Wigan Athletic - DW Stadium

Wigan Athletic FC
DW Stadium
Loire Drive
Wigan
WN5 0UZ

01924 774000
Official Website

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Ground Number: 53
Saturday 16th December 2000
Wigan Athletic 2-1 Wycombe Wanderers
Nationwide League Division 2

TEN FACTS ABOUT WIGAN ATHLETIC FC

1:  FORMATION

Wigan Athletic FC was established in 1932. Remarkably, it was the sixth attempt at creating a viable football team in what was a rugby stranglehold. Wigan Borough, Wigan AFC, Wigan County, Wigan United and Wigan Town had all failed to establish themselves in the area. Borough was the most recent and they had got as far as getting in the football league. However, the Great Depression led to them being unable to pay players wages and they were dissolved on 26th October 1931.

2:  SPRINGFIELD PARK

They had a ready-made ground to move into with most of the failed clubs having played at Springfield Park. Rugby and cycling were also hosted there. At the height of its capacity, it held 40,000 fans. However, the record attendance for Wigan Athletic was 27,526 for a 1953 FA Cup game against Hereford United. This was a record attendance for an FA Cup game between two then non-league teams. Wigan Borough attracted an attendance of 30,433 for a 1929 FA Cup game against Sheffield Wednesday.

3:  THE JJB / DW STADIUM

Whilst the old ground had bags of character, it was showing its age as a football league venue. Its replacement was the JJB Stadium, built in 1999. Funded by fan Dave Whelan (who famously broke his leg in an FA Cup Final), the ground is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owned by the local council. With a capacity of 25,000, the early days saw a rather surreal atmosphere with crowds of 5000-7000 on average. A rise up the league saw the locusts come out of the woodwork and things improve vastly. The stadium opened on 7th August 1999 with Wigan Athletic beating Scunthorpe United 3-0 in front of 7,489. The biggest attendance came in 2008 when 25,133 watched their game against Manchester United. The Wigan Warriors rugby team also play there. 

4: NON-LEAGUE

Perhaps put off by the failures of previous Wigan teams, when Wigan applied to join the Football League, they received no votes. Forced to play in Non-League, they played in both the Cheshire League and Lancashire Combination, winning each four times. In 1968, they joined the newly formed Northern Premier League. They won this in 1971 and 1975 and were runners-up on four further occasions.

5:  FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Finally, after years of trying, Wigan Athletic were elected to the Football League in 1978. At first, they were successful, winning a promotion to the third tier in 1982. Since then, fortunes have varied wildly. The early 1990s were not happy times, the record low was in 1993 when they finished 19th in the fourth tier (then called Division 3). 

The arrival of local millionaire Dave Whelan in February 1995 would see fortunes take a turn for the better. Wigan Athletic were Division 3 champions in 1997,  Division 2 champions in 2003 before being promoted to the Premier League two years later as runners-up to Sunderland. They would spend eight seasons in the Premier League, their debut finish of 10th was their best. They'd go down in 2013 and have spent subsequent seasons flitting between the Championship and League 1. 

Dave Whelan resigned as chairman in 2015 and the family relinquished ownership in 2018. Subsequent owners IEC and Hong Kong-based Next Leader fund have proved to be disastrous with the club entering administration and only being saved by fans fundraising efforts. Things are looking better now, Bahrain-based Phoenix 2021 took over in the close season and after finishing a point above relegation in League One, substantial investment has been made into the club.

6:  FA CUP

Wigan won the FA Cup in 2013, a surprise victory over Machester City seeing them win 1-0 thanks to a Ben Watson goal in injury time. It was a bittersweet occasion with the club relegated in the same season. Less happy times came with a number of giant killings by non-league teams. They lost to Telford United in 1982, Altrincham in 1994, Canvey Island in 2001 and Chorley in 2021. The latter was the most painful. Played in an empty stadium due to Covid, an administration-hit Wigan Athletic lost 3-2 to their once fierce rivals from the Northern Premier League.

7:  OTHER CUPS

Wigan Athletic reached the League Cup final in 2006 where they lost 4-0 to Manchester United at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff.  The FA Trophy Final was also reached in 1973 where they lost 2-1 to Scarborough at Wembley Stadium. Happier times came in 1985 as they beat Brentford in the Football League Trophy, 3-1 at Wembley Stadium.  They repeated the success in 1999 with a 1-0 win against Millwall. In their only season in Europe, they played in the Europa League during the 2013/14 season. They finished bottom of the group, their only win coming at home to Slovenian side Maribor after six games altogether.

