Praise The Lord

Tonight, at last, we get down to the business end of the season. Forget all those high falutin', multi millionaires of Citeh, The Scousers and The Arse, here is where we have to nail our colours to the mast and show the rest of the Premier League, and those naysayers in the press (yes, Stanley Victor Collymore, I am looking at you and if you don't come out with the most humble of humble pies at the end of the season, being caught in a car park by the rozzers, doing whatever people of your intelligence do, will be the least of your problems. I am already thinking gaffer tape, strapped to a chair, whilst Big Duncan from Fort William, who has not had a man for twelve years because they don't do that kind of thing up there, takes all his frustration out on you with a soldering iron and twelve pints of Heavy), exactly why we poached Burnley's manager. The performances have been good and have managed to incline certain members of Her Majesty's press to remark, somewhat begrudgingly in some cases, that things might have changed. However, playing better and losing is all well and good, it does not put points on the table.

Which leads me onto the game tonight at our nearest and dearest Woolyback friends from the whatdoyoucallit stadium. Neither having the time, inclination nor care to see which way Wigan have been playing recently, the only thing I can say with certainty is that whatever way they are playing it isn't getting them many points. Apparently, according to one Wigan blog, it's been going long, thereby bypassing a pitch that has started to be cut up by the use of both Athletic and the town's team that play the girls version of rugby. And if they are going long, what better team to smack them down than the masters of long ball football. However, they don't play Spurs until the weekend.

Talking to the crapwebsite, Stefan, who has been appearing too much in the press recently, like he thinks he's a regular team member or something, says

I'm expecting that it will be an end-to-end game, but not too open. Hopefully we will come away with three points.

Nothing like trying to tear the neutrals away from Midsomer Murders.

For Bolton, only Zat gives cause for concern and that is a different kind of concern than he used to give us. Apart from the long term injuries, Cahill (clot), Kidneys (calf) and The Badger (like I care), the problem that forced Zat off at the weekend may cause him to miss tonight, leaving AOB to partner Not Mike. Apparently Tamir is pressing for a return to the team, but let's hope he only presses himself between two others on the subs bench. For Wigan, McCarthy is rated at 50/50 whilst Moses and Moreno, which sounds like a firm of Jewish solicitors, are pressing for a game. Man for man, we should beat them, but that makes me sound like a Spurs fan. But I expect a win, simply because we are now eternal optomists.

And, even though I only said it half jokingly, I am not surprised to see what is becoming a daily update on Gary "Gaz" Cahill, this time in the BEN. Apparently he had a blood clot. What, you didn't know?

I will see you tomorrow on the other side of three points. Until then, he had to split.