The joke ran that if someone to the left of the Wigan press box at the back of the main stand spotted a goal - they should give us all a shout.

The old edifice at Springfield Park had a glass window end, as seen in the pic below. It was last washed in 1932 or thereabouts and rendered any view to the right of the pitch null and void.

...gone tomorrow: Marshall (L) turning out for Fulham masters at Wembley

Had a smear of Windolene been applied, it would have reflected the fortunes of two suffering clubs. Wigan were Premier League by 2005 once they switched to the plush JJB, now DW Stadium in 1999, and renewed battle with Fulham.

But this was a winter meeting of sides on their uppers.

It cost £13 return a seat on the Fulham supporters coach, and even if was the last Saturday before Christmas, two loads preferred the M6 and football for shopping and shoving.

The 100-plus in white actually made a sizeable dent in the gate. All of 1,791 decided Springfield in December was better than the merry spending throng.

Even then, the Latics knew the days of a 100-year-old stadium were numbered, and when supremo Dave Whelan took the helm less than 12 months later, it took just two more years before plans were revealed for a new ground.

In contrast, Fulham were struggling to hold on to theirs.

Windolene needed: The old main stand at Springfield Park

The board was to announce a plan to buy back the ground from the Royal Bank of Scotland by developing the Cottage with added flats.

That was instantly scuppered by a residents group headed by the indomitable Lady Dido Berkeley, who objected to the added apartments on environmental grounds. ‘How green is my valet?” ran a newspaper headline.

There was even a stalwart Fulham 2000 group, headed by lifelong fan Melvin Tenner, whose raison d’être was to give the ground back to the club by the millennium.

As known, Mohamed Al Fayed was the second of football’s new wave of sugar daddies to come to the rescue. The Harrods millionaire was a couple of paces behind the self-made Whelan.

The former Blackburn defender broke a leg in the 1960 FA Cup final - and finished on the losing side, but hauled himself up from market stall to business chief.

In this game, Fulham hauled themselves back into the game when late on John Marshall cancelled out Mark Leonard’s first-half goal with a rising shot inside the box to earn a point.

Latic leader: Whelan

Marshall showed something of the spirit of the club back then. He joined as a schoolboy, played 411 games for the Whites, and then became both coach and scout.

Little known is that Marshall was an England scout in Fabio Capello’s 2010 set-up and kept an eye on prospective opponents leading up to the South Africa World Cup.

He probably had a better view than the media on this murky day.

Fulham: Stannard, Morgan, Marshall, Mison, Moore, Brazil, Jupp, Angus, Blake, Finnigan, Hamill; subs: Ferney, Harrison

Keep up to date with all the build-up, matchday and post-game reaction to Wigan v Fulham right here on GetWestLondon.