Parting of the Red Sea: glum faces all round for the 'Pool

Let’s get this out of the way first of all – Liverpool were, by their standards, rubbish. Their passing was sloppy — amongst the worst I’ve seen at the DW this season, in fact — their finishing and will to win largely lacking.

That’s not to say the Reds didn’t have their fair share of chances last night. The only problem was they couldn’t hit the target, and may I say (in a rather biased fashion) that it was nice to see someone other than Wigan struggle to do so at the DW Stadium. Perhaps the biggest culprit of all was Fernando Torres, who, in his five opportunities, never even managed to challenge Chris Kirkland. Two of them, on another day, he may well have slotted away to help Liverpool bury little Wigan like they ought to have.

I say ‘ought to have’ in a partly ironic fashion, as on balance, you’d have never known which team were battling for a top four place and which were fighting against relegation. In truth, Latics were deserved winners and the more likely to score all night, even if Liverpool did have some similarly decent opportunities.

Right, that’s out of my system now. This particular match report will differ from 90% of those that adorn the front pages of tabloids and fansites nationwide in that it will actually focus on the Wigan perspective, and how wonderful it is to grab a crucial, crucial, crucial three points. In fact it was so important I decided to repeat the word ‘crucial’ a couple of times there.

As I sit here, the ‘analysts’ on TalkSport are picking apart the substandard Liverpool performance, but I shall completely ignore that, for it smacks of paint-by-numbers journalism ever so slightly. Also this is a Wigan blog, so I dunno what else you might have expected from a bunch of biased northerners.

Enough of the big boy butt kissing, already!

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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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"Those moles are back again, Gaffer."

Frustration reigned at the DW Stadium for both the Latics and the Trotters as the sides played out a no-score draw in front of a decent Wednesday night crowd. The club’s promotions drew an above average attendance for this hard-fought Lancashire derby, which saw both teams create few chances and even fewer shots on goal.

The cynical may point to the badly worn DW Stadium pitch, ravaged by rampaging rugby men just five days earlier, as the primary reason for the lack of goalmouth action. Indeed, there’s no doubting that, at times, the pitch was a great hindrance, slowing the game down and causing miskicks aplenty for the likes of Zat Knight, Gary Caldwell and Titus Bramble. In fact, there wasn’t a single player who could say they really felt in control of the ball on the bobbly surface, and the almost inevitable long hoofs upfield were… surprisingly limited, actually.

For all Latics’ midfield dominance in the middle part of the game, they just couldn’t squeeze out the opportunities. Charles N’Zogbia hit Jussi Jaaskelainen’s crossbar on twenty minutes after rampaging down the Bolton left and getting a cross come shot to dip at just the right moment; Hugo Rodallega found himself through on goal with just minutes left of the first half, but a last-minute saving tackle denied him the chance of a cross to a waiting Marcelo Moreno.

The second half saw Hugo nod wide then blast an overhead kick way over the crossbar, but that was it in terms of chances for the Latics. Bolton had the better of the game in that department, especially in the game’s closing stages: Matty Taylor missed a couple of good, close-range chances that would have all but snatched the points.

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The Stig looks a bit unhappy as Latics play out another draw

I see on the official Latics website that Paul Scharner has conceded we’re in a relegation dogfight. At the present moment, there’s no doubting that, matey boy – and some tactical decisions by Roberto during last night’s clash with Stoke reflected that.

I’m referring to one particular change, which took place in the sixtieth minute. With Wigan 1-0 up and the chance to go for the jugular beckoning, Jason Scotland — who I was thoroughly surprised to see in the Latics starting lineup, perhaps ever again after last Tuesday and the Notts County debacle — was brought off, to be replaced by not Moreno, Moses or even Sinclair, but Gomez.

An excellent opportunity to give one of the new guys some match time and continue utilising two front men, which so far had been functioning quite well for the Latics, was spurned in favour of a five-man midfield.

As a result, we looked a man short in the opposition penalty area, and dare I say it, we missed Jason Scotland in that second half. The remainder of the game was largely defensive stuff as Stoke pushed for, and eventually got, an equaliser. I guess we can count ourselves lucky we didn’t concede more, considering the pressure The Potters put us under in the last twenty minutes or so, and once again a point is a fair reflection of the game.

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