Wigan Athletic’s players, manager and staff celebrated a victorious season as champions-elect of League One on the Bloomfield Road pitch. They were joined by the chairman whose achievement may be the most remarkable aspect of all.
Alongside the familiar figure of Dave Whelan, the club’s patriarchal and sometimes controversial owner, now 79 and tanned from the Barbados sun, stood his smiling grandson, David Sharpe, at 24 the youngest chairman in British professional football.
When Whelan stepped down barely a year ago, his decision to appoint Sharpe, who had joined the Wigan board three months earlier, as his successor, raised eyebrows outside the club. Sharpe’s early assertion that Wigan would “smash” League One seemed a tad unwise too, after a second, troubled relegation for the 2013 FA Cup winners.
Yet on Saturday, Wigan should be confirmed as the title winners after their home game against Barnsley, given that Burton Albion, three points behind, have a vastly inferior goal difference. Wigan have scored 81 goals, losing six games from 45 — a smashing record indeed.
The intense disappointment of relegation from the Barclays Premier League under Roberto Martínez, who won the FA Cup but could not preserve their status in 2013, was followed by three managers — Owen Coyle, Uwe Rösler and Malky Mackay — failing in their attempts to steady the ship before Sharpe turned to Gary Caldwell, the 34-year-old former captain and centre half.
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Wigan-born with a business degree from Oxford Brookes University, Sharpe has invested shrewdly — Will Grigg, who cost about £1 million from Brentford, is the division’s leading goalscorer with 27 goals — while valuing the local connection; Caldwell’s assistant, Graham Barrow, is a dyed-in-the-wool Wigan stalwart who was fired as manager by Whelan in 1995, and goalkeeping coach Mike Pollitt has been at the club since 2005.
“We have to do everything to be ready for the Championship, but we’ve started that process as of three months ago,” Sharpe said. “I knew in my head we were the best team in the league and we would go up. Hopefully next season we’ll continue the good times. We’ll assess things in the summer, but I believe in this group of players.”
Business was for another day, though, as he joined in the euphoria after second-half goals from Chris McCann, Yanic Wildschut with two, and Grigg gave the 3,000 travelling fans the celebration for which they had made the short journey to the coast. “It’s unbelievable. It’s a special day. It will live long in the memory,” said Sharpe. Later, poignantly, he tweeted: “When I was 12 my dad passed away, he was in line to be the next chairman of this club, today was for you dad!!”
Duncan Sharpe, who had been treated for depression, was found dead in 2002.
Blackpool, relegated alongside Wigan last season, were the better side for an hour but will be heading the other way if their neighbours, Fleetwood Town, can manage a point from their two remaining games against Walsall, tonight, and Crewe Alexandra, who are already relegated, on Sunday. “It’s maybe been the story of our season,” said Jim McAlister, the Blackpool midfielder. “You can look over so many games, we’ve dominated but not taken our chances and been sucker-punched.”
Teams
Blackpool (4-3-1-2): C Doyle — H White, T Aldred, C Robertson, L Higham — B Potts, L Smith (sub: U Ikpeazu, 72min), J McAlister — J Redshaw (sub: M Paterson, 64) — D Philliskirk, M Cullen (sub: J Blyth, 53). Substitutes not used: K Letheren, E Boyce, D Norris, M Yeates.
Wigan Athletic (3-4-2-1): J Jaaskelainen — D Daniels, C Morgan, S Warnock — R Wabara (sub: J Pearce, 78), S Morsy (sub: Y Wildschut, 38), D Perkins, C McCann — M Jacobs 6 (sub: C McAleny, 65), M Power — W Grigg. Substitutes not used: L Nicholls, A Kellett, R Colclough, H Vuckic.