What do pundits know?

I've just been looking at two views of well known so-called pundits for tonight's match against Wigan and it's amazing how opposite they can be.

Tony Cascarino shows how little he knows about Stoke with a typically negative view of the Potters in today's Times:

'Cas's crystal ball: 1-0 to Wigan

This will be a tight affair but Wigan will have just that bit too much quality for Stoke, so I reckon that Roberto Martinez's team will nick a victory. I don't see it being a classic, however - more like the sort of game you forget about as soon as you leave the stadium. The pitch at the DW Stadium isn't conducive to the sort of nice football that Wigan try to play, though I don't imagine that Stoke will be too bothered by the surface. Tony Pulis's men will be feeling good after thrashing Blackburn Rovers 3-0 last Saturday but they haven't won for six games on their travels. Wigan have been doing OK without getting wins and this should be their night.'


Meanwhile over at the Beeb website, Mark Lawrenson contrastingly reckons that:

'Stoke are on a six-game unbeaten run including their cup form and had a superb 3-0 win over Blackburn on Saturday.
They have adjusted to life in the Premier League and look very strong at the moment, with plenty of different options for manager Tony Pulis.
It is almost impossible to gauge what Wigan team is going to turn up for any given fixture.
Verdict: 1-2'

I don't normally allow myself to get worked up by such rubbish from the likes of Cascarino but the most telling comment was his view that we 'haven't won for six games on our travels', whilst avoiding the tricky fact that only those teams in the top seven have fewer defeats than us on the road!

Al least I agree with Lawro, even if our colleagues over at Vital Wigan won't - but that's one of the delights of talking about football...

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