Wigan v QPR 1Apr23 1 - 0 FT 19th/42pts

So bad. That looked a decent line up and we didn't lay a glove on Wigan who were woeful.

We barely managed some half chances.

Some fans were arguing with Chair at the end, then Balogun - who cost us the game remember - decided to come over. Bad decision, it got very toxic and he had to be dragged away.

Ainsworth deserves some stick too because we changed shape and looked clueless. What was the plan? Awful. Just bloody awful on every level.

I agree that Ainsworth had no choice but to play the so called cavalry but  at half time when he had seen how poorly we were playing he needed to sort things out.  The 3 at the back were liabilities from start to finish and Martin and Dickie wouldnt have scored if Wigan had played without a goalkeeper.  I understood his decision to take off a central defender for Chair but our strike force needed to be changed to offer something different because they were ineffective. 

I wonder what they practice during the week because today as usual our so called Championship defenders  panicked everytime they had to face a high ball either over the top or from a set piece.

As for the front 2 they were just passengers who offered no threat whatsoever and whilst Dykes can be forgiven after his midweek exertions Martin offered nothing. Martin is a slow and predictable forward who opposition defenders must love playing against because of his lack of mobility.  I can't remember either of the front 2 testing the goalkeeper all game. 

What we have seen in the last few games is the team make exactly the same mistakes and Ainsworth's inability to correct those mistakes. We saw again today that once we conceded an early goal the heads drop and the lack of fight In the team as a whole. 

We’d struggle to beat most league one teams
We’ve had our chances to stay up
Wigan are a poor side and we had players back from injury
Blackpool haven’t won since they beat us and hadn’t won for ages before they thrashed us
We won’t stay up can’t see how we can now
Warnock has got Huddersfield fired up and they will stay up at the expense of us now

Having just seen the highlights back I don't know how Dunne could cut out the ball for their penalty. It was a long ball far over his head. Regardless, what followed was just terrible decision making from Balogun. He should have put it in Row Z and then once he made a mess he didn't need to slide in, the Wigan guy still had a lot to do.


I'm also recalling so many wasted set pieces. Johansen at one point had a free kick maybe 10 yards inside the Wigan half and he didn't beat the 1 man stood in front of him who blocked his attempt at a ball into the box. Another corner we took short and then Willock curled the ball straight out. Other free kicks were just punted long straight through to the Wigan keeper.

I've pondered it a lot throughout this evening and I still can't work out what we were trying to do today. We are just embarrassing.

My take was that if Dunne had been in his right position as the left centre back he should have been cutting out the high ball.  The trouble was that once Dunne had decided to stroll forward and out of position  we were in trouble. Ive no idea what he was doing or where he was going because he must havs known that his lack of pace was against him  if the ball was played over the top. Once that ball was then played we were exposed and it meant Balogun had to come across and try to cover.  Balogun then compounded the poor defending by making a hash of the clearance and giving away the penalty.

The whole scenario was typical of the way we defend and frustratingly was nothing new.  Getting caught out by that over the top high ball happens most weeks and we have seen the same thing happening going back to Warburton's days.  Pushing the likes of Dunne and Dickie forward is suicidal because their lack of mobility exposes us to any nippy forward player.

Martin was hopeless. He chugs around like an old steam train, he is so off the pace of the game. He rarely wins headers too, he just seems to try and stand his ground and be a nuisance but that's about it.

Chair really did try, fair play to him, but for whatever reason we still didn't truly threaten.

I see that Balogun has now invited the disgruntled fans who were at Wigan to watch a training session and discuss their frustrations. It's probably well intentioned but would Ainsworth even allow it to happen.