By Fulham FC

It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that come 9.30pm on Wednesday, Fulham are promoted to the Premier League and Wigan Athletic are relegated to League One, despite the Latics having one of the best records in the division this calendar year.

Ahead of what could be a high stakes encounter between the sides at the DW Stadium, we spoke to Latics fan Luke – better known on Twitter as George Weah’s Cousin – to get an insider’s take on what it’s been like for the club over the last few tumultuous weeks. 

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The news of a 12-point deduction seemed to come out of the blue, so we can only imagine how Wigan fans are feeling about the whole thing?

It was a real shock. To come back from lockdown, win three games on the spin without conceding a goal, and then be thrown into administration the next day was something nobody saw coming. Right now we're all still in shock as we try and figure out what exactly has gone on. As the administrators themselves said, it was a totally unnecessary act that should never have been allowed to happen.

It must be all the more frustrating after you appeared to have moved comfortably clear of relegation after some great form in 2020?

Pretty much since New Year’s Day we've been brilliant. Earlier in the season we conceded a lot of late goals which was frustrating, we've dropped more points from winning positions than any other side, so we all knew we were better than our league position. It's very frustrating that it could still end up with us being relegated.

The character shown from the squad in recent games must be commended, though?

To a man they've been fantastic, they're on 20 per cent pay and yet none of them have taken their ball home or dropped a level. Like Fulham, we're a community club, and it's great to see the players buy into that, especially with none of them being local lads.

The Hull match was a pretty good example of that – what did you make of that game?

From the first minute you could tell it was going to be our day. We had two corners and two shots on target, including a goal, in the first 90 seconds. Their heads appeared to drop and for the next 45 minutes we were totally faultless. Being 7-0 up at half-time was truly surreal!

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What do you think the immediate future looks like for Wigan Athletic?

We'd love to stay up, but the main hope and priority for the fans is having a club to support going forward. The administrators seem optimistic that a buyer will be found, so for now we just have to stay positive and hope for the best. It'd be nice to get the club back into the hands of people who care about the town and football.

There’s always been plenty of respect between our sets of fans, so it’s been nice to see some of the Fulham faithful contributing to the Wigan supporters’ club’s crowd funder…

We've always had a good relationship. I'm London based these days, but Wigan fans always look forward to a trip down to the Cottage, and it's great to see the support we've received from Fulham, which wasn't something we necessarily expected.

Do you think you can stay up?

We've had a habit of defying the odds; our trio of FA Cup wins over Manchester City, reaching the Premier League and Europe, so we'll always have the belief. It's disappointing for it not to be in our own hands, but the belief is there.

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How do you see Wednesday’s game going?

I'm expecting a fairly nervy affair given what's on the line, we've not rotated the squad much since lockdown and our players did look a bit tired on Saturday. That being said, we haven't conceded a goal at the DW for seven games now and we don't fear anyone, as shown by our wins over Leeds and West Brom.

What score prediction are you going for, and who do you see going down/up?

I'm going to be optimistic and predict a 1-0 win for Wigan, with Charlton going down alongside Hull and Barnsley. At the other end of the table, I can't see past a West Brom win against QPR, and then a Play-Off Final between Fulham and Brentford which could go either way!