The first away game of the season brought the first clean sheet, the first goals and first points of this new campaign for the Latics, Di Santo and Koné bagged one each to make Martinez’s men a happy bunch.
The departed Victor Moses was replaced in the starting line-up by Arouna Koné as Martinez made just one change to the team that lost the opening game to Chelsea last weekend
It was obvious from the outset that the Latics had their gaffers words ringing in their ears as they played it tight for the first forty-five minutes, the Chelsea game saw Wigan 2-0 down after seven minutes, no such worries this week, with concentration levels high Southampton weren’t given time on the ball and were restricted to long range efforts that Al Habsi dealt with comfortably, though Ali did superbly to tip a Lallana long range effort onto the bar
If the Latics had played somewhat defensively for the first half, the second forty-five saw the men in blue come out of their shells and control the game for long passages of play. The slick passing was evident and possession was kept for minutes with 20 or 30+ passes in each move.
Di Santo scored a peach of a goal on 51 minutes, Boyce, out wide right, played the ball inside to Shaun Maloney on the edge of the Southampton box, Di Santo made an intelligent run losing his marker and Maloney made a switch pass feeding him in, the Argentine striker hit a first time strike that powered passed Saints keeper Kelvin Davis to put the Latics in front, 0-1
The Latics were now dominating possession and had Southampton chasing shadows, one long passage of play saw Koné unlucky to stab his shot wide after being put through by substitute Jordi Gomez who had come on to replace Di Santo, Koné’s effort was the end of a 35 pass move
Koné did get his goalscoring exploits for the Latics off the mark though in the 89th minute, Southampton defender, Fonte had possession on the half way line, the Latics striker simply took the ball off him and charged 40 yards before planting a fierce right footed drive past Davis, game over, 0-2
A fantastic three points, gained from a really good away performance, the Latics are up and running
Teams
Southampton – K. Davis, Cline, Fonte, Fox, Hooiveld, Schneiderlin, S. Davis (Ward-Prowse), Rodriguez (Sharp), Lallana, Lambert, Guly
Unused Subs – Gazzaniga, Richardson, Seaborne, Shaw, Puncheon
Latics – Al Habsi, Boyce, Figueroa, Ramis, Caldwell, Alcaraz, McCarthy, McArthur, Maloney (Beausejour), Di Santo (Gomez), Koné (Boselli)
Unused Subs – Pollitt, Jones, Crusat, Watson
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That second half was the best away performance I’ve seen from the Latics under Bobby