Reminiscing upon this afternoon’s match, I was reminded of an October afternoon in 2005 when Wigan, having had a so-so game, grabbed a last-minute winner to dispatch Fulham 1-0 at the JJB Stadium. Pascal Chimbonda, sneaking in at the back post, stole all three points to head the Latics into dreamland with their seventh win in eight games unbeaten.

During the first half of that season, everything we touched seemed to turn to gold and thanks to that magical run Wigan were all but safe by Christmas. Though we can’t exactly say the same of this campaign, for me, there was certainly a hint of 2005 about this afternoon. Specifically, I’m talking about that little bit of luck to help us snatch those crucial wins that could ultimately keep us in the Premier League for a sixth successive season.

There aren’t many games Wigan could safely say are “three point bankers” this season, testament to our up-and-down, topsy turvy form; it’s been a mixture of very good (Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa away) and some absolutely dire stuff characterised by lacklustre defending and lack of real heart or even effort. Take Bolton last week for a prime example of this – Wigan were by no means outplayed, but once that second goal went in that, as they say, was that.

This particular encounter with another Lancashire (arch?) rival contained a combination of both the poorer stuff that’s seen us toiling in the bottom half of the league, which Latics exhibited for periods of the first half, and the excellent forward-thinking movement which, sadly for Latics, only began to materialise in the latter part of the second half.

But Wigan needed not worry, for the fourth official had magically found four minutes of stoppage time somewhere in the back of his pocket or something. It wasn’t as if either team was doing a lot of time-wasting as such, at least not in the second period, so perhaps the injuries and substitutions combined with the linesman stoking up a stogie somehow added up to a total of 240 seconds. I tend to think the officials decided to add an extra minute for Brian Jensen’s first-half bootlace tying at the end of the game. Trust me, I swear they do it all the time.

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