Paul Scharner had a terrible first half

An improved second half performance couldn’t quite grab a vital point for Wigan at St. Andrews. In fact, things could have been even better considering Birmingham’s average second half, which saw Chris Kirkland tested only once, but Latics once again struggled to create opportunities.

A draw would have been very handy, but as it stands Wigan lie just a single point above the relegation zone with a tough test to come against Liverpool next Monday. The sheer frustration of the Tottenham and Bolton contests spilled over into another game without a goal and, more worryingly, little to no efforts on target.

As the commentators were quick to point out, when you’re at the bottom things seem ten times harder, and though Wigan had the majority of the 50/50 decisions in the second period, they could not capitalise on their good fortune. Again.

Wigan’s best chance came in the latter part of the game as Hugo Rodallega forced Joe Hart to advance from his line and make a solid save. It was a nice move that pounced on a Birmingham defensive mistake as McCarthy played in Hugo who got a decent effort in, but the Birmingham keeper was equal to it.

There was another good chance for either Gomez or Rodallega, who somehow managed to get in the way of each other, but that was it in terms of opportunities. It seems they’ve dried up in recent times, at the exact point we don’t want them to – not even the best efforts of the two young men Moses and McCarthy could create anything other than the odd tame effort rolling out for a goal kick. A pity, because as the game wore on you increasingly thought Birmingham were there for the taking: any dominance they’d built up in the first 45 just fizzled out as Bramble and Caldwell extinguished all potential attacks from City’s impotent front line.

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You know, despite the inclement weather, poor pitch, the fact everyone decided to watch the game on television and of course the 3-0 loss, Sunday wasn’t such a bad day. There wasn’t quite the fervour of Wednesday, but by the same token the weight of expectation wasn’t quite as heavy, at least in my eyes. Didn’t stop people booing our lads off the pitch again though.

The boo boys can console themselves in the fact that, thanks to other results falling our favour, things aren’t much different than they were going into the weekend, which gives us a bit more time out of the relegation zone. Well, hopefully we won’t fall into it at all, but at least there’s a bit of breathing space there.

I swear, Alex, I have no idea where your biscuits have disappeared to...

Is Roberto Martinez in training to be the next Alex Ferguson or what?

Seasoned football watchers will be well versed in the big Scot’s blame-shifting tactics; the referee wasn’t fit enough to keep up; the fourth official didn’t add enough/added too much stoppage time; the grass was too long; somebody stole our half time Jaffa Cakes.

The problem is, Manchester United are one of the best sides in the country and Fergie can get away with it because he’s just so awesome. When Roberto Martinez attempts it, it looks, well, foolish. Unfortunately it smacks of desperation, something we really do not need to be making obvious to our fellow relegation battlers who will no doubt see this as weakness.

Mind you, it’s not as if Bob could focus on his team’s performance which, for the most part, wasn’t quite there. Much like against Bolton and Notts County (to name but a couple, actually), Latics had their best spell of pressure for about 25-30 minutes in the second half, and this would have been fine if it resulted in a goal. Problem is, it didn’t.

The first half, by contrast, was more circumspect. Wigan more than competed, but then we did at White Hart Lane in November and we all know what happened after that. Sorry for bringing that up yet again, because even though I didn’t/haven’t seen the game on Sky Sports yet I’m guessing Andy Gray et al did that enough yesterday afternoon – and all week, come to think of it.

Spurs probably had the better of the early stages with Wigan just coming into things in the latter part of the first period. Rodallega drew a fine save from Gomes and N’Zogbia sent a shot just over the Tottenham bar, which I suppose was a creditable effort. No goal, though, and Tottenham had one of their own on the 30-minute mark when Jermain Defoe broke free of the Latics’ offside trap to tap in at the back post. To be fair to the Wigan defence, they kept their line well and on this occasion just couldn’t keep up with Defoe’s pace.

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If you cast your mind back to November, you may remember a very special match preview for what proved to be a highly notable game in this season’s Premier League. Those who haven’t completely blanked the weekend from their minds (and I’m very sorry for once again evoking repressed memories here) will remember that Dan Fitch of tottenhamblog.com very kindly provided his thoughts in the build up to our previous encounter with Spurs.

Well, the JWAW readership enjoyed that feature so much they asked, nay, demanded Dan return to comment on the rematch at the Dee Dubya. Actually, it was Mr. Fitch himself who posited the idea of a similar interview for this weekend’s encounter – the vast majority of Wigan fans have spent the last three months pretending Tottenham don’t exist, and who could blame them?

Nevertheless, I think we’ve sufficiently recovered from the events of that fateful afternoon at least to the extent we can forgive and forget, chalk it up as a freak result and apply any other coping mechanism your psychiatrist could care to mention.

I think we’re gonna have to sooner or later, as there’s no escaping the fact a team that put nine past our defensive line in their last encounter with us is visiting the borough this Sunday afternoon. And we’re going to have to play them again.

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JWAW: Dan Fitch, editor of tottenhamblog.com, the last time I spoke to you was before what has since been termed ‘the incident which must never be mentioned again under penalty of stoning’. However, much as it pains me, I think we’d better address the issue of that game sooner rather than later because I feel it’s looming over us like a four match ban for punching someone when the ref isn’t looking.

Dan: Yes, we somehow beat you 9-1, which I can only apologise for. As you will have noticed from our recent results, it was completely out of character for us.

I’ve still no idea how it happened really, as at half time I was thinking that 2-0 would be a good result. It was just one of those days when every shot seemed to go in.

I think that you were a victim of playing far too openly against us. Teams like Wolves and Hull have got results at White Hart Lane, by merit of just putting everyone behind the ball, whilst Wigan tried to play football. It’s to your credit, but I imagine is reasonably annoying from your perspective.

Do you think a win of such magnitude filled Spurs with a renewed/continued flair and self-assurance, or did it have the inverse effect and create a sense of overconfidence that ultimately led to one or two disappointing performances?

It certainly didn’t seem to help us, as afterwards we went on a four game run without a win, culminating in a home defeat to Wolves.

This side, like many Spurs teams before it, doesn’t have much bottle and the weight of expectation after such a big win, may have counted against us.

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