Wigan 0 County 2

It wasn't County's best performance of the season at the Brick, but solid substitutions from Dave Challinor cemented all three points, laying more foundations for another promotion push

Feb 16, 2025

Sunday 16 February 2025

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NEXT HOME GAME: Blackpool – Saturday 1 March, 3pm

NEXT AWAY GAME: Cambridge United – Saturday 22 February, 3pm

Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Wigan supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Sunday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

I tell you what, I’m feeling rather cultured this week in terms of trying the various culinary delights available across the country. Regular readers will know I sampled my first ever Guinness Zero at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night. I followed that up yesterday with a delicious Wigan Kebab (I swapped the standard meat and potato pie for a cheese and onion) from Wallgate Chippy for my journey home, which was absolutely sublime. As you can see, I’ve shared a photo of the stodgy mess, as well as the pie-in-a-barm. I’ll upload the other 30+ photos from Saturday’s trip to Wigan tomorrow.

As for today’s edition, Mudhutter editor Martin Tarbuck puts pen to paper on Wigan’s “SHITE” performance, with Ben Roach waxing lyrical on some fantastic second-half scenes in the away end.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Pate & Lever Roofing. A big thank you to Barry.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 216.74 miles

Total steps so far: 353,516

Total raised so far: £2,270

Total completed streets so far: 474 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

✍️ Yesterday’s match in one word

Martin: SHITE.

Ben: Satisfying.

🤔 Pre-match thoughts

Martin: I expected a hard game. You’re not where you are in the table by accident but if the Wigan Athletic that turned up last week against Fulham showed, I saw no reason we couldn't get something. That Wigan Athletic didn't show up though.

Ben: I thought it would be a tough game as they’re probably the best team defensively that I’ve seen at EP this season. Probably a must-win game if we’re serious about automatic promotion though so anything less than a win would be disappointing.

🧐 Post-match thoughts

Martin: It’s a club on the up versus a club on the decline. We've been in that position ourselves many times over the years, so I know the feeling and I'm not jealous. It was just grim from our perspective to capitulate the way we did and a lot of fans are losing patience with the ultra-cautious Shaun Maloney sadly.

Ben: Really pleased that we found a way to win. We’re going to face a lot of teams that are happy to get a point against us so we’re going to have to be positive and change tactics to beat them. There will be a few more games like that before the end of the season.

🔵 Verdict on Wigan

Martin: I mean we were OK for 70 or so minutes. I'd say you had the first half but we were starting to dominate in the second and had a couple of chances to take the lead. To throw it away like we did, took the edge of it, and turned what could have been a half decent performance, into a pathetic one.

Ben: Similar to when they came to EP. They were really focused on keeping a clean sheet, defended deep and made the middle of the pitch very congested. Earlier in the season, I thought they could make the play-offs if they could find an attacking threat - clearly that hasn’t happened. They are a solid team and should be too good to go down but they’re going to have to work out how to score more goals.

🟡 Verdict on County

Martin: You've got a big, solid, organised team. I looked at one point during the second half and most of the team were talking and pointing, whereas we are muter than a troop of Trappist monks. Decent going forward too. Very similar to Wrexham in that you didn't blow us away and looked quite average at times but you can pull out that bit of extra quality to win the game when needed. Like I say, when you're on the up, you pull off results like that and good luck to you.

Ben: Started really well and disappointed not to score from one of the many set pieces in the first 15 minutes. We then played OK but we were too safe and formulaic for much of the game. We wanted to keep possession and our instinct was to turn away from trouble and pass backwards or sideways too often. We missed several opportunities to play the ball into space behind them when we had runners on the counter-attack. That changed once we made the substitutions and the positive impact from Bate and Camps made a massive difference.

🔵 Top Latic

Martin: They were all below par. I'd probably give it to Jon Mellish, who at least looked like he was trying.

Ben: Jonny Smith looked very dangerous early on and caused Touray some problems but he faded before being substituted. I’m always impressed with Sam Tickle and he made some very good saves - I think he’ll be playing at a higher level soon.

🎩 Top Hatter

Martin: I like that Ollie Norwood. We all got confused and thought we'd signed him on deadline day but that was Ollie Norburn, who is definitely not the same player. But I've got to give it to Callum Camps as he won the game for you. I've no idea where our right side disappeared to, but in a game where neither side could find any space, he found bagfuls and did something our wingers rarely do and put a couple of killer balls into the box that we had no interest in defending. Football is simple isn't it?

Ben: Norwood was a class above everyone on the pitch, spraying inch-perfect long passes for fun but also making several crunching tackles. A great all-round performance and a joy to watch.

