Wigan Athletic FC

Brief History of Wigan Athletic

The fifth club to play football at Springfield Park following the building of the ground in 1897, Wigan Athletic were formed in 1932 following the demise of Wigan Borough. The old club were forced to resign from the Third Division North of the Football League on the 26th October 1931, when the directors expressed their inability to meet their present and future commitments to the club.

Even with the voluntary liquidation of Wigan Borough the town's die-hard football enthusiasts were planning the rebirth of a town team.

A public meeting was held at the Queen's Hall presided over by the then Mayor of Wigan, Councillor W A Hipwood, who called on the town to keep up the reputation of producing the finest sportsmen by keeping intact an Association Football team as well as the Rugby League team.

A committee was elected and a new club was formed to be called Wigan Athletic. Springfield Park was purchased for the sum of £2,850 from the owners of the Woodhouse Lane dog track, with the club gaining election to the Cheshire League.

The 1934-35 season besides collecting their second Cheshire League championship saw the first of what became many incredible F.A. Cup runs. Carlisle United were beaten 6-1 in the first round at Brunton Park, a record victory that still stands for a non-league side over football League opposition.

With the end of the war in 1945, Wigan Athletic were elected into the Lancashire Combination, with the Latics proving themselves to be formidable opponents, this consistency almost rewarded in 1950 with Football League status, losing out on a third poll vote to Scunthorpe United.

Despite this bitter disappointment, Latics continued to knock on the League's door, backing their demands by holding almost a monopolistic grip on the Lancashire Combination Championship title.

The 1953-54 season will be remembered as one of the most remarkable in the club's sixty five year history, retaining the championship,(their third in four years), winning the Lancashire Junior Cup and competing a unique treble by lifting the Lancashire Combination Cup. Not content with cleaning up every non-league title open to them, Wigan claimed national fame, again with a strong F.A. Cup run. A second round victory over Hereford United was watched by a crowd of 27,526 spectators, a record to this day, as the largest attendance ever recorded between two non-league clubs excluding Wembley Finals. The reward was an away tie against the mighty Newcastle United, then at the height of its footballing prowess, with a side containing several legendary names. A crowd of 52,222 saw Latics return with a 3-3 draw, only to narrowly lose out in the reply 2-3. Sadly the success of this memorable season could not open the door to league status.

The 1960's saw Latics rejoin the Cheshire League to provide stronger competition with the 1964-65 season providing another record as the club's answer to the "Roy of the Rovers" Harry Lyon amassed an amazing total of sixty six goals in a season - over half the teams total, scoring six in one match for another club record.

Joining the new Northern Premier League Latics continued to tower above other non-league sides, claiming the scalps of league clubs in the F.A. Cup.

Finally after 34 rejections, it was a case of the league at last, gaining Football League election at the end of the 1977-78 season in place of Southport.

The first season saw Latics finish in a creditable sixth place. Two seasons later promotion was secured in second position under player manager Larry Lloyd.

In 1985, Latics made it a town double emulating the town's rugby club winning a Wembley Final, 3-1 over Brentford with goals from Mike Newell, Tony Kelly and David Lowe.

An excellent youth policy saw the sale of many promising youngsters, which include two former captains of Premier League sides, Steve Walsh at Leicester City and Peter Atherton at Sheffield Wednesday.

In February 1995, local millionaire businessman David Whelan took control of the club. A former professional with Blackburn Rovers whose football career was cut short following a broken leg sustained in the 1960 F.A. Cup Final, his aim is to take Wigan Athletic into the Premiership. In 1997 the club secured the Third Division Championship under John Deehan, whilst in 1999 the AutoWindscreens Shield was added to the trophy cabinet, after Paul Rogers solitary goal defeated Millwall at Wembley.

The 1998/99 season was the club's final season at the now demolished Springfield Park with the last ever game being a 1-1 draw in the Second Division play-off first leg against Manchester City, eventually losing 2-1 on aggregate. Manchester United were the visitors for the opening game at the Latics new home, the 25,000 capacity J.J.B. Stadium in August 1999. The Club went on a 24 league match unbeaten run and topped the Second Division as we entered the new millennium. However it was to be the play offs again that season and after beating Millwall over two legs, Gillingham won the play off Final 3-2 in extra time at Wembley. Latics would have to wait another three years until promotion.

