Red Bull Invades England CM Writeup: April/May 2018 (End of Season 2)

April saw a few more of the promising Croatian youngsters in Wigan's academy being promoted to the senior side as the season drew to its close. Right midfielder Branko Radic, attacking midfielder Antun Alanovic and centre midfielder Milad Markovic all accepted pro deals, and all three are very similar types of player. The trio all possess good technical ability and passing range to compensate for a lack of physicality, with Radic in particular seeming to be a winger more in the Jamie Phillips mould.

The month's league action was more or less completely pointless as the league title had been sown up weeks ago, and the first game in this glorified victory parade was away at struggling Plymouth, a side who had been promoted alongside the Red Bulls last season. Despite the elementary nature of the game, the champions still fielded a strong side, with top scorer Dominic Solanke back in the lineup after injury, and the visitors took the lead in first half stoppage time in quite bizarre circumstances. A shot from Kasey Palmer was well saved by Argyle keeper McCallum, and the rebound had been seemingly pushed away from danger as Tomasz Kedziora picked up the ball on the left side of the box. The full back attempted to hook the ball back across goal to create another chance and succeeded - by lobbing the goalkeeper with what was described by Baxendale after the game as "the worst cross I've ever seen work." If the first goal had an element of "did he mean it?" about it, the second was certainly intentional as Max Power slammed home from the edge of the box after a square pass from Jamie Phillips just before the hour mark. The scoring was completed on 74 minutes as Matt Palmer scored his first of the season after a well worked counter attack to seal a 3-0 away win, although all the talk post match was on that opener from Kedziora. "He told me he scuffed it!" Kasey Palmer revealed after the game, "it's weird, because normally he's so good with his crosses. I mean, if he mishits them and that happens, we're all happy!"

The first home game of the month came at home to midtable Barnsley, and as this game came a few days after the trip to Plymouth, a rotated side was fielded. It didn't seem to stop the hosts though, as centre back Rene Jungbauer headed in to put the Red Bulls in front after 8 minutes before compatriot Valentino Lazaro doubled the lead on 47 minutes after a lovely piece of skill to beat his full back. His wing partner soon got in on the act after 63 minutes, as Will Hall cracked in a shot from 25 yards to make it 3-0 on his wand of a left foot. Former Leeds man Alex Mowatt did reduce the deficit on 72 minutes with a thunderbolt that left Angus Gunn clutching thin air, but it was nothing but a highlight moment for the Tykes as they were well beaten 3-1. "We played some great stuff out there," one fan said afterwards, "it's a shame these lads can't get in the first team."

The next game was away at Gillingham, who were firmly in the relegation mire and requiring a miracle to stay in the division, especially after the sale of key man Bradley Dack in January to Sheffield Wednesday. Perhaps the Gills' underdog status served to help them, as Hull City loanee Jonathan Edwards put them ahead inside 7 minutes, and heroics from veteran keeper Stuart Nelson kept the strugglers in front up until the 74th minute, when a sublime effort from substitute Valentino Lazaro pulled the league leaders level and seemingly spare the Red Bulls' blushes. However, just 5 minutes later, Rory Donnelly popped up with a thumping header past Gaston Guruceaga to send the Priestfield Stadium into raptures and keep the Gills' survival hopes alive with a memorable 2-1 win that left Baxendale questioning just whether his players had set off down Wembley Way a little too early.

The game with 2nd placed Oxford in midweek saw a heavily rotated side fielded by the Red Bulls, as their huge FA Cup semi final with Leicester was rapidly approaching and Baxendale understandably left nothing to chance. The visitors, on the other hand, had everything to play for as they needed a result to maintain their hopes of joining the Red Bulls in the second tier next season, but they were unable to achieve it as a 3rd minute Nick Powell strike was enough to seal an unspectacular 1-0 win for the hosts. When asked about his opposite number's team selection after the match, Oxford boss Michael Appleton said "I can't blame him for resting players. They have a massive game at the weekend and the last thing any manager wants is a key player injured or suspended for that type of game. Besides, that team he put out is still better than most of the starting XI's in the league in my opinion, and when you have that amount of quality you can afford to rest people now and then."

