Emmerson Boyce risked life and limb for Latics' first goal.

I’m not sure who’ll be most pleased with a point today, as all things considered it was a fairly even contest. Perhaps Wigan will be slightly more disappointed having had a glorious chance to go 3-2 up with just stoppage time to play via a 90th minute penalty.

One thing’s for certain, it would have been an exciting watch for a neutral, perhaps so much so that it could be the first game on Match of the Day tonight, but we all know that’s never going to happen. Even if today’s game finished 7-7 it would probably be second last, but enough BBC bashing for now.

Right, now to the shambles that was the officiating in those dying moments. I had no qualms with any decision — even the first-half Scharner non-penalty (never a foul), which Sky buffs seemed to think should have been given for some reason — up until the penalty. A foul, no doubt, but had the linesman actually been awake he would have seen that Jordi Gomez was a good couple of yards offside in the buildup – not that Wigan would have been complaining at all.

In the end, justice was served thanks to a quite frankly appalling Rodallega penalty saved by Thomas Sorensen. Did the big Colombian bottle it? Certain souls at JWAW Towers reckon he should have just blasted it down the centre. However, it must be noted that Rodders was not helped by a linesman that, perhaps looking to make up for his mistake, failed to notice the Stoke keeper three yards off his goal line when the ball was struck. Ah, the wonders of technology, eh?

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I’ve managed to scrape enough cash together for a (slightly) better camera, woohoo! See more pics from this Prem contest and past matches at the Illarterate Flickr stream.

Brum boss Alex McLeish will be well pleased with his side's first away win

Forget about curates’ eggs, Wigan’s performance today was more like a Scotch egg: on the whole meaty, but with an all too apparent yellow centre. There was plenty of sausagey goodness to be found, but the whole thing was spoiled by the failings of Latics’ eggy underbelly: the defence. And man, does it leave a bad taste in the mouth.

On another day, maybe two goals would have been enough to grab all three points, but this wasn’t another day. Wigan were left to rue missed chances, as for all their smooth passing and marauding runs they only had one goal to show for their efforts. In fact, the backline had Mike Pollitt — who entered the fray early on thanks to another breakdown from Chris ‘Glass Back’ Kirkland — to thank for a magnificent save or two to deny Birmingham a  goal in the first 45 minutes.

In truth, though, Wigan dominated the first half. So far this season, I don’t believe I’ve seen us look so comfortable and trouble a defence as much as we did prior to 3:47PM today – the notoriously dodgy centre backs held out quite well, and Wigan really could have put the match to bed by the interval.

Hugo Rodallega and Charles N’Zogbia ran riot, creating chances aplenty and really taking it to the opposition, who by and large had no answer. The latter’s controlled strike gave the home side a lead on 33 minutes, and it was certainly coming. The former had more than a few glorious chances to make it 2-0 and make the scoreline a bit more reflective of first half possession and chances created.

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