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· Spurs fans! Find a hotel near the ground here!
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 14 2004-5
· Spurs lost at Villa
Last Six Premiership results:-
Wigan
Wigan 2-1 Bolton
Wigan 1-0 Newcastle
A. Villa 0-2 Wigan
Wigan 1-0 Fulham
P'tsouth 0-2 Wigan
Wigan 2-3 Arsenal
Spurs
Charlton 2-3 Spurs
Spurs 2-0 Everton
Man Utd 1-1 Spurs
Spurs 1-1 Arsenal
Bolton 1-0 Spurs
Spurs 1-1 West Ham
Pos P W D L F -A GD Pts
2 Wigan 12 8 1 3 15-8 5 25
6 Spurs 13 5 6 2 14-9 5 21
Spurs have never played against Wigan Athletic, who were promoted to the top flight this year, for the first time in their relatively short league history. There was a team that carried the name of Wigan (but Wigan Borough) that resigned from the Third Division North in 1931 for financial reasons. They had been established in 1921. Following their departure from the League, Wigan Athletic was formed in 1932, but it took them 46 years to reach Football League status. (They made 34 unsuccessful applications during the years when those clubs finishing at the bottom of the League had to seek re-election, and usually got what they wanted!
Within four years of their arrival, The "Latics" had been promoted to the old Division Three. In recent years of course, their rise has been swift, under the Chairmanship of Dave Whelan, and with ex-player Paul Jewell at the helm. Jewell has been in the Premiership before, of course, when he managed Bradford during their brief stay at the top.
Previous managers have included Steve Bruce, John Deehan and Bruce Rioch. There have been a number of famous players associated with the club down the years, such as Roy Carroll, David Fairclough, Archie Gemmill and Keith Gillespie, to name just four. Some of these associations have been tenuous whilst on loan, and the real heroes for the locals will be the stalwarts that spent many games in Wigan's service. Roy Carroll probably does qualify for that status as he played 135 games in the days before he signed for Man Utd. I haven't been able to find any Spurs connection with the club.
An army of 5,000 Spurs fans will travel to the JJB stadium this week to bag another venue on their list, but also in the hope of seeing their team emulate the result achieved by their North London rivals last week, and to help Wigan beat that crowd of 25,004.
Wigan's top scorer of last season, Nathan Ellington has left for West Brom, and in fact scored two goals last week against Everton - one of them a cracker. Current top scorer is Jason Roberts, signed from West Brom in January 2004. Roberts is a cousin of Cyril Regis, who was a "Baggie" many years ago.
Wigan also boast veteran keeper John Filan, who kept 20 clean sheets in League games last season, who was signed from Blackburn in 2001. Stephane Henchoz and Arjan De Zeeuw hold up the central defence. Henchoz was part of a watertight partnership with Hyypia at Liverpool, and De Zeeuw re-joined his old club after a spell at Portsmouth. The silver-haired Graham Kavanagh in midfield will be easily recognisable, and Captained Cardiff against Spurs in the Second Round League Cup tie in October 2002. Striker Henri Camara is another who has met Spurs before, when he was at Southampton last year, and also during pre-season last year at Celtic.
Whatever happens in this game, Wigan will remain above Spurs. After losing their first two games (against Chelsea and Charlton) the "Latics" went on a fine run of 9 games undefeated, winning 8 of those - 6 on the trot. Paul Jewell's side gave Arsenal a run for their money last Saturday, and we can expect a thoroughly difficult and competitive game.
Spurs are on a bad run. Glad as we were to get a point off Man Utd and Arsenal, we haven't won for 5 games and desperately need a spark to get us back on track for a European challenge. Jermain Defoe will surely start this week, and whilst Wayne Routledge and Anthony Gardner are off the injured list, I don't expect any change to the starting line-up other than Defoe for Keane.
We must also hope that the weather holds, as it is predicted that we will be in the grip of winter's worse conditions by the week-end. If you do make it to the stadium, they have a bar at the away end open to visiting supporters. I'm going to predict 2-0 to Spurs, with Defoe scoring both, just to prove Martin Jol was wrong to give Robbie Keane a chance last week!
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