Pies to Wigan

I was sitting in the stand at Wigan Robin Park, whom Prescot Cables were visiting for their first midweek pre season game, munching the snack I had bought in Liverpool, when I realised the incongruity of my position. I had come to Wigan, and brought my own pie. Not that I would imagine many bakers would have been open at 7pm, and as the humidity meant a downhill walk from the station to the ground was unpleasant enough, I would not have been inclined to go looking for any. It was an evening, at least in the early part, where the conditions make you glad you are not playing.

The club play at the Robin Park Arena, part of a sports complex next to the DW Stadium, the home of Wigan Athletic FC and Wigan Warriors Rugby League Club. The arena is a full athletics stadium, with an 8 lane running track, the normal installations for field events, and a decent sized stand.

I have never worked out what the gates are for on the enclosure, as they do not seem to be at an angle that would catch any hammer or discus accidentally released in the wrong direction that would not have been caught by the fence. It was, however at a very convenient location to reduce the time needed to retrieve stray balls.

Brown is not a common colour for football kits, with the only clubs I can think of off the top of my head who use a significant amount of the colour being Corinthian-Casuals and FC St Pauli of Hamburg - even Sutton United seem to have reduced the amount of one of their traditional colours to trim on an otherwise yellow kit. So, a brown kit with a red front to go with the name would have been too much to hope for, but in line with many modern kits, they have a plain red back.

I fully agree with having a plain panel on the back of a striped shirt, as it makes it easier to read the numbers, but I have never been keen on the front and back of the shirt being a completely different pattern.

Having full athletics facilities makes it difficult to find a vantage point close to the pitch. By the stand, you are looking across a running track and a long jump pit. Behind the goal, the curve of the track takes you away from the action. So, I went for a position opposite the stand, by the hedge, where the midges live, and where I found ... another long jump pit.

The lights were designed to illuminate the track, with three pylons along each side and three on each curve, which, when it was time for them to come on, made for well illuminated wings, being fairly evenly lit  all along, with the darker patches in the middle of the pitch. I am not sure whether they use the stadium for field events at night, the light looked good enough for safety, but I am not convinced about measurement, particularly with a discus that bounces when it hits the ground.

I like to include the ball in an action shot (as distinct from a portrait), but I sometimes wonder how far away the ball can be from the players and still make for a good shot. When players are chasing a distant ball, we can get away with quite a distance.

I am not sure how much you can get away with when it is a header and still give the sense of what has happened - I put this picture in the published collection, so viewers can judge for themselves.

The rest of the pictures from the game can be seen here.