IAN HERBERT: Wigan facing ruin, Bolton sinking fast, Bury bust and Burnley at a crossroads as Sean Dyche's request for squad investment falls upon deaf ears... How football has wilted in the county of the Red Rose

The evidence of the old Premier League days is everywhere at Wigan Athletic, killing the place by a thousand cuts with reminders of how far you can fall in football and how fast.

Each time the players push through the green swing doors to their dressing room, they see the giant mural of their 2013 FA Cup triumph on the wall.

But there is a pattern of decline where the clubs within the old Lancashire county boundaries are concerned.

Wigan's FA Cup triumph of 2013 seems a distant dream after the Latics entered administration

Dave Whelan parades the FA Cup after their 2013 triumph during happier times for Wigan

Reminders of the club's glory years can be found everywhere at Wigan's DW Stadium

Success delivered by a local owner with a passion for the place – for Whelan and Wigan, read Jack Walker at Blackburn and Eddie Davies for Bolton – is hard to sustain when those individuals decide enough is enough.