Bernie Slaven: 'Wigan is a rugby town. It doesn’t have the passion of a real football club'

Wigan away on Saturday will be a tricky game for Boro now they have appointed a new boss.

The players will have to up their game and try to impress Malky Mackay - although others will maybe be spooked and fear for their places.

And there is a bit of a row going on around the new boss too as he arrives with some baggage.

What’s going on in the Wigan camp could inspire them or it could distract them, we don’t know.

But Boro have to go there with no fear and be totally ruthless.

They finished the last run of games in fantastic form and have made a bit of a habit so far this season of coming roaring out of international breaks with all guns blazing.

And they will have a big crowd behind them too.

With 5,000 Teessiders there it will feel like a home game for Boro.

That’ll be almost half of the crowd and Wigan has never been a great home support anyway.

Wigan Athletic's Jordi Gomez scores against Boro in August 2013

I remember them as a lower league club with crowds of just a few thousand for games and always in the shadow of the rugby league side.

Yes, they’ve had a good few years and owner Dave Whelan has put a lot of his own money in to lift them up, and credit to him for that.

But Wigan is a rugby town and I’ve never liked going there.

It doesn’t have the passion of a real football club. That comes with a long history and generations of support.

I’d like to think Boro can get the 5,000 travelling fans roaring from the off by starting on the front foot, going for the jugular, get an early goal and set the tone of the game.

Boro need to win the game.

It is the start of a series of big games in the run up to Christmas and if Boro have any realistic promotion ambitions they need to go into the festive fixtures still up at the top of the table.

It is a crucial period.

We know a lot of Boro fans will be worried about the traditional post Christmas slump.

We know "Boro come down with the decorations".

But I don’t think we will do that this year.

Karanka didn’t allow that last year and I think we were unbeaten in January. We need to do that again and push on.

But first we need to get to Christmas still as a force to be reckoned with - and to do that we must come out of the blocks after the break starting by beating Wigan.

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