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Jay Spearing hopes that a spot of dressing room player power could prove the decisive moment in this season for Wanderers.
Not 10 minutes after the final whistle blew on a defeat against Huddersfield Town last week, the midfielder revealed how players called an in-house meeting to immediately address what went wrong.
An eight-game unbeaten streak had evaporated into back-to-back defeats, and suddenly the negativity that had hung around the Reebok in the first couple of months of the campaign looked to have resurfaced again.
But on the evidence of Wanderers’ next outing against Doncaster, a 3-0 win that could and perhaps should have been more emphatic, the summit meeting worked a treat.
Now, Spearing is looking for that moment to be a pivotal point in what he still thinks should be a push towards the top six.
“I’m not one for looking at the table, in fact I’ve avoided it since the start of the season,” said the Wanderers on-field skipper. “I don’t see the point in looking at the league until you’re closing down on the final games.
“But we had kicked on well until that blip and we knew, we all knew, every one of us, that we hadn’t played well, so before the gaffer had even got into the dressing room we got together and started talking.
“We said ‘listen lads, that wasn’t who we are, we know we are so much better than that.’ “The gaffer was there for some of it but we all agreed. I think everyone knew it had to be rectified, and it was, so now it’s up to us to kick on and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Quite what kind of Wigan side Wanderers will come up against will not be apparent until tomorrow afternoon, with little deduced from the Latics’ midweek Europa League exit to Maribor in Slovenia.
Uwe Rosler has hinted he may return to the possession-based football favoured by Roberto Martinez, rather than the fast and furious stuff preferred by Owen Coyle.
But Spearing is confident no matter what gets served up in the derby, that his team can adapt.
“Every team in this league seems to play a different way and are hard to play against in their own way but we need to concentrate on ourselves,” he said.
“When we do that, we think we can beat every single one of them.
“They brought in a lot of players in the summer and probably like ourselves haven’t hit the sort of form they would have wanted to.
“It’s a derby so the lads are looking forward to getting the game started well and putting them under pressure.
“There might be a bit of mystery in what team they are playing and what formation they are in but we need to force our gameplan on them.”
The absence of Coyle in the opposing dugout does take the edge off proceedings for the observer but within the camp at Euxton yesterday, little time was spent discussing the former boss, sacked a fortnight ago.
“It wouldn’t matter if he (Coyle) was there, or not, we wouldn’t be treating them any differently,” Spearing noted. “You play for 90 minutes and try to get the three points. After that you can chat and be friends.
“But I don’t think it’s for me to say what went on or whether he got enough time.
“We don’t know the ins and outs of it – so all we can do is try to concentrate on what we are doing in this game.”
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Not 10 minutes after the final whistle blew on a defeat against Huddersfield Town last week, the midfielder revealed how players called an in-house meeting to immediately address what went wrong.
An eight-game unbeaten streak had evaporated into back-to-back defeats, and suddenly the negativity that had hung around the Reebok in the first couple of months of the campaign looked to have resurfaced again.
But on the evidence of Wanderers’ next outing against Doncaster, a 3-0 win that could and perhaps should have been more emphatic, the summit meeting worked a treat.
Now, Spearing is looking for that moment to be a pivotal point in what he still thinks should be a push towards the top six.
“I’m not one for looking at the table, in fact I’ve avoided it since the start of the season,” said the Wanderers on-field skipper. “I don’t see the point in looking at the league until you’re closing down on the final games.
“But we had kicked on well until that blip and we knew, we all knew, every one of us, that we hadn’t played well, so before the gaffer had even got into the dressing room we got together and started talking.
“We said ‘listen lads, that wasn’t who we are, we know we are so much better than that.’ “The gaffer was there for some of it but we all agreed. I think everyone knew it had to be rectified, and it was, so now it’s up to us to kick on and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Quite what kind of Wigan side Wanderers will come up against will not be apparent until tomorrow afternoon, with little deduced from the Latics’ midweek Europa League exit to Maribor in Slovenia.
Uwe Rosler has hinted he may return to the possession-based football favoured by Roberto Martinez, rather than the fast and furious stuff preferred by Owen Coyle.
But Spearing is confident no matter what gets served up in the derby, that his team can adapt.
“Every team in this league seems to play a different way and are hard to play against in their own way but we need to concentrate on ourselves,” he said.
“When we do that, we think we can beat every single one of them.
“They brought in a lot of players in the summer and probably like ourselves haven’t hit the sort of form they would have wanted to.
“It’s a derby so the lads are looking forward to getting the game started well and putting them under pressure.
“There might be a bit of mystery in what team they are playing and what formation they are in but we need to force our gameplan on them.”
The absence of Coyle in the opposing dugout does take the edge off proceedings for the observer but within the camp at Euxton yesterday, little time was spent discussing the former boss, sacked a fortnight ago.
“It wouldn’t matter if he (Coyle) was there, or not, we wouldn’t be treating them any differently,” Spearing noted. “You play for 90 minutes and try to get the three points. After that you can chat and be friends.
“But I don’t think it’s for me to say what went on or whether he got enough time.
“We don’t know the ins and outs of it – so all we can do is try to concentrate on what we are doing in this game.”
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