Paul Jewell’s title winners in 2002/03

Latics surged to the top of the League One table with two magnificent performances against MK Dons and Rochdale. The finishing in those games has been nothing short of breathtaking with some stunning goals from Will Grigg, Michael Jacobs, Nick Powell, James Vaughan and Dan Burn.

The two superb attacking displays have produced nine goals and it looks like they could add plenty more in the remaining six games.

Will Grigg has scored 24 goals with four in the last two games and is very capable of reaching at least 30 before the end of the season.

Nick Powell has 15 goals and would almost certainly have scored many more if he wasn’t being hampered by a succession of injuries.

Winger Michael Jacobs has a very creditable 11 goals to his name and has now surpassed his tally from the League One title winning team in 2015/16.

Not only are Latics firing on all cylinders but also they are keeping them out at the other end.

The defence has been outstanding and only conceded a miserly 27, which is the best in the Football League and only Manchester City and Manchester United in the Premier league have conceded fewer goals.

Latics are in a rich vein of form and if they were to maintain their current form with an average of 2.15 points per game they would reach 98 points, which you would expect to get them promoted.

But they are surely capable of getting the 100 points achieved by Paul Jewell’s title winning team in 2002/03. Jewell’s team only lost four games all season and scored 68 goals in total and conceded 25.

The current team has already scored 81 and you would expect them to score plenty more in their remaining six games.

The maximum points available to the three automatic promotion contenders is now, Latics 104 points, Blackburn 101 points, and Shrewsbury 97 points.

Both Blackburn and Shrewsbury still have promotion chasing teams Peterborough and Charlton to play and Latics face fourth placed Rotherham United at the DW Stadium tomorrow.

The Millers have had a remarkable rise since Latics won 3-1 at the New York Stadium in November with goals from Grigg, Bruce and Jacobs.

It looked as though they would remain marooned in mid-table but former Latics player Paul Warne’s team have soared into the play-off places.

Despite losing on-loan top scorer Kieffer Moore to Barnsley they have continued to get results by spreading the goals around the rest of the team.

Latics will need to be on their guard against any complacency after two comfortable victories but if they can maintain their current performance levels they should retain top spot.

Paul Cook’s men must now be very aware that the exciting prospect of winning the League One title and of overtaking the 100 points achieved by Paul Jewell’s team is within their grasp.

This article was first published in the Wigan Evening Post on Friday 13th April 2018.