Clarke On Woeful Wigan Display

As I’m sure many of you have seen on social media after last night’s game, Steve Clarke was extremely unhappy. He told the press and official club website:

"We deserved to lose, it was rubbish.

"A little bit of me is embarrassed to be coach of a team that plays like that, especially first half. Not a good game, not a good performance and obviously a terrible result."

Our home form of late is nothing short of poor, the lack of fun at the Madejski is turning crowds away with just over 14,000 fans coming to the game. Clarke said:

"It’s something I’ve got to look long and hard at; I need to find a different way to play at home. Maybe I need to change the team a little bit."

"When you see us play away, by and large the performances have been good but here, the performances are of a team that’s going to fight relegation. We’ve got two away games before Forest here so it gives me time to try to find a solution."

It’s worrying that our own manager believes we could be battling for relegation. We have  tough couple of months ahead of us.

Wigan’s goal last night was nothing short of poor, with Adam Federici making a rare mistake. Clarke was keen to defend his goalkeeper:

"First, you can blame the back pass to him on a pitch like that. It shouldn’t have been played to him. Adam got caught, then a decent delivery in and we didn’t deal with it. It was a soft set play goal but Adam’s been fantastic so he’s not getting any criticism from me."

No excuses can be made for last night, but in recent weeks, the pitch at the Madejski hasn’t looked particularly healthy. Clarke added:

"We look to the pitch a little bit, it doesn’t help us, and to be fair to the club they didn’t spend anything on it in the summer because of the financial situation at the time. And they need the rugby revenue so it’s Catch 22. But we have to find a way to counter-act it and maybe I need to find a different approach at home. It’s my responsibility."

Now it’s time to put the FA Cup to the back of our minds and really focus on the league. It’s time to get behind the boys and Clarke and support them as much as possible.