Scotland finally breaks his league duck

Things were looking so rosy at half time; Latics had just about edged proceedings thanks to a strike from Jason Scotland, his first in the league for Wigan and hopefully one of many — though the jury’s still out on that. I’m sure Wigan fans would have been much happier had the goal actually counted for something other than goal difference in the grand scheme of things, but still, nice to see a signing come good…

Scotland’s 34th minute strike came immediately after a good spell of possession for the visitors, who’d just gone close through Maynor Figueroa, this afternoon playing in a forward-thinking left wing role. Minutes later, the Trinidadian was set up by Moreno, who controlled an N’Zogbia pass nicely into his path.

There was an element of good fortune about the goal as keeper Mark Schwarzer seemed unsighted, and maybe should have done better. But still, we shan’t begrudge Jason this much sought-after strike – hopefully, now the floodgates will open and he’ll grab a hat trick against Portsmouth next week. Wishful thinking? Perhaps not.

You see, Martinez was somewhat forced into making changes to his regular playing style, resolving to pander to criticism — or perhaps necessity — and go 4-4-2 with Hugo Rodallega joining Scotland and Moreno up front from time to time. You know the drill: control the ball in the midfield area and look for the killer pass up to the front men. Scotland looks to have settled into his role well and, despite the fact it’s painfully evident he isn’t quite of the same calibre as Emile Heskey, did his job for the first 45 yesterday. Actually, I’m sure some Villa fans would beg to differ on that Heskey comment. Best to just leave it there.

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Warning: this report is, as usual, heavily biased towards Wigan. Man City fans, prepare to be irritated.

It's lonely at the back: Vladimir Stojkovic struggled to fill Kirkland's boots

Now, you’re looking at the scoreline from this game and I know what you’re thinking; Latics were absolutely hammered by a City side of superior quality with world class players and a hundred times more footballing nouse. Well, I’ll tell you now that you are wrong and a 3-0 loss does not do Wigan Athletic justice, not one iota.

In fact, up until just before the hour mark they were looking good for a draw, perhaps even a win. But then came one of those game-changing decisions by the inexperienced Stuart Attwell, a momentary rush of blood to the head that resulted in Gary Caldwell being dismissed for a challenge on Carlos Tevez just outside the Wigan penalty area.

The referee, who only had a partial view of the incident, decided the Scot had shown reckless intent as he lunged for the ball, despite the fact it was there to be won, the Wigan defender only had eyes for it and never even so much as touched Tevez with his leading leg. What’s more, he even won the ball relatively cleanly.

The incident was made to look far worse by the fact Caldwell’s foot finished up about twelve inches off the ground and also because Tevez went down as though he’d been hit by a tractor or something. Then again, this wasn’t the only time this happened, and exactly what we’ve come to expect from the Argentinian. But we shall let this pass because Tevez himself was completely blameless, even if he did jump into the tackle two-footed himself. Besides, any self-respecting South American would have done the same in that position.

If this all sounds a bit of a bitter perspective then it probably is, but that one incident turned the course of the whole game on its head. Up until this point, Wigan arguably looked the better team, controlling possession in midfield and making Patrick Vieira look like some sort of security guard or something – he just stood and watched as Wigan completed pass after pass and took shot after shot at the City goal. Then again, I don’t really rate Vieira as a signing at this point in his career anyway.

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For longer than I can remember, Wigan Athletic have had a special relationship with Man City that even George Bush and Tony Blair might recognise as a ‘friendship’. You see, it may be slightly off the radar to newer Latics fans (such as I, in fact), but the Blues have always been there to lend a hand where it’s been needed.

The first competitive game between Man City and a Wigan side was 1898, when newly-formed Wigan County — the earliest attempt at establishing a football club in the town — unluckily lost 1-0 in an FA Cup Round One match.

As far as Wigan Athletic goes, the on-again, off-again relationship between the two towns can be traced back as far as 1966 when City visited Wigan for the grand opening of newly-installed floodlights at Springfield Park. After a close-fought FA Cup tie at Maine Road in 1971, the Latics would face their Manchester neighbours once more during the Seventies: an illustrious friendly at Springfield Park just one year before Wigan’s inception to the Football League. The rest, as they say, is history, and Manchester City played a big part in making it so.

It wasn’t until the late Nineties that Wigan-City contests became something of a semi-regular occurrence. Perhaps the most memorable of these was a Division 2 playoff match – the final ever game to be played at Springfield Park, which ended in a creditable 1-1 draw. Though Wigan would ultimately lose out in the two-legged tie, they would gain a modicum of revenge by beating City 1-0 in a 2002 Worthington Cup match thanks to a 35th minute Neil Roberts volley.

And that pretty much brings us up-to-date in the potted history of notable Latics-City contests. Monday night’s game sees perhaps the strongest Man City side of recent times take on a club in transition as the Roberto Martinez-led Latics pass and bumble their way to (hopefully) Premier League safety. City’s own Roberto M is looking to push for a Champions League place in what looks to be a competitive end-of-season run-in.

Right, that’s the (shamelessly biased) Wigan perspective. What we need at this point is an expert. Not just an expert, but a Manchester City expert; a lifelong supporter and professional Man United hater. Well, his blog’s URL states that Man U ruined him, so he must be. Paul Dolemen of Bert Trautmann’s Neck has very kindly agreed to be interviewed on topics including Monday’s match, his side’s prospects for the season and a few other things too.

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A few snaps from the buildup to the home game with Villa earlier this month. Nothing particularly exciting to note here, except for the fact I used the occasion to experiment with Flash settings, none of which were entirely (or even moderately) successful – hence the blur in some pics. Blasted poor photography skills/cheapo camera/floodlights. Nevertheless…

Don’t forget to check out the Illarterate Flickr photostream where you can download higher quality versions of a selection of these photos (soon). I intend to catch up on some past photos as well, so that’s well worth checking out, even if I do say so myself.