Football returned to England this evening after a weekend of fixtures postponed due to Queen Elizabeth II's death. Tonight's games in the EFL featured a minute's silence and a rendition of 'God Save The Queen'. James McClean's Wigan travelled to Huddersfield tonight and James McClean honoured the minute's silence in his own unique way.
Love James McClean pic.twitter.com/NGbhWPMxZb
— Raptor🇮🇪 (@RaptorF143) September 13, 2022
Screengrabs from the match surfaced showing McClean's Wigan teammates arm-in-arm around the centre circle. However the Derry man stood off to the left, with his head down.\
According to fans watching the game, he's been booed every time he touched the ball.
Should be 1-0 down there. I’d take McClean off at half time, hasn’t settled in this game at all. Not his fault, I wouldn’t want to be booed every time I touched the ball. #wafc
— Will (@wafcwill36) September 13, 2022
Like his teammates, McClean was wearing a black armband tonight.
Not sure I've ever zoomed on someone's arm before but that looks like a black armband on James McClean pic.twitter.com/itpaZgj2Oy
— aidan o'hara (@oharaa) September 13, 2022
He made his thoughts on wearing the black armband clear in an Instagram post yesterday.
"Unless you are a nationalist that was born and raised in Derry or anywhere else in the north of Ireland then don’t assume or speak on our behalf unless you can relate i.e. Miguel Delaney.”
Every football ground in the UK had the British flag at half mast while the national anthem and a minute's silence preceded each match in the EFL tonight.
Leon Wobshall of the Yorkshire Evening Post said the minute's silence was observed impeccably in the John Smith's stadium.
Huddersfield Town pay their respects to Her Majesty #htafc #wafc pic.twitter.com/wTkYJ2S4rU
— Leon Wobschall (@LeonWobYP) September 13, 2022
Wigan won 2-1, thanks to an assist by McClean in the 82nd minute.
James McClean and the poppy
This moment will remind some of the time McClean chose not to turn to the British flag during the playing of God Save The Queen on a West Brom preseason tour in 2016
McClean - who grew up in Creggan in Derry - has been vilified in the UK for refusing to wear the poppy on his jersey during Remembrance Day. Here's how he explained his decision to Wigan owner Dave Whelan.
For people from the North of Ireland such as myself, and specifically those in Derry, scene of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, the poppy has come to mean something very different . Please understand, Mr Whelan, that when you come from Creggan like myself or the Bogside, Bradywell or the majority of places in Derry, every person still lives in the shadow of one of the darkest days in Ireland's history - even if like me you were born nearly 20 years after the event. It is just part of who we are, ingrained into us from birth
SEE ALSO: The Tony Cascarino Chinese Takeaway Story About The Queen's Death Is False
