Now, adding this link isn't to fuel a 10page petty argument about the good and bad points of the two sporting clubs of Wigan I'm genuinly interesting in the origin of individuals dislike (some say hatred) towards the lot that we share the PieDome with... Mine, is a personal 'hatred'... Long story But stumbling across this blog, got me wondering what's the opinion of the origin of the dislike? The suggestion it's spawned from the ground ownership issue is mad isn't it?! What's your opinion on this: bolton66.blogspot.com/2011/04/wi ... -town.html Ps. Don't think the author is me by putting the 'bowtun' in my name and 'bolton' in the authors name lol I found it on twitter via other Bwfc supporters living in Wigan! I haven't posted to 'stoke the fire'

Now, adding this link isn't to fuel a 10page petty argument about the good and bad points of the two sporting clubs of Wigan I'm genuinly interesting in the origin of individuals dislike (some say hatred) towards the lot that we share the PieDome with... Mine, is a personal 'hatred'... Long story But stumbling across this blog, got me wondering what's the opinion of the origin of the dislike? The suggestion it's spawned from the ground ownership issue is mad isn't it?! What's your opinion on this: bolton66.blogspot.com/2011/04/wi ... -town.html Ps. Don't think the author is me by putting the 'bowtun' in my name and 'bolton' in the authors name lol I found it on twitter via other Bwfc supporters living in Wigan! I haven't posted to 'stoke the fire'

It's the extreme that annoys me. I know some people who are so biased towards the Latics (God knows why) that it's unreal, they've gone to the extent of attacking RL fans. I could name the people who vandalized the road signs at the end of this season.

Harmless banter is nothing, it's obviously going to happen between two clubs in the top flights of their sports. It's when it gets personal and destructive to the town and its reputation that the problem comes.

My dislike is quite petty really. A few mates support the latics and I have to put up with so much anti-wigan RL rubbish from them and other latics fans thats hard to be the bigger man and let it wash over. A couple of Whelen's decisions and the fuss made over our "champions" sign havent helped either.

It started in 2006 for me, they were on the up and we were on our way down. The abuse I got at school etc. was awful.... I remember walking through ashton in my Wigan shirt and latics fans shouting and swearing at me.... "you f*cking pr*ck, going down you b*st*rds...."

The arrogance of their fans throughout that time did my head in.... I hated it.... they thought they ruled the town....

I hate that we share a ground in many ways and it was the final straw for me when Whelen kicked us out of the stadium in 2008... horrific experience which should never happen again, although we proved what a great set of fans we are by going to Widnes and being loud and proud! We got loads of stick for that as well which was not nice....

They hate the success we have had in the past and NOW.... they can't accept that we are the big boys of the town... I found the spray paint pretty funny to be honest..... I loved that we got to them that much....

I will look at the result next weekend for them against Blackpool and I will smile if they lose because it will be pretty certain they will go down and I hope they do... but I am not going to celebrate it and I won't be too bothered if they stay up because eventually they will end up in League 1 which is their level.

I didn't even know this town had a football team untill I got to high school in 2002.

Mr Birchall (my old rugby coach from Deanery, he is a bit of a legend) summed up the split quite well to me one day at Robin Park...... he said go down to football and rugby pitches all around Wigan on a sunday morning and you will see the football pitches surrounded by the coaches and the subs..... the rugby pitches will be surrounded by all the families of the players will often hundreds watch small games, the town loves rugby...... In year 7 at school I played in the English schools cup semi-final for Deanery at St Pats against St Augustine.... we lost but there was hundreds watching, literally hundreds.... Andy Farrell, Kris Radlinski and many other Wigan players and legends were there to watch..... Andy Greg came into the dressing room before the game..... that was only a School game and yet so many people got behind that team because it was rugby. Things like that sum up the passion for the game in this town.

lol, Mr B was also my coach/teacher at the Deanery (and yes, he is a bit of a Leg). He led our team of "odds and sods" to a good few years of success against quite a few future stars of SL who, on paper, should have had us bang to rights.

As for the RL/FC rivalry, it was bad when I was at school in the 90s when latics had barely begun their journey out of the 3rd Div or whatever it was. I think the rivalry has become worse with their success though.

Personally I'm not fussed. If latics do well then good for them. It's the fans that are the problem, and of course not all of them are.

I haven't really had any strong feelings against the football, I don't like the sport that much in general to watch but always enjoyed playing.

However, since the ground share we get to hear/have:

1) It's a rugby town - winds up the football supporters
2) Pitch is ruined because of the rugby before the RL season has started
3) Major RL games moved because of the football
4) Corp - the players used to mingle with the fans freely, last time I went I barely saw a player. This is since the Player's Bar was introduced.

