Wigan’s winless run now stands at eight gaames after today’s defeat by a Spurs side whose passing and industry made a mockery of the conditions and in doing so raised questions about Latics commitment and fitness for the relegation battle.
Latics lacked inspirational centre half Titus Bramble and he was replaced by Paul Scharner who dropped back into the centre half role creating a recall for Hendry Thomas to oppose his Honduran compatriot Wilson Palacios.
Anyone anticiapting a titanic battle between the two would have been disappointed as Thomas looked far off the pace and with Mohammed Diame also having a poor game, Huddlestone and Palacios were allowed to dominaate the centre midfield mudbath.
Wigan seemed to sit deep and once again played with only one forward and with the Roddallega seemingly disinterested on one wing and N’Zogbia superbly marshalled by Bale on the other , Martins was left to either vainly chase lost causes or be out jumped by the man mountains in the centre of the Spurs defence.
Spurs on the other hand seemed to master the conditions and break quickly with Defoe looking particulary sharp.
The first real chance however fell to Wigan when a loose clearence fell to Rodallega on the edge of the area and his goal bound shot was tipped over by Gomes for a corner.
Spurs belied their ‘fancy dan’ reputation with some crunching tackles one by Defoe on Melchiot could hve earned him a red card but Alan Wiley saw nothing wrong with what appeared a two footed lunge.
This perceived error was compunded when a quick Spurs break saw Defoe put through on goal and he made no mistake, scoring his sixth goal against WIgan in two games. Everyone on the ground was screaming for offside but the two men who mattered , referee Wiley and his assistant saw nothing wrong and the goal stood.
Latics heads visably dropped and for the rest of the first half they offered very little, with only McCarthy looking like creating anything for the forward players as Diame and Thomas dropped further snd further off the Spurs midfield.
The second half was a more open affair with Latics pushing forward searching for an equiliser with Moses on for the underperforming Thomas, however Latics still persisted with a lone forward and so created no clear cut chances agaisnt a very efficient Spurs back four.
As the game progressed Spurs seemed to have more room to run into and their forwards were constantly stretching the Wigan back four. This pressure paid off when Pavluchenko played a neat one two, burst into the area and fired past the advancing Kirkland. This sparked a mass walkout of a sizable proportion of the home crowd which can have left Matrinez under no illusions of what the fans feel about their current predicament.
Those who left were at least spared the embarassment of the third goal, Pavluchenko shot from inside the six yard area which was well saved by Kirkland , the ball rolled along the dead ball line and from an impossible angle the big Russian shot past Kirkland and two static defenders to make it three nil.
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I suppose there might be some light at the end of the tunnel, but at the moment, I don’t think it will come anytime soon.
there seems to be an urge this seaosn for teams to gatecrash those relegation places!
From what I saw Wigan are in trouble and need to ‘get a grip’.
Sorry but Wigan are done for! We’re not good enough and there are three to blame: Martinez, the team and Whelan.
The fans deserve better than this.
Time for Mario to hang up his boots.
Light at the end of the tunnel , I can’t even see the tunnel. When we first got promoted, I was just glad to be there and would have accepted relegation in that first season as long as we weren’t embarassed. Today we were embarassed, not even an apalling exhibition of refereeing,could hide our inability to master the conditions or match the opposition for effort.
Surely the pitch should be our 12th man. I cannot accept that as an excuse. Our ponderous passing game is now so predictable, that even Bale looked a world claas defender. The inabliity of the manager to read the game and make telling changes is a joke. For one brief period after King was replaced they looked vulnerable down the middle,yet at one freekick i counted 8 spurs players between Moreno and the next attacker.
Surely if ever there was a case for swopping over the wingers it was today. Instead totally inept substitutions were made. Same tactics different players.
that first goal was an awful call
A fairs summary of the game, Baskers. Notable that our winless run has coincided with Rodders goal-less run. Are we a one-man scoring team? Where are the goals coming from and we ponderously overdo the build-up.
Also, Rodders has been awful since before Christmas and has looked powder-puff both in front of goal and when faced with an opponent.
stay up guys and chin up and that first goal was a disgrace the big clubs get the decisions and its wrong sorry about that im happy with the points but im old fashioned and prefer to win the right way. anyway good luck for the rest of the season i will genuinley be supporting you guys to get out of the relegation battle GOOD LUCK.
Spurs fan. The first goal was a terrible call though I felt we’d done enough to win the match. Made this point on our site. We only have to play one game on the DW’s pitch and everybody was dreading it, myself included. Wigan are a decent side that play football the right way. Do you not think, since you play half your games at the DW that sometimes your players will take one look at the state of the pitch and be disheartened before the whistle’s even blown?
Spurs fan here. Great win for us, but think you showed enough that will help you stay in the top division. Just have faith…
Good luck – Hope it improves after that terrible call for the first goal – even the ever-optimistic Defoe was about to give the ball back to Kirkland. Anyway, there are at least three teams worse than you so I reckon you’ll stay up. Hope you do as I had a great wave of nostalgia when I saw your pitch yesterday
Robin “The fans deserve better than this.” As a Wiganer through and through I’d like to agree with you but I’m afraid i cant. There are of course the core who deserve the very best – but there are an awful lot of fans who deserve displays like they are getting. They turn on the players in anger rather than vocal support.
Personally I thought what we lacked more than anything yesterday was a player like Scotland who would intelligently link up our forward play, hold up the ball and bring Rodallega and N’Zogbia into play in advanced positions. But those fans that deserved more made it close to impossible for Martinez to start him or even bring him on.
I can’t agree with your solution. It’s not the players that are the problem. If the opposition sus Rodellega and Zog i.e they can’t take the fullback on the outside, then your banging your head against a brickwall. If there’s always 3 men on either then 2 men are unmarked and you utilise that space, or you try swapping the wingers over. It’s called tactics and the ability to nreact to a situation. Not to bring on like for like Bale must have thought it was his birthday. .