Humiliation for Wigan brings players and fans closer together

In this day and age when the top levels of the game seem to be moving further and further away from the fans, we do sometimes hear heart-warming stories.

Suffer

Whilst grounds in England are becoming more and more full of what Roy Keane infamously referred to as the ‘prawn sandwich brigade’, it is often the real fan, the one who has supported the team all their life and followed them all over England and sometimes Europe, who inevitably seems to suffer.

As ticket prices rise and the clubs cater more and more towards the corporate customers rather than the real fans, the gap between player and supporter is ever widening.

Real fans

There were five hundred and sixty-five Wigan fans at Tottenham on Sunday who had all spent a lot of money and time to get there. With tickets for the game priced at £27.40, and the trip being over two hundred miles, those are definitely real fans.

The players certainly have a duty to give their all for the club and particularly for those loyal fans. Of course, on this occasion the Wigan fans had to watch a performance that would have left them feeling angry, upset and humiliated.

History

The 9-1 defeat Wigan suffered on Sunday was the second highest score in Premier League history. They were the first team to concede nine goals in a Premier League match since Manchester United beat Ipswich 9-0 in 1995.

The result meant that Wigan have conceded fourteen goals in their last three matches and now sit only three points and three places above the drop zone with a miserable goal difference of minus seventeen.

Refunding

The players must have been truly embarrassed by their performance and they have now made an excellent gesture by apologising to their fans and refunding the ticket costs to all their fans who attended the game. That could be a cost of around £15,000, meaning that each player will contribute around £1,000 towards the refund.

Captain Mario Melchiot said on the club’s website,

“We feel that as a group of players we badly let down our supporters. This is a gesture we have to make and pay them back for their loyalty. There is not a lot else to say, just that as a group of professionals we were embarrassed by the way we performed, we feel it was below our standards and the refund is something we feel we owe to the fans. Now we have to draw a line under the game, focus completely on training this week and bounce back on Saturday. We are professionals, we will take it on the chin and move on but it’s important that we do not take our supporters for granted.”

A spokesperson for the Wigan Supporters’ Club said that the fans appreciated the gesture,

“As far as supporters go it’s a really good gesture. It’s brought the club closer to the fans again, which is what it’s trying to do at the moment. The players are clearly embarrassed about the performance. They knew they didn’t do as well as they could and they wanted to show fans it wasn’t acceptable and going forward it won’t happen again. It shows that the players get the community spirit of the club and have the fans at heart.”

That is the heart-warming part of the story. The real fans and the players have been brought closer together in adversity and created a feeling of all being in it together. That is what football used to be like and still is at the lower levels of the game.

The Wigan players may have been abysmal on Sunday but they deserve great credit for the reaction they have made. It will be interesting to see how the club respond on and off the field when they take on Sunderland on Saturday.