8:  RIVALS & FANS

Wigan Athletic's main rivals are Bolton Wanderers and this season the teams will play each other after a few years apart. Manchester City also featured during their Premier League years. Chorley were the big rivals back in the non-league years whilst Blackpool, Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers, Oldham and Rochdale. Other non-football rivals include the local rugby team, christened the Klumps. It was one of many targets of a wonderfully sweary Wigan Athletic fansite back in the day, around 2004. It was long before social media and the internet was a rather more quaint place back then. I don't remember the name of the site but I remember it caused quite a stir and made the front page of the local paper if I remember rightly. 

9:  WYCOMBE CONNECTIONS

Players to have played for both Wycombe Wanderers and Wigan Athletic are limited from what I can see. Left-back Jordan Mustoe made a couple of FA Cup appearances for the Latics in 2011 & 2012 before three games on loan for Wycombe in 2014. Midfielder Lewis Montrose made a couple of league cup appearances for Wigan in 2006 after coming through their youth system. He signed for Wycombe in 2009 and made 50 appearances and scoring 4 goals before being released in 2011. Also, Kenny Swain played for Wycombe before going on to manage Wigan Athletic in the early 90s. Midfielder Michael Love also made a few substitute appearances for Wigan after signing from Hinckley Athletic. He went on to sign on a non-contract basis for Wycombe in 1997 but never appeared for the first team.

The two teams have faced each other on 16 occasions between 1993 & 2003. Wigan Athletic very much hold the upper hand with ten victories to Wycombe's two. Four matches were drawn. Wycombe's last win against the Latics came on 15th September 2001 when Andy Rammell scored in the 34th minute to see us through 1-0.

 

10:  THE TOWN OF WIGAN

The large town of Wigan is situated in Greater Manchester and is well-known for 'Wigan Pier' which is, in fact, an area around the Leeds & Liverpool canal in the town which is nowhere near the sea. Another dubious local delicacy is the 'Wigan Kebab' - a pie served in a barm cake (bread roll). Seen as you get the far more pleasant option of gravy and mushy peas with your pie up north, making it drier seems a backwards move.  The town's population is around 103,000. Famous people from Wigan include the Verve's Richard Ashcroft, newsreader Kay Burley, actress Georgia Taylor and local businessman Dave Whelan.

MY PREVIOUS VISITS

I remember very little about my previous visits to Wigan, which was why I was keen to revisit. Back in the day, the internet and mobile technology was not what it was now, so I tended to stick around the ground. It all made for a rather dull away day, with no obvious place to head to around the ground. I think the height of my exploration was the local ASDA. Also, with me not blogging in those days, I had no account of my visit, though I do remember I used to go on the official supporters club coach, which was never very exciting.

 

My first visit came on Saturday 16th December 2000 and my only memory was it being absolutely freezing. I remember going into the gents at halftime and using the hand driers to warm my frozen hands. On the pitch, it wasn't much better with us losing 2-1. Simon Haworth gave Wigan the lead after four minutes, but Sam Parkin equalised for Wycombe after 49 minutes. Wigan had dropped just two points at home all season and were the season's big spenders. The inevitable happened when on 85 minutes, Neil Roberts grabbed a late winner in what had sometimes been a fractious game.

 

My second visit was on  Saturday 23rd February 2002 and was Wycombe's only point at the then-called JJB Stadium. Two out of form teams played out a dull 0-0 draw. My third visit was on Saturday 7th September 2002 and was a pleasant, sunny day. It was also the day that I got the below pictures on my newly acquired digital camera. All in glorious three-megapixel quality with me getting a bargain owing to a cock-up on the Kodak website which meant I got the camera for £100 instead of the usual £300. Memory cards were expensive back then though, with a 32MB (not GB) card costing £30. On the field, it was not a happy occasion, with Wycombe going down 3-0. It was the early days of Wycombe losing faith in Lawrie Sanchez and this game didn't help. Sanch went with a very attacking formation and we were easily picked off by Wigan. They won 3-0 thanks to strikes from Lee McCulloch and a brace from Andy Liddell.

MY FOURTH VISIT

Wigan Athletic was a ground that I'd not been to for years, so when we got relegated to League 1, it was one of the ones I was looking forward to the most. The perfect situation would have a nice Saturday trip on the Independent supporters club coach, along with a stop at a pub of varying quality, usually fairly decent. However, the EFL seem to have an agenda where they send teams on long midweek away trips. Our game at the DW Stadium was of course, moved to midweek to cause maximum inconvenience to supporters. I understand why they want to keep really local games on Saturday, but why they couldn't send us to somewhere more reasonable like Gillingham, Cheltenham or Portsmouth is beyond me. Mind you, when has any decision that the EFL taken made sense? With the Independents not running a  coach, the only option, if I didn't fancy driving, was the Official supporters club. I'd not been impressed with the service when I went a couple of seasons ago to Blackpool in midweek. We'd made three stops at service stations and everything seemed to be for the convenience of the driver, rather than the people who were paying. To cap it all, we arrived just half an hour before the game with my pre-match pub plans ruined. To cap it all, rather than the coach company pay out for a breakdown van, we had to stay behind and jump-start the team coach and didn't leave until 11.15. All without a word of thanks or apology. The service was even worse this year with no phone bookings, payment upfront, no facilities on board the coach and the enforced wearing of masks. I understand that they want to keep people safe, but it all seemed a pretty grim experience, more suited to prisoners than football fans.

