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The season might only be eleven days old but I think it is fair to suggest that the first ten of them were not a good time to be a Latics fan.

The optimism gained with a relatively successful pre-season lasted about 45 minutes as we held Sheffield United at Boundary Park but the way we went missing for ten minutes after the break allowing the Yorkies to wrap the game up didn’t bode well. Carlisle in the cup followed a very similar pattern except that we actually managed to score during that opening half. The negative though was that we lost the plot for the full 45 minutes that followed and weren’t much better in extra time.

There were, however a couple of positives. Most of our new signings looked good in spells and we looked more dangerous from set pieces than I’ve seen in a long time. Even some of the negatives could be turned on their heads as we all know what a great player M’Voto can be so surely he has to come good soon.

Yeovil was the game that many fans were targeting as the one that would show whether we had what it takes as they are being widely tipped to struggle (including by me in the pre-season predictions piece, so they will be just fine). As I didn’t make it to Huish Park, I can’t really comment on what went on but needless to say the scoreline suggests we got a bit of a hammering.

The reaction was predictable and completely over the top. Apparently we were already down, fans were forming queues outside Ladbrokes to get some of the easy money to be made from backing us for relegation and some even concluded that it was already time to change managers (after all, that’s done us so much good in the last 15 years).

While all this doom and gloom was circulating, there were murmurings coming out from people who’d been to the game in Somerset that maybe, just maybe, we’d not actually been that bad. Madness, perhaps they should be committed.

All did not bode well for a trip to Glanford Park. Scunthorpe is somewhere we have won once in our history and with them still unbeaten (yet winless!) this season it probably isn’t where you would put your mortgage on us getting three points. The fact that it was a Tuesday night made it even worse. It’s an easy place to get to on a Saturday but a bit of a rush after work so there wouldn’t be a large travelling army. Looking on the bright side, the one victory we could claim there had come with a team including: Mark Hotte, Scott McNiven, Mark Allott (1^st time round when he was crap) and Paul Rickers. If they could win, anything’s possible.

So off I set with a little trepidation but I did manage to tweet just as I was getting in the car that we would win and Matt Smith would score – it was possibly bravado.

Now, this is why Premier League fans will never get why it’s so great to follow your local club through thin and thinner. What followed was brilliant. Twice as many away fans as I was expecting, a couple of pints and some decent grub with friends I’ve not seen since last season, a cracking atmosphere and most importantly three points. We didn’t produce our greatest ever performance, we still managed to go to sleep in the second half but we showed some spirit and came back. The team had an average age of below 22 but showed that they’ve got what it takes.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still going to be a very tough season but we are not in anything like the crisis that some were making out. Not that I blame them, this is Latics and over the years we’ve all learnt not to expect too much. The other thing we’ve learnt, though, is that we are always capable of pulling something out of the hat and brightening up your day when all looks bleak.