The only thing I am not looking forward to about the start of the new season is Mark Lawrenson. Not that I have anything personally against the man, it is his lazy evaluation of Wigan Athletics’ chances in the upcoming fixtures through the medium of ‘Lawro’s Predictions’, that has got my beef.
Fans of other clubs may have never picked up on, been bothered enough to take notice or even shared the same view point as Lawro and his fondness for using inconsistent and Wigan in the same sentence, yet the Wigan fans I have come into contact with despise this pre match analysis.
This piece of punditry has kept me coming back week after week to see whether Mark has changed tact, but also brought much enjoyment through the ranting and raving (about Mark’s ineptitude and complete lack of interest in our club) that immediately appeared on the now defunct 606 forum after his ‘predictions’ were published.
With this quick delve into some of the seasons results, I will try to prove him to be naïve in the ways of Wigan Athletic and hope somewhere, somehow he will read this and change the frustratingly simple assessment he offers to my fellow Latics.
Breakdown
With 9 draws and 1 win in the 20 games against the top half teams, totalling 12 points out of a possible 60, our form against our immediate rivals was imperative.
So to examine this myth of inconsistency I have decided to look at how we fared against these teams and more so, those that finished in the bottom half.
Wigan gained 30 points from 54 available against the bottom half, with 8 wins and 6 draws seeing us safe. In comparison with the teams who were in the relegation scrap on the last day plus West Ham, this was the highest amount of points taken against the teams at the wrong end of the premiership.
Against bottom half (18 games-54 points available):
Wigan 30
Blackburn 29
Blackpool 24
Birmingham 23
West Ham 20
Wolves 16
The notable anomaly is of course Wolves, as they somehow managed to gather 24 points against the top teams in the division, a full 8 points more than any of the other teams mentioned above. Yet against the ‘weaker’ sides their form stuttered and led them to being 5 minutes away from relegation to the fizzy pop league.
To conclude I hope this little snippet can start to justify my dislike for one third of the MOTD ‘Dream Team’ (Lineker, Hansen and Lawro) and maybe convince a shift of the ‘inconsistent at best’ tag off of our humble shoulders and perhaps onto those who ply their trade in orange and black.
