The DW Stadium

Saturday, 30 March 2013

Wigan Athletic 1-0 Norwich City

Aerial shot of the DW Stadium (Bing Maps)

Programme - £3.00

Ratings
Overall Ground Quality : 8/10
Ease of getting there : 8/10
Atmosphere : 6/10
Programme : 9/10
View of Action : 7/10
Quality of the game : 4/10
The "football" feeling : 6/10
Chances of coming here for a random game : 2/10
Legroom : 8/10
Surrounding area : 8/10

Overall : 66/100

Approaching the DW Stadium

Springfield Stand (West)

North Stand

Boston Stand (East)

Springfield Stand (West) and South Stand

Springfield Stand (West)

South Stand

Boston Stand (East)

North Stand

Springfield Stand (West)

North Stand

Boston Stand (East)

Springfield Stand (West)

North Stand

Boston Stand (East)

Springfield Stand (West)

North Stand

Boston Stand (East)

FT Wigan Athletic 1-0 Norwich City

Wigan Athletic 1-0 Norwich City

Following a disappointing 1-0 defeat for Leicester City who played Millwall the night previous our focus was now turned to our next ground hop, the DW Stadium.

We left the East Midlands at 8:30am and took the M1 before going across the snow covered Peak District on 'Snake Pass'. We reached Mossley at 10:30am. Mossley play at Seel Park which can hold up to 4,000 supporters. They have been at Seel Park since 1912 and since then, Seel Park has seen some history. Mossley has produced the likes of Eamonn O'Keefe who eventually made the jump from non-league football to Division 1 Everton! Mossley have had few good runs in the FA Vase and also the FA Cup and have beaten Crewe Alexandra at home 1-0.

We decided to make a last minute decision to visit Chadderton which paid off with the very kind hospitality they offered us*. Chadderton have produced many well-known players including former England captain David Platt, Former Leeds United and Crystal Palace player, John Pemberton and Northern Ireland International, Steve Jones. Even the likes of Mark Owen of Take That have pulled on a Chadderton jersey! (*- We would like to thank Chadderton for their lovely cup of tea and biscuit which we really appreciated, many thanks!)

We continued our journey to Wigan and parked on Hamilton Square which is just off Laithwaite Road at 12:45pm.

From there we made the short walk to Robin Park (where the stadium is situated). We ate at the Canary filled ‘Red Robin’ (Pardon the pun) which is a 2 for £10 pub.

After we ate our lunch, we walked to the DW Stadium where we took some photos and then ask a jobsworth if we could take some photos inside yet sadly he declined (If only everyone was like the people of Chadderton FC!).

We then visited Robin Park Arena which is the home of Wigan Robin Park. Formed in 2005 and play at the 1,200 seated Robin Park Arena, they are currently (at the time of writing) in the North West Counties Premier Division following a promotion from Division 1 the previous season.

Back to the DW Stadium, the stadium was opened in 1999 originally named the JJB Stadium before a name change in 2009. The stadium was built by Alfred McAlpine and completed in August 1999. Wigan Warriors moved to the stadium a month after it opened, once they had played their final home game of the 1999 regular season at Central Park. The first away team to win a competitive football match at the stadium was actually....Wigan Athletic. A first round FA Cup tie against non-league Cambridge City was played there due to City's ground being deemed unsuitable to host the tie. Wigan played in their changed strip and used the away dressing room since it was technically a 'home' game for Cambridge City. A Stuart Barlow brace secured the win for Wigan. Its current capacity is 25,138—seated in four single-tier stands—and its record attendance was in 2008 when 25,133 people watched Wigan Athletic play Manchester United in the title-deciding match of the 2007–08 Premier League season.

A dull game which eventually saw Arouna Kone score a late winner which moved Wigan out of the Premier League's bottom three and left Norwich only four points above the relegation zone.

On Howard Webb's final whistle, we quickly ran out the ground back to the car and onto the M6 just after 5pm. We were home by 7pm.

Stat of the day... both Adrian and I have seen the two FA Cup Semi Finalists play in less than 24 hours! – Millwall against Leicester on Friday night and then Wigan vs Norwich on Saturday afternoon....a stat even Dan Walker of BBC Football would enjoy!