August 19 1978 - August 19 2008. Steve Bruce and Mario Melchiot acknowledge Latics' 30^th Anniversary of League football!

Story by Ed Jones

Today is 30 years to the day since Wigan Athletic played their first game as a league club, and current manager Steve Bruce says the story of the club is still one of modern football's fairy tales.

Captain Ian Gillibrand led the Latics players out at Hereford's Edgar Street on that Saturday afternoon in August 1978, roared on by a following of over 3,000 Latics fans who had made the journey South to mark the huge landmark in the club's history, coming as it did after 34 failed attempts to reach the hallowed land of professional football.  The game was a goalless draw.


IAN GILLIBRAND leads out the team at Hereford.

And Gillibrand's counterpart in today's Wigan Athletic side, Mario Melchiot, says it has been a marvellous achievement for the club to progress to where it is today.

"I don't think we can ever forget what those guys did back then," he said, "because they were the pioneers, they laid down the ground that we walk on today.

"I'm very proud to lead this team. It's the first time in my career I've worn the armband on a regular basis, and I know that every time you lead out the team you carry with you the hopes of all the people who support the club through thick and thin."

Ian McNeill was the manager at the helm in 1978, whose team stepped onto the Hereford turf for that historic 0-0 draw.

He told the club last year, when speaking on the subject, "It's only when you step back after the event that you realise what it means to the club and the people. At the time, our focus as a group of people was just to get a result in that game and for the rest of the season.

"But it was the culmination of an enormous amount of work, not just by myself and the team, but by everyone behind the scenes. It's marvellous to see now where that work led when I see the club in the Premier League and facing the nation's biggest teams week in week out!"

Current manager Steve Bruce has also added his voice to congratulate the club on reaching its milestone.

"I can see how the club has progressed since the last time I was here in 2001," he says, "and hopefully we can now take the club forward even higher, into a sustained era in the Premier League.

"But when you think that the club has only been in the league for 30 years, it is a modern day sporting fairy tale and I think we should all pay a debt of gratitude to the people who were involved back then, because without their efforts none of this would be possible.

"Very much like Ian, my focus has to be on the here and now, however. We know as a club that one slip up, one fall in standards, and this sport can punish you so we have to concentrate fully on maintaining our Premier League status and look to push the club on to the next level.

"Only when you finish a job can you look back on what has gone before."

For the record, the team that took to the field at Hereford on August 19 1978 was John Brown; Tommy Gore, Joe Hinnigan, Neil Davids, Noel Ward, Ian Gillibrand, Frank Corrigan, Jeff Wright, Peter Houghton, John Wilkie, Ian Purdie, substitute Alan Crompton

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