During the 2000/01 season, the club had three different managers. Former Middlesbrough and Bolton boss Bruce Rioch took over in the summer of 2000, and oversaw an impressive start to the campaign as the club battled for promotion but left the club in February 2001 after mutual consent. Former coach and defender Colin Greenall took charge of the team for six matches before former Manchester United captain Steve Bruce took over, who had previously cut management teeth with Huddersfield Town. Bruce took the club to the play-offs for the third consecutive season, but Latics lost 2-1 to Reading on aggregate in the semi-finals with Nicky Forster scoring a late winner for the Royals to break Wigan hearts.

Steve Bruce was only on a short-term contract, and left the JJB Stadium to become the manager of Crystal Palace in the summer of 2001. Chairman Dave Whelan sought his eighth manager since taking over the club and appointed former Bradford and Sheffield Wednesday manager Paul Jewell, who of course, had also spent part of his playing career with Latics in the 1980's. This important decision by our chairman to appoint Jewell as our manager was the start of our rapid journey to the Premiership.

The new Latics boss had a simple instruction from his new chairman. He was allowed to build up the squad he wanted in the first year, and then ensure the club were in the top six at Christmas the season after.

By the end of October, the club were second bottom of the Second Division (now League One), and just a few weeks later were to be humiliated in the FA Cup by non-league Canvey Island who won 1-0 at the JJB Stadium. But Dave Whelan backed Jewell with a spending spree throughout the season that would shape the squad to take us to the Premiership. Even though the club were struggling, Jewell brought in goalkeeper John Filan, defender Matt Jackson, midfielders Gary Teale and Jason Jarrett and also striker Nathan Ellington for a then club record fee of £1.2million on transfer deadline day in 2002. These players took Latics all the way to the Premiership in the remarkably short time of three years.

From being second bottom, Latics finished the 2001/02 season in 10th after a decent run of just five defeats since the New Year, which was a huge improvement. By the end of the season, Jewell had built a squad he thought was capable of challenging for one last promotion push for the club to take Latics out of the lower leagues.

In the summer of 2002, defender Ian Breckin was the only addition brought into the club with the later purchases of Nicky Eaden and Jimmy Bullard coming during the season. The club walked to the 2003 Division Two title and finished with 100 points, creating a run of ten consecutive victories along the way and losing just four times for the whole campaign. Wigan Athletic had at last achieved promotion for the first time in six years.

The same season saw Latics go on incredible run in the Carling League Cup, reaching the quarter-finals. Latics disposed of Northampton before facing four Premiership teams in a row. Jewell's men defeated West Brom, Manchester City, Fulham before finally being halted by Blackburn Rovers, who were holders of the trophy at the time.

After being favourites for relegation from the First Division (now called the Championship) in the 2003/04 season, Latics went on to surprise many more sceptical pundits. Despite losing their first game 2-0 at Millwall on the first day of the campaign, and being labelled "a pub team", Jewell's men did not lose for another 17 games and were actually top of the First Division at the beginning of November beating 18th placed Crystal Palace 5-0 at the JJB Stadium.

How ironic it would be that it was Palace who won promotion to the top flight, and Latics who failed to qualify for the play-offs later that season. Just three wins in the last ten games saw Latics run out of steam and needed to beat West Ham on the last day of the season to have a chance of clinching sixth place. But Latics could only draw 1-1, and they would have to settle for seventh place.

After defying all the odds, everyone knew Wigan would be in the promotion shake-up in the 2004/05 season, but did not realise how strong the club were going to challenge for promotion to the Premiership.

Latics started the campaign with an unbeaten run of 17 league games, which were ended by a 2-0 defeat by Plymouth in November. Despite just winning twice in the next nine games, Latics remained in the top three and were challenging strong along with Sunderland and Ipswich who were neck and neck for most of the campaign.

Home defeats to West Ham and Sunderland looked to have severely dented Wigan's promotion hopes, but Ipswich Town also suffered from inconsistency as the season drew to a conclusion. The Suffolk based club lost their game in hand to Wolves and could only manage to win one out their four remaining games.

The form of Latics was only marginally better, but the superior goal difference, thanks to the steady defence, gave an advantage to Latics. Sunderland had already won the Championship, and so the last remaining play-off place was up for grabs. On the last day of the campaign, Latics could be level points with Ipswich, and therefore only needed to draw with Reading. Ipswich had to beat Brighton at the Withdean Stadium. But there was another twist; Reading had to win to have any chance of making the play-offs themselves.

Ipswich had taken the early lead, and so they were in line for automatic promotion, until Brighton had equalised just six minutes later. But that was all the agony Latics fans had to endure as they saw Latics cruise to victory over Reading at the JJB Stadium. Lee McCulloch, Jason Roberts, and Nathan Ellington all scored before Steve Sidwell's consolation goal to give Latics a 3-1 win, and a place in the top flight for the first time ever!