Every football fan must say it at the outset of every league campaign: "I will go to every game this season". Wigan Athletic-mad Martin Tarbuck nearly did it a couple of seasons ago until he overslept and missed the 7 am train to Brentford by six hours. But in season 2002-03, he managed it. And what a year to do it!
Wigan Athletic not only reached the quarter finals of the Worthington Cup, an unprecedented feat for the club, but also clinched promotion to Division One for the first time in its history. It was the stuff that dreams are made of (for Wigan Athletic fans, at least).
Along the way, he visited the true sporting amphitheatres of modern football - Boundary Park, Gresty Road, Ninian Park - and watched his team come out unscathed clutching three precious points. From Cheltenham to Cardiff, via Colchester, Crewe, Chesterfield and other sleepy towns which don't begin with C, it was a long, hard slog. From Plymouth to Peterborough, Wigan's travelling band of reprobates - nicknamed the "Mudhuts" - drank themselves silly and saluted their wonderful boys in blue.
After ten months, 67 games and several thousand miles in what was an historic season for Wigan Athletic, it seemed only natural to Martin Tarbuck to record it all for posterity's sake. The Four Seasons' hit "Let's Hang On" became the systematic anthem of Wigan Athletic fans throughout the 2002-03 season due to the team's ability to score a goal then defend their lead stoutly until the final whistle. In fact, Wigan Athletic and its supporters did more "hanging on" that season than the occupants of the monkey house at Chester Zoo.
Seen through the eyes of one of the club's staunchest supporters, "Let's Hang On" tells the story of the promotion-winning season. As well as cataloguing the action from an unforgettable campaign, it gives a flavour of the fun, passion and pressure that fans of the club experienced along the way.
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Click back shortly for a full review of the book, I'm currently upto November and can't put it down!!
Paul Farrington.