👂 Atmosphere

Martin: Terrible. To be fair, we had a really good home atmosphere last week in the cup, felt like we had 15,000 in. Yesterday, it felt more like 5,000 and the home support is dropping quite a bit due to our struggling in general, but especially at home. Your fans were as noisy as we've had for a while, and had a great array of songs. You can always tell in the North Stand when it's a smaller club with a big following (no offence) compared to a large club with a large following - it's a lot more co-ordinated and noisy. Even though there was nearly 4,000 in there, you were all singing in time and together, much more tight knit than some other fans. You seem quite a civilised bunch too, not like I recall from the late 80s / early 90s.

Ben: A superb away day - a local game in a decent stadium with the whole end given over to County fans who made a decent noise throughout. Some banging tunes from the bass-heavy sound system before the match. I think that’s the only way they could create an atmosphere.

🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season

Martin: We could do with beating Crawley on Tuesday night, or we're in a relegation scrap. We've actually got a decent squad once they all get match fit and return from injury and Maloney can pick a settled side (whether he chooses to or not is another story). So if we can stay up and finish the season strongly, that's as much as we can hope for. Oh and we can't lose to Bolton in April, which is now looking more probable now they've finally sacked that sulky, balloon headed oaf.

Ben: I’m just enjoying the ride. It would be a disappointment to miss out on the top six from here but I’m a bit apprehensive about going up, and losing in the play-offs is always horrible. Let’s just keep winning and see what happens!

😀 Best part of the day

Martin: I made a banging Thai curry when I got home.

Ben: Bate’s goal and celebration. You could see how much it meant to the players. They want promotion.

😡 Worst part of the day

Martin: It's fairly obvious this one. Like I say, we've had our fun over the years and sometimes you've just got to take it on the chin, but it still hurts like hell to lose so meekly at home. I don't have too much sympathy for some of the raging, grumpy old fellas who watch us, cos if they are like me, they've had decades of unparalleled success to watch over the years. But I feel for the kids who were too young to experience all that. No goals, no wins, poor performances, an abject atmosphere. It’s just dreadful right now.

Ben: Nothing personally - it was a great day out. Ben’s injury was the worst part of the day but it was pleasing to see Corey come on to a great reception and make some key saves.

The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 2-0 victory at Wigan Athletic on Saturday 15 February, as told from his County-related WhatsApp groups…

11.42am: On the train into Manchester now. Rammed. Woman drinking some fizz out of a champagne flute. FFS.

11.48am: Feel better now. Our youth have got on at Stockport drinking cans of Madri and Inch’s cider. The day can only get better from here, right?

2.04pm: Knoyle in for Hills. I’m surprised. Hills played well at Bristol Rovers.

3.48pm: Oh dear. Ben’s groin has gone.

3.50pm: He’ll be fine, he’s got another one.

3.58pm: Can see why games involving Wigan haven’t had many goals. End product has been mostly poor from both teams.

3.59pm: Need something different to break these down, they’re very well drilled. Surely we’re going to see Hamilton today. If not we may as well send him back to Middlesbrough.

4.00pm: That’s a fate I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

4.01pm: What’s worse, Middlesbrough or Hull?

4.02pm: I’ve never managed to get to Hull. It’s too far away, basically in Holland.

4.40pm: Great move, great finish from Bate!

4.43pm: And again! Collar. Another fantastic cross from Camps.

5.11pm: I said I’d take 0-0 about two minutes before we scored, because it had a scabby home win written all over it for me. Those goals won’t get picked up really, but they were class. FUCKING COME ON!

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Photo(s) of the day

Whittles Bakery, Wigan

It was lovely to bump into Kelvin Briggs, one of our paid subscribers, who was sat directly behind me in the North Stand at Wigan yesterday. Excitedly, he told me he’d had a cracking pre-match pie from Whittles Bakery, and that he’d taken a few pictures for the website… so here they are!

Today in SK

🎬 Cinema

One film at The Savoy Cinema (SK4) today. Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (15) at 7.45pm.

➡️ Click here for tickets.

🍽 Food and drink

Enjoy a delicious Sunday roast at The Crown (SK2) or The Three Tunnes (SK7) with homemade Yorkshire puddings and all the trimmings. Served till 6pm.

A number of venues are featured on The Scarf My Father Wore such as The Dog & Partridge (SK2), The Alexandra (SK3), The Crown Inn (SK6), The Steelworks (SK6), The Cross Keys (SK8) and The Ram’s Head (SK12). Support them this month by popping in for a few drinks or a bite to eat.