Latics.News has undergone its biggest overhaul yet, introducing a brand-new supporter community, Match Centre, Prediction League, connected AwayDay accounts, supporter profiles and a completely refreshed look across the site.
Over the past few days, Latics.News has undergone its biggest update since the site launched.
What started as a place for our Wigan Athletic news, match previews, reports and opinion pieces is becoming something much bigger: a place where Latics supporters can not only read about the club, but actually get involved.
Alongside a complete visual refresh across the website, we have introduced Latics Community, supporter profiles, a Prediction League, Match Centre interaction, dedicated match discussions and integration with AwayDay Planner.
There is still plenty we want to build, but this is a huge step towards what we want Latics.News to become.
A completely refreshed Latics.News
The first thing regular visitors will notice is the new look.
We wanted to move away from the older feel of the site and build something cleaner, quicker and much more modern, while still keeping Latics.News recognisable.
The new design brings fixtures and the next match much closer to the heart of the site, with the upcoming game featured directly in the header alongside easier access to Match Centre and Community.
Articles, games, navigation and the wider site have all been refreshed as part of the overhaul.
But most of the work has gone far beyond simply changing how the website looks.
Introducing Latics Community
The biggest addition is Latics Community, our new dedicated supporter forum.
Rather than relying entirely on social media comment sections, supporters can now create their own discussions, reply to other fans and have conversations directly on Latics.News.
Community has separate areas for general Wigan Athletic discussion, transfers and rumours, away days, matchday chat and off-topic conversation.
That means the Community homepage now has distinct areas for:
Latest discussions started by supporters, Matchday threads around Wigan fixtures, and From Latics.News discussions connected to newly published articles. Latics News
Your own supporter profile
Every Community member also gets their own public supporter profile.
Profiles use a simple address such as:
latics.news/@username
Your profile can bring together your Community activity, supporter information, predictions, badges and, if you choose to connect it, AwayDay information.
We’ve also built proper roles and moderation into the system, including verified, moderator and administrator badges.
AwayDay users receive their own AwayDay Member badge when connected too.
Match Centre is becoming much more than a fixture page
One of the parts we’re most excited about is the new Match Centre.
Wigan fixtures can now become their own interactive hub.
Before kick-off, supporters can vote on whether they think Latics will win, draw or lose and submit an exact score prediction.
Each match can also have its own dedicated Community discussion, meaning the conversation around a game stays linked to the fixture itself.
The Latics.News Prediction League
Those score predictions aren’t just there for show.
We’ve introduced a proper Prediction League across Wigan Athletic fixtures.
The scoring is simple:
3 points for predicting the exact score.
1 point for getting the correct result.
Predictions close at kick-off, and the league table will build throughout the season as matches are completed.
It adds another reason to come back before every game — and, more importantly, gives us all another way to prove we definitely knew Caldwell should have made that substitution before everyone else did.
Latics.News and AwayDay Planner are now connected
We’ve also started properly connecting Latics.News with our other project, AwayDay Planner.
If you already have an AwayDay account, you can use it to access Latics.News instead of creating another completely separate identity.
The current Join page gives AwayDay the prominent sign-in option while still allowing anyone who only wants Latics.News to create a local account instead.
Once connected, AwayDay can become the central football identity behind your Latics.News account.
Your display name, profile picture, grounds visited, Match Passport figures and upcoming trips can sync into Latics.News, while Community-specific things such as your posts, predictions and moderation status remain on Latics.News.
You can also save Wigan fixtures to AwayDay directly from Match Centre and log matches into your Match Passport.
The idea is simple: if you already use AwayDay, you shouldn’t have to maintain completely separate football profiles everywhere we build something new.
What if you only want Latics.News?
That’s absolutely fine too.
Nobody is forced to create an AwayDay account.
You can still create a normal Latics.News account using the registration form.
We’ve also introduced a shared username reservation system.
So if you create a Latics-only account and choose a username, that handle is reserved across our connected services. If you decide to join AwayDay later, somebody else shouldn’t have been able to take your supporter handle in the meantime.
The Join page now explains the difference between the two options and includes a full “What is an AwayDay account?” section for anyone who wants to know more before signing up.
Article discussions
Our news coverage is becoming part of Community too.
Newly published articles can have their own dedicated discussion thread, allowing supporters to continue the conversation after reading the story.
Those threads are kept in their own From Latics.News area rather than overwhelming the main supporter discussion feed.
We have deliberately restricted this to new articles rather than dumping years of old posts into the forum.
Better account security and moderation
With proper supporter accounts comes the need to take security and moderation seriously.
The new account system includes email verification, anti-bot protection, rate limiting and safer account linking.
AwayDay and Latics.News never share passwords or login cookies. Connected accounts use a secure authorisation system instead.
We’ve also added proper Community moderation controls.
Members can be suspended, which leaves the site readable but removes their ability to participate, or banned, which immediately ends active sessions and prevents the account from logging back in until the ban is removed.
The point isn’t to make Community overly restrictive. It’s simply to make sure we have the tools needed if it grows.
This is only the start
There has been a lot added in a very short space of time, but we’re not treating this as the finished product.
The community will continue to develop as people actually start using it.
Match Centre has plenty of room to grow, including more live-match information, supporter ratings and Man of the Match features.
The connection between Latics.News and AwayDay Planner will also continue to expand.
Most importantly, though, we now have the foundations for something much more interactive than the site we had before.
Latics.News will remain an independent Wigan Athletic fan publication, but we want it to become somewhere supporters can read, predict, discuss, track matchdays and actually be part of the conversation.
If you haven’t had a look around yet, now’s probably the best time.
Join the Community, make your Reading prediction and let us know what you think.
latics.news/community/