warmth of a new dawn for Wigan Athletic feels a long way off, it is difficult not to lose heart, I’m finding it extremely so at the moment, but how can we expect others to carry the fight forward if we are ready to throw in the towel ourselves.

 

Up the tics!