And so it came down to this: easily the biggest game in Wigan Red Bulls' short history - the FA Cup semi final against Leicester City at Wembley Stadium. With a Europa League place at stake should the Red Bulls win and progress to the final, the board have put a lot of pressure on the players to win the game against Ranieri's side. Leicester did not take their opposition lightly, fielding Riyad Mahrez, Mateo Musacchio and Papy Mendy amongst others, with Kasper Schmeichel leading the side out. The Red Bulls, however, were not intimidated by their opponents and took the lead in some style after 11 minutes; after Paulo Oliveira brought down Jamie Phillips 25 yards out, Kasey Palmer stood up for the free kick and curled one over the wall and past Schmeichel to give the third tier side the lead. This slender margin held until the 78th minute, as Mahrez skinned Reece James down the right and swung in across towards Islam Slimani, whose header hit off Gaston Guruceaga and went in, but just 3 minutes later, Wigan restored their lead as a Tomasz Kedziora cross was nodded in by Norwegian Rafik Zekhnini to win the game 2-1 and guarantee European football in England's second tier for the Red Bulls. They will play Chelsea in the final, as the Blues eased past Hull in the other semi final and, although they go into the game as massive underdogs, will still fancy their chances of pulling off a huge upset..

With the amount of sore heads in the RB camp that night, it was understandable that the midweek trip to Colchester United saw a rotated side and slightly underwhelming performance from the visitors, although Omar Bogle did score the only goal of the game after 13 minutes to seal the Essex side's relegation back to the fourth tier after just one season. The weakened side, whilst still comfortably better than their hosts in terms of talent, were unable to create too many other clear cut openings besides the goal and were clearly feeling the effects of some hard partying in the hours following the win over Leicester as the play looked lethargic at times. Still, with only two games left (the final league match and the FA Cup final), it wouldn't be long before the players could officially start to relax.

That final league game was at home to midtable Fleetwood Town, the first visiting side to claim a victory (albeit on penalties) at Red Bull Arena since the rebrand in the EFL Trophy. Clearly this, as well as motivation of a potential starting place at Wembley, motivated the home side and after just 9 minutes they took the lead thanks to Sam Morsy capping off a wonderful team move with a late run into the box, before top scorer Dominic Solanke made it 2 on 18 minutes after slotting home one on one against the keeper with a sidefoot finish quickly becoming his speciality. It was 3-0 on 21 minutes as Jamie Phillips tapped home a Kasey Palmer cross and the hosts were quite simply on Easy Street as they put on a champions' performance for the near capacity crowd at Red Bull Arena. Phillips added his second and Wigan's 4th on 50 minutes before Rafik Zekhnini completed the rout in stoppage time to seal an emphatic 5-0 win over Uwe Rosler's side. The win meant that Wigan ended the season on 120 points from 46 games, a record for the league, and gave them huge momentum going into the FA Cup final with Chelsea.

Around 3 weeks after Wigan's season ended, they travelled back to Wembley to take on Chelsea in the FA Cup final, the most prestigious match they've been involved in to this point and one where they had a chance to win their first piece of major silverware just two years after their formation and send a real statement of intent to the rest of English football. The underdogs' peculiar story had gripped the world's attention for months, ever since they dumped out Arsenal, and the eyes of the world would certainly be on the Red Bulls as neutrals everywhere couldn't decide whether to support Wigan due to their underdog status, or Chelsea because of the Red Bulls' ownership. Conte, understandably, took no prisoners with his team selection, picking the likes of Eden Hazard, Willian, Diego Costa and N'Golo Kante amongst others in his starting lineup whilst the Red Bulls boasted former Chelsea youngster Dominic Solanke up front, bought for what was now looking like a bargain fee of £2m. Quality did, however, tell in the end, as Chelsea ran out comfortable 4-1 winners thanks to a brace from Diego Costa and goals from Hazard and Raphael Varane, despite Rafik Zekhnini pulling a goal back in the first half to make the score 2-1 and jangle the nerves of a few Blues supporters. Duje Caleta-Car got himself sent off after 77 minutes for a last man foul on Hazard, and the Red Bulls did fall short at the final hurdle, but Baxendale refused to be defeatist. After the game, he praised his players' efforts, saying that "nobody expected we'd get this far, and we've definitely done the supporters and the town proud with this run. In the end we were only beaten by elite level footballers and, with a group as young as this, that's nothing to be ashamed of." Baxendale has been promised vast sums of money to invest in his squad for next season, as Europa League football and a Premier League promotion push beckons and when the current strength of the squad is considered, perhaps teams in the Championship should be very afraid...

The teams to join Wigan in next year's Championship from the Premier League will be Derby County, Burnley and Hull City who all drop back into the second tier, whilst an extraordinary end to the season saw Rotherham United bounce back to the Championship at the first attempt and MK Dons win the playoffs. Poor old Oxford United were in 2nd going into the final day and just needed to match Rotherham's result to go up - they lost and the Millers won to drop the O's into the playoffs. From there, Oxford surrendered a 1-0 lead in the final to lose 2-1 to MK Dons and choke promotion to the Championship twice in a matter of weeks. Here's hoping that Wigan don't do likewise...