FOR a change, we treated ourselves to lunch in the Harvester where the discussions were about a tight game in prospect, with the game probably being decided by a goal either way.

The Latics are on the up again after their new investment and recruitment during the summer, after five years in the financial doldrums.

There was concern about who our missing injured players were, but the Wanderers squad should be strong enough to cover them.

Our exit from the Harvester was briefly halted as the police chaperoned the hordes of Wigan fans from the station to the stadium. It was good to feel the big match atmosphere again at the Unibol with both sets of fans up for the pies-pasties derby with another 20,000+ crowd expected.

As it turned out, Ian Evatt was forced into making four changes with Amadou Bakayoko, Harry Brockbank, Liam Gordon and Josh Sheehan coming into the team. With what followed I am genuinely struggling to comprehend and to find 400 words that will get printed in a family newspaper.

We were awful and Wigan were very good, with the 4-0 scoreline not flattering them in any way. The whole team had an off day as we were out pressed, outplayed and as I hate to say it, outclassed. This humiliating defeat hurts, more so for it was against our current closest rivals. To compound what was already a bad day, our misguided missile throwing idiots will probably land us with a financial penalty which we can ill afford.

Not to be outdone, some of the away fans thought it was a good idea to dismantle the ground, starting with the advertising hoardings.

It is impossible to take anything positive and we must accept that this was a reality check, big style. It showed very clearly the tasks ahead and strongly reinforced that we are a developing team in-progress.

We are not going to romp this league. Indeed, the first priority has to be establishing ourselves in this league. There is a lot of hard work to be done. However, we must not let one bad performance undermine the excellent progress that has been made over the past 12 months.

We are one club, one community and one town. We must endure the disappointments together as we enjoy the successes together. Today was a big setback but let us keep it in proportion.