You only have to cast your mind back to the final day of January this year to recall this fixture from last season, which is useful as it allows me to showcase a nifty little feature of the blog. If you click on the ‘last match’ or ‘next match’ links in the sidebar on the right you will be taken to all the content I have for that game. That might contain previews, reviews, wallpapers, videos, basically anything and everything on the site. That includes the same fixture, if it exists, from previous seasons too.

Check it out, click on Aston Villa vs Wigan and you’ll be shown a summary of the posts relating to that match. At the moment that will be this one and the review of the last game in January, but by this time next week a bit more content will be returned. You can then expand any post by clicking on its headline and further expand it to read any comments. You can expand and contract all the found posts to navigate to the content you’re looking for.

So, if you do go back to check out the review from January you’ll be reminded that Wigan came to Villa Park at an interesting time. We were in a fairly rich vein of form, unbeaten in the league for 11 games, despite the previous game being a less than convincing 1-0 at Fratton Park. We were also finding out how Villa performed without Ashley Young, who was suspended. That gave cause for concern, it had to be admitted.

Nonetheless, Wigan came with the hope that an all out defense might allow them to leave with a point and Bruce’s plan paid off, although there was a fair degree of fortune on his side. I wouldn’t call it an onslaught, but Villa threw a lot at Wigan who were playing with three centre halves. Several goal line clearances kept them in it while Friedel was barely involved.

I don’t want to overstate it, but it was one of those frustrating games where Villa did everything but score and thoroughly deserved to win. It just didn’t happen. That happens to all teams at some time or another. There’s no doubt that Wigan left very, very pleased with their point.

This was also the game that a section of the home support allowed their inner moron to take over and booed their own team. Yes, yes, I’ve heard the defense that they were actually booing the referee, but I don’t buy that. Even if it were the case, it’s largely irrelevant as MON’s reaction made it absolutely clear who he thought the booing was aimed at.

I don’t want to make any tenuous links as there were many factors that contributed to the team’s awful end of season form. This game wasn’t even the turning point, but it was certainly the gateway to the turning point, if you can pinpoint such a thing. All I’ll say, with all the pressure of the competitions that Villa were still involved in at the time and the record equaling unbeaten league run, was the booing helpful, or unhelpful? That’s a rhetorical question by the way, the answer should be obvious.

If this fixture was an important element of last season, it was even more important the season before. Just briefly; you’ll hopefully remember that there were two games left, Villa were still chasing hard for 5th place, which would turn out to be the final automatic qualification for the UEFA Cup. The side were on fire, coming off the back of thrashing Bolton and Derby and, of course, the glorious 5-1 destruction of the scum. Liverpool’s season, on the other hand, was over. They were destined to finish in fourth regardless of results in the remainder of the season.

So it was on the eve of the Wigan game, an absolutely crucial game for Villa, that the news broke about Liverpool making a bid for Barry. This is why I’ve always scoffed at accusations that the story was leaked from anyone at Villa. You just have to ask, who benefited from the story being leaked – it certainly wasn’t Villa. Wigan won the game 2-0. Villa were terrible and their chance for fifth was gone.

Villa were consigned to the Intertoto Cup for their route into Europe and the summer would be dominated by “Barrygate”. The rest, as they say, is history.

This blog user guide and trip down memory lane might be a little unorthodox for a match preview, hence why I’ve labelled this post as ‘Part One’. I will follow up with a proper preview of the game later in the week, but I wanted to spend a little time outlining why I’m pleased to see this fixture sooner rather than later in the season. I thank you for indulging me.