Now, I don't see any of the items above were caused by RL but it doesn't help to narrow the divide. Throw in ML's comments about the football and the like to make things worse.

to be fair my hatered for them is just because they spout off so much rubbish about the warriors its unreal.
i was even starting to become a fan years and years ago when they where still in the second division untill they atarted saying all the crap like we make the pitch bad and that we have to move our games and that we are the most insinificat sport in the world.
in fact 90% of why i hate the latics is the arrogance of football in general.
and the fact that one year i went to the latics and said i was a massive warriors fan and ended up with stiches in my head

Like teams and people in SL (Kear Schofield etc etc) they all got bitter and jealous at our domination of the sport in the 80s so revelled in when we were in a slump a few years ago. For the Latics it coincided with them being on the up and playing above their level. Their 'success' did suck a few fans away from us and I must confess on here I even bought a season ticket for them ( in addition to the RL one I hasten to add!!!!) I never supported them, bought a shirt, cheered for them (except v United) I just went to see would class players plying their trade in Wigan such as Ronaldo, Edgar Davids, Fabregas Gerard.

I feel better now getting that dirty secret that I have harboured for years off my chest! But I bet I am not the only one? But we did boost their crowds to record levels

Anyhow even through Latics 'success' in the PL how many homegrown players have they fielded? Answer - not a lot, majority are Africans and journeymen. How many have we fielded? Answer - too many to list, why? Because it is a rugby town, end of.

I didn't even know Wigan had a football team until I was about 10. When I was 11 or 12 I was walking home from a rugby game with my Wigan shirt on, and a group of Latics fans were giving me all kinds of abuse, telling me to f**k off and calling me a scummy egg chasing b**t*rd.

The Latics never get to me much in the same way Wire don't. I've grown up with them beneath us in my opinion and I still see them that way. I actually feel sorry for them that they can't find a rival within their own sport and get embarrassed by Wigan fans who stoop to their level of bitterness.

Quite simply look no further than here for a reason the two towns teams dont get on; www.cockneylatic.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=6 Classic inferiority complex - You would expect a team threatened with relegation to be talking about their team, but no, there is literally more than 50% of the posts on this board that are Wigan RLFC related. To them we're 'chubsters', 'fatty gravey stained elgren mongs' (love this one - who has seen anyone wearing anything with elgren on for 20 years), and we all come from 'scholes / whelley or somewhere out of town'. This depsite the fact latics are known for having a large spectator base from the surrounding areas of wigan rather than wigan itself,such as Skem, St Helens, Warrington! They're that pathetic there is even a thread on there where they talk about Billy Boston as 'Billy Bostock'! This to me sums them up - 99.9% of the population of wigan know who Billy Boston is even if you are not a rugby fan due to his presence in the town, yet 100s of the tics fans will pretend they dont know who he is by deliberately mis-spelling his name and pretending they have never heard of him. such is their inferiority complex they pretend not to know these things to try and convince themseves that rugby is of no significance in this town. I know a few latics fans that aren't like this and so wouldnt want to generalise them all, but the truth is, and the truth behind the animosity is, 90% of latics fans are braindead morons!!

Quite simply look no further than here for a reason the two towns teams dont get on; www.cockneylatic.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=6 Classic inferiority complex - You would expect a team threatened with relegation to be talking about their team, but no, there is literally more than 50% of the posts on this board that are Wigan RLFC related. To them we're 'chubsters', 'fatty gravey stained elgren mongs' (love this one - who has seen anyone wearing anything with elgren on for 20 years), and we all come from 'scholes / whelley or somewhere out of town'. This depsite the fact latics are known for having a large spectator base from the surrounding areas of wigan rather than wigan itself,such as Skem, St Helens, Warrington! They're that pathetic there is even a thread on there where they talk about Billy Boston as 'Billy Bostock'! This to me sums them up - 99.9% of the population of wigan know who Billy Boston is even if you are not a rugby fan due to his presence in the town, yet 100s of the tics fans will pretend they dont know who he is by deliberately mis-spelling his name and pretending they have never heard of him. such is their inferiority complex they pretend not to know these things to try and convince themseves that rugby is of no significance in this town. I know a few latics fans that aren't like this and so wouldnt want to generalise them all, but the truth is, and the truth behind the animosity is, 90% of latics fans are braindead morons!!

Its typical small town mentality, where the gene pool is a tad on the shallow side, and simply highlights the dangers of marrying yer cousin!

Just leave the Royal Family out of this, Big sh...City Boy.