I wouldn't normally be keen on driving such a distance on a midweek day, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I had no problem filling a car with Anwar, Colin & Thomas electing to come with me. I made sure that pretty much all of my driving expenses were covered which is only fair when I'm doing all the work. Another spanner in the works was that you had to buy tickets in advance. This was only announced the Thursday before the game, just five days notice when they'd known about the game for two months. I was lucky enough to see it on social media, but the older folks who booked on the coach last Saturday, might not have that luxury. Despite most league clubs and even non-league teams in the eleventh tier offering online tickets or phone tickets, Wigan offered no such facility. It meant either going to the ground to pick tickets up or relying on a covid-hit postal service and all in all, the whole saga highlighted how fans are considered very little when decisions like this are made. I was seriously considering saying 'bollocks' to the whole thing and to going. However, Anwar offered to go from Aylesbury to the ground and get the tickets. I couldn't refuse after he made all that effort, as I didn't fancy yet another duty on top of my driving. There was a small bonus. Anwar usually gets a carers ticket for taking Thomas and I could do the same with Colin as he has a bus pass for his epilepsy. This meant that we paid £10 each after splitting the costs between us. And to be honest, a carer was exactly what I was for Colin, as much as I'm delighted to have him as my mate, he is hard work at times. I finalised the arrangements on Sunday evening, with the arrangements suiting all parties as my passengers wear paying less than they would on the coach.

 I did all my research in terms of the club's history for my blog in terms of the club's history for my blog on Sunday and Monday. It was a big undertaking with a lot of information to sort through. On the day of the game, I awoke at my usual work time. After reading the Daily Star in bed on my tablet, I got dressed and had some breakfast. I needed to get some energy drinks and cartons for the game, so I walked to town and back. It took around three and a half hours but at least I got some exercise. I came back and had a fish panini for lunch before taking a quick look at future possible games to do. I left at 1.40, picking up Colin, Thomas and Anwar along the way. It wasn't a great journey, taking five hours in all, the M6 being especially dreadful. Eventually, by 6.20 we were there though, parking up in Stanley Street. The delay put paid to my plans to call in at Warrington Rylands and Greenalls Padgate St Oswalds for pictures. We headed to the nearest takeaway, Alborz. It was a really friendly place and I had a large chilli burger and chips for £4.50. They even threw in a free can of Tango and it was all excellent. The locals were friendly too, but just after 7, we went into the ground. It felt like a new visit after 18 years away and it was an impressive venue. It was nice to catch up with some people that I'd missed at the last home game.

On the pitch was not great, but hard work earned us a draw. Wigan should have been about 4-0 up but a combination of stout defending and good luck ensured that the score remained 1-0, thanks to a goal shortly after halftime. As has happened so many times to us, we grabbed a last-minute equaliser thanks to a header by Anthony Stewart. It was a glorious feeling when the goal went in but it had been a tough 90 minutes to watch. It wasn't helped by the constant banging of the drum which drowned out any atmosphere. I was glad to be part of the 337 Chairboys that made the trip north, but it was time to head for home. What with the walk back to the car, we didn't get back until after 10. It was a long drive back and the M6 was in just as disgraceful form as it was on the way up. A couple of small closures caused chaos and resulted in an hours delay, all in all. Why these things are always handed in such a cack-handed fashion is beyond me. There were no signs other than a claim of 10 minutes delay on the overhead sign. This deliberate manufacturing of traffic jams can't be good for the environment and surely the dropping of the charge on the M6 Toll on nights when they want to fart about with the roads would be a sensible move. It meant that I didn't get in until 3 am, and I wasn't even tired. It wasn't good with me up at work at 6.50 when I couldn't get to sleep for an hour. I took a while to get going in the morning, only powered by energy drinks and caffeine tablets. I was just glad that I hadn't planned a game for Wednesday as a rest was just what I needed.

 

THE GROUND

THE DW STADIUM is named after the Wigan owner Dave Whelan. It was formerly known as the JJB Stadium, named after his sports shop chain. It's an all-seater stadium with all 4 stands the same size. Away fans are given the North Stand (capacity 5400), although when I went there, Wycombe fans were given a section of a stand along the side. Nearby is an ASDA and also a nearby pub, the Red Robin, though I am unsure what it is like as I have never been in.

2021 PICTURES