Report by SJG

FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION FOUR

YORK CITY vs WIGAN ATHLETIC

23^rd September 1978

AWAY DAY JOY AT BOOTHAM CRESCENT.

Wigan still were having problems trying to get all the paperwork through to finalise the signing of David Fretwell, so he was again not available for this trip to York. McNeil only made two changes to his starting XI, he rested Gillibrand and brought in the more combative Davids and Brownbill came in for Crompton.

The new centre back pairing coped well with the aerial threat posed by York forwards.

Wigan produced a dominant display, the defence looked well organised and struck up an instant rapport, Gore and Wright dictated in the middle of the park, and Brownbill looked lively in attack.

The Minstermen were restricted to only a handful of half chances over the ninety minutes. Latics in comparison always carried a threat and Brownbill nearly netted as early as the seventh minute.

Set pieces always looked threatening as Davids and Ward both headed narrowly wide of the target.

Half Time; York City 0-0 Wigan Athletic.

The second period saw Wigan continuing to press for the opening goal. They went very close when Moore produced a piece of trickery that released Gore into space wide on the right. The Wigan midfielder drilled a cross cum shot across the six-yard box but no-one could apply the vital final touch. Gore did net the winner on 77 minutes, Corrigan delivered a corner to the edge of the penalty area (either by design or otherwise), and Tommy ‘the tank’ GORE unleashed a thunderbolt shot that flew past the unsighted Neenan in the York City goal.

York responded and threw players forward as they chased a leveller. At one stage the home side forced four consecutive corners, but the Wigan defence was in no mood to let the points slip and they dug in to ensure that the points came back over the Pennines and Latics recorded their first away win.

Full Time; York City 0-1 Wigan Athletic.

Attendance; 3,307

Scorers; Gore (77);

Team; WIGAN—Brown; Smart, Davids, Ward, Hinnigan; Corrigan, Wright, Gore, Purdie; Brownbill, Moore; Sub not used; Wilkie;

YORK CITY—Neenan; Scott, Kay, Collier, Faulkner; Clements, Young, Stronach, Staniforth; Loggie, Randall; Sub; Walsh (for Scott);

Referee; Mr, D. Richardson.

Wigans victory at York had highlighted a serious issue with the balance of the team. Despite dominating for long periods Wigan failed to capitalise with goals to underpin that dominance. Derek Brownbill should hopefully hit the ground running and provide some of the missing end product. However, Moore had yet to find the net and was finding himself playing in a deeper role than in his previous spell with Latics.

Everyone was waiting anxiously for the return to fitness of Peter Houghton to end the goal drought, but there was bad news on that front as the injured wrist showed no sign of improvement and a specialist opinion had been sought resulting in a new casting being applied to the arm.

Wigan now faced a trip down to the South coast to take on fifth place Portsmouth.

Latics named an unchanged side as they looked to build on their impressive away win at York.

Youngster Tony Quinn had netted a hat-trick for the reserves in a 5-0 rout of Bradford City Reserves at Springfield Park, but the striker would have to bide his time before he finally gets his chance in the first team.  Ian Gillibrand and Alan Crompton (who also netted for the reserves) had also now fully recovered from injury but would have to wait for their chance to impress.

David Fretwell, meanwhile still cannot be included after signing on trial as the release forms had still not been received.

The US side, California Sunshiners, are keen to keep hold of Fretwell and want him to return to the States for the start of their next league season in March.  This news came as a shock to Ian McNeill and Dave Fretwell himself as they both believed the contract to be terminated and thought the ex-Bradford City man was a free agent.