Survival Sunday

Survival Sunday. The day when my season-long bet of Wigan to be relegated finally gave up its fight and resigned us all to another season of nothingness from one of the Premier League’s 20 teams. A team that loses the first two matches 4-0 and 6-0 and that occupied the relegation zone for the majority of the season had no right to finish 16^th. Today my mum brought a fantastic lamb dinner to the table with all the trimmings. Had it have been Wigan, they’d have brought an empty gravy jug; that’s the extent to what they bring to the table.

Wigan have never been relegated from the top flight of football; and I’ll take great credit for that as any team I bet against tends to slap me in the face, and Hugo Rodellega was the designated slapper today. A massive afternoon; five teams fighting to stay in the world’s greatest league. You’d think that Wigan’s fans would turn up in force and cheer on their boys then, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately though it seems only two mini-buses were available in the Wigan area today to provide transport to the Britannia Stadium. A pitiful support numbers wise, but one should not be surprised if their home attendances are anything to go by. Credit to Roberto Martinez and the players though; they saved their first back-to-back wins in over 70 matches for exactly the right time. Surely though the Premiership would benefit from proper football clubs being in the Premiership. Clubs such as Derby, Leeds, Forest, both Sheffield Clubs, AFC Wimbledon and Accrington Stanley amongst others would undoubtedly bring more to the Premiership than Wigan do. But still, they are in the Premiership for another season because they did what was required, and Dave Whelan’s loyalty and investment has paid off again.

Everyone associated with Birmingham City must be kicking themselves, or at least cursing if they decide against self harming. Wojciech Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny got together at Wembley in late February and in an unprecedented act of niceness, decided to hand Birmingham the Carling Cup, and with it what should have been a comfortable end to the season. But Birmingham obviously didn’t fancy it and got themselves relegated today. The mind boggles. Despite Wolves being in the best position to stay up at the start of the day, they decided they fancied a flirt with relegation and let Blackburn score three times without reply. “Oh dear chaps, you have been terribly unlucky” is a phrase I expect Mick McCarthy didn’t use at half time. Blackpool, the nations second favourite team (unofficially and without considering Preston North End fans), got everyone’s hopes up by first equalising and then taking the lead at Old Trafford. A sarcastic chant of “We’ll only get 10 points” echoed throughout Old Trafford, in reference to people thinking they’d eclipse a certain teams lowest points total. Sadly though, their players then started playing like they had 10 points as Manchester United scored goals at ease. Ian Holloway’s fantastic interviews will be saved for the Championship next season and the league will be better for it.  In truth it was an afternoon that left me constantly thinking “Come on guys, playing at Pride Park next season will be lovely for you, but you might as well try and stay up”.

Whilst all the drama was cracking off, West Ham were quietly showcasing how bad they have been this season by losing 3-0 at home to Sunderland. Stephen Hunt’s late goal ensured Wolves stayed up. A last-gasp Roman Pavlyuchenko goal at White Hart Lane then confirmed to the Molineux faithful that, with regret, they would not be playing at Pride Park next season, although the thought of playing in Derby next season must be a consolation to the Birmingham fans on their journey back from the capital to the second city. So another season of the Premiership done. United worthy champions (for the 19th time, did you know?!), West Ham worthy losers. Wigan, well, come next week people in the Lancashire town will perhaps find out their team survived a 6^th season.