It’s always a killer when you concede in the last minute, and though we conceded three less today, this defeat hurt a lot more than the Manchester United result.

Wigan were fortunate enough to hold out Everton for the first forty-five minutes, managing only one or two forays into the opposition half every now and then. Latics were certainly the happier side going into the half time interval, and could consider themselves lucky not to be a goal down or even have a man sent off.

The second half began much the same as the first had finished as Everton laid seige to the Latics goalmouth, but Wigan repelled all attacks and started to come into their own, Scharner finding the back of the net with his team’s first shot on target. This was immediately followed by a Jordi Gomez shot hitting the outside half of Tim Howard’s post.

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Ishmel Demontagnac grabbed the first for Blackpool (Photo: David Penniall)

This was supposed to be the game Wigan found its feet again, but transpired to be another night to forget as Blackpool ran riot at Bloomfield Road.

Changes were expected, and Martinez certainly went to town in that respect, retaining just two of the players that started the Manchester United game. But Blackpool were not short of changes themselves, with Ian Holloway making seven changes to the team that drew with Watford on Saturday.

A matter of who would hit the ground running, then, and it was the Tangerines who managed to take the cake. Their three big attacking moves in the first half yielded an impressive three goals, whilst Latics’ own three chances only drew saves from an on-song Matthew Gilks.

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Mike Pollitt: A good chance of starting?

I think it would be best to write off Saturday as a bad day at the office and concentrate on the immediate future. After all, you don’t get relegated based on one result… at least hopefully not.

A bit of a diversion first, though, as next on the radar are Championship climbers and local rivals Blackpool in the city of the Golden Mile for our Carling Cup 2nd round tie. It’ll be a chance to give the impressive Mohamad Diame and his midfield compatriot Hendry Thomas some more much needed experience, even if it isn’t at Premiership level. It’s also an opportunity to try out some new things – since it’s unlikely that we’ll keep the same XI from Saturday, why not do a bit of fiddling a la the pre-season friendlies?

Well, perhaps not as much as in those matches, but we would do well to try and find a more stable back four. Bramble and Scharner put in much improved individual performances attacking-wise, but were left somewhat flagging by Rooney and Company (as opposed to Kompany). Now, what’s up with Emmerson Boyce? Is he still injured (unlikely since we’ve seen him warming up numerous times), or does Bobby prefer defenders with more attacking intent?

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Well, I can’t say these are as good as the professional ones from the official website (they aren’t even from the actual game), but there’s a few little gems in there. Hopefully this will be more of a regular thing, depending on how many photos I can snap during the forthcoming season.

As ever, high res versions of these are available via the JWAW (Illarterate) Flickr photostream.

• Wigan v Man U photos by JWAW at Flickr
• Wigan v Man U photos by JWAW at Notapatchon