Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic won the FA Cup in 2013 and got relegated from the Premier League in the same season. That one sentence tells you everything about this club – capable of the extraordinary, permanently on the edge of disaster. They beat Manchester City in the final at Wembley with a last-minute header from Ben Watson. It remains one of the most unlikely results in the history of the competition. The fact that they went down three days later is so Wigan it hurts.

They play at the Brick Community Stadium – previously the DW Stadium – which they share with Wigan Warriors rugby league. It’s a 25,000-capacity ground that was built in 1999, modern and functional. The sightlines are good, the facilities are fine, but it can feel hollow when the crowd drops below ten thousand. Wigan’s problem has always been filling the seats. The town is rugby league territory first, and convincing people to watch football instead of the Warriors has been a decades-long battle.

The matchday experience is decent for the level. The ground is easy to get to – it’s just off the A49, visible from the motorway, with a big car park. Wigan North Western and Wigan Wallgate stations are both about a mile away. Robin Park next to the stadium has restaurants and a cinema if you want to make an afternoon of it.

Pre-match pubs near the ground are limited – most people drink in Wigan town centre and walk down. The Berkeley on Wallgate and The Swan and Railway near the stations are solid options. The town centre has had a lot of investment in recent years and is better than its reputation suggests.

Wigan is Greater Manchester – it’s part of the metropolitan county even if it sometimes feels separate. The train from Manchester Piccadilly takes about 25 minutes. For a League One away day or a neutral afternoon out, it’s a straightforward trip with proper football at the end of it.

Administration, relegation, ownership chaos – Wigan have survived all of it. The club keeps going because the people who care about it refuse to let it die.