The Billy Boston stand

Quote: Phil-P "It's the football manager breed of supporter who clearly have no idea about football or it's "working class" roots. What really does amuse me is that a large proprotion of the shallow w@nkers who support Wigan Ath (this does not include those who followed the club for years in the lower reaches and who also watch both Wigan Ath & Wigan RL) don't realise that without Whelan they would still be in the lower divisions at Springfield Park playing in front of 3-4k. They don't actually realise that Wigan RL would still be the number 1 team in the town with or without Whelan.'"

I agree absolutely. Alot of them are totally deluded about the role Wigan RL play in this town. The above quotes hint at a weird belief that Wigan RL has only been allowed to exist as some kind of financial crutch for Wigan Athletic.

Where they've got this idea from I don't know - their own home attendances are not brilliant, and if (when?) they get relegated, I'd imagine they'll drop through the floor, making a Latics-only JJB Stadium into a complete white elepant.

But aside from that, they've been lulled into believing football's self-serving publicity. It is the biggest game in the world, no doubt. But it isn't the biggest game in Wigan. Confident assertions by some Latics fans that professional RL in Wigan would disappear when Latics reached the Championship, then when they reached the Premiership, then when they survived their first year in the Premiership, then when they finally cemented themsleves into the Premiership for good - have all proved to be well wide of the mark. Morever, Wigan's new deal with the JJB making it our home for the next 50 years, has enraged a lot of them, who simply can't understand that, in the one town in GB where football isn't thrust down everyone's throats at the expense of all other sports, a large percentage opt to watch something else.

As long as Latics fans continue to foolishly imagine that it's only a matter of time before some kind of football-driven 'natural order' leads to the demise of Wigan RL, they'll continue to suffer huge disappointments like this.

They ought to wait and see what happens if Wigan get to Wembley again. The town will go cherry and white mad - just at the moment when Latics are launching their new season.