Ex-Latic Jason Roberts made a cameo appearance from the bench to close out the game for Rovers.

A tough away day for the Latics saw them edged out, in the end, by two goals to one. In all fairness, though this was one of those games that could have been a vital away point, Blackburn simply had the better of a game that seemed to play out in phases.

For all the commentators’ praise of Blackburn’s bustling first half performance, things were pretty even going into the half time break. If it weren’t for a momentary brainfreeze by league débutante Vladimir Stojkovic and a well-placed strike from Pedersen, it could so easily have been 0-0 on 45, but on balance I think 1-1 would have been more of a fair score.

Both sides had decent chances, Rodallega forcing a second-minute save from Robinson and Blackburn hitting the post in the first fifteen minutes. Things continued in much the same vein, with Wigan having the most shots but, crucially, not that many challenging the Blackburn keeper.

They finally did so on 56 minutes, Caldwell bagging his first goal for the Latics with a header slotted past Robinson’s left hand. And they looked to be on the up — a renewed vigour saw them pressure the opposition goal, but not for long. Rovers found their feet again and soon grabbed a deserved goal that put them 2-1 up with less than fifteen minutes to play. Kalinic found some space from a corner and found the back of the net in a rather similar fashion to Caldwell twenty minutes earlier.

A masked Mario Melchiot fought bravely for 66 minutes before he was replaced by Emmerson Boyce

From then on, it was always going to be difficult, and though Martinez looked to press for a second by bringing on Jason Scotland and Scott Sinclair, Wigan had no real chances after that point. In fact, the 15 minutes seemed more like five as hardly anything at all seemed to happen – things just petered out, which suited the home side down to the ground.

A performance, dare we say, typical of Latics’ season – solid in parts and sometimes very good, but just lacking that extra something to grab points. In games past, we have seen a crucial mistake from a goalkeeper (Burnley away) or defender (Wolves away), a pivotal sending off (Chelsea home) or a marginally below average opposition performance (Villa away, Sunderland home) push Wigan over the line.

Hopefully with the signing of Marco Ruben, a striker of international standard, Wigan will find that bit more spark to finish off games for themselves a lot more often. Will he be ready for Saturday’s showdown with Everton? Probably not, but let’s hope home advantage will see the crowd be a crucial twelfth man.

• Latics official site match report

Jason Scotland's barren run continues

It wasn’t a very eventful Premier League Boxing Day in terms of goals and spectacular wins and all that, a point mirrored in the Wigan-Blackburn game yesterday. Well yes, there were two goals, but it wasn’t exactly one for the purists.

I will concede that, at times, the match alluded to end-to-end action, especially in the second half when Wigan started to appear at the match. If I’m honest, the first 45 minutes lacked that spark which only reared its head after the second goal, Wigan’s first.

For this reason, I shall largely gloss over the first half, which saw Blackburn take the lead through Benni McCarthy, a few shots blazed over the crossbar and some bloke in a chicken suit.

Well, what did you expect? It was Boxing Day, and of course the silly suits were out in force for Latics’ annual festive fancy dress competition. King Henry VIII won out, with Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men getting a runners-up spot and a place in the programme for the Aston Villa game on 9th January.

Fans queue for free pies. Hey, is that Alan Wiley there?

Enough jollities, though, because with a whole half of football left to play, there was still a match to be won and lost. Latics emerged from the mid-session interval (to use a snooker term) with a slightly more positive outlook, and seemed to find their feet fairly quickly. This led to a Hugo Rodallega header finding the net on 53, and a renewed vigour about Wigan’s movement.

Chances followed at either end, with golden opportunities falling first for Jason Scotland (will he ever score?) in a one-on-one showdown with Paul Robinson, then Benni McCarthy, whose acrobatic attempt was repelled by a decent reaction save from Chris Kirkland. The latter came with but minutes to go, and would have all but sealed the three points for Blackburn, so I suppose Wigan could count their blessings they didn’t come away with nothing.

There is a distinct pattern appearing in Wigan’s season, characterised by the inability to edge those games that could go either way. On only a handful of occasions — Sunderland and West Ham spring to mind — have they managed to capitalise on chances to snatch the points, which as we all know will be oh-so-crucial come May.

I would have said 20 points at New Year gives us a solid base to build on, and with the transfer window around the corner things could well pick up in the New Year as Wigan settle down to some sort of consistency. The Bolton postponement and yesterday’s draw put paid to that, but here’s hoping the Trotters game will be played when Jackson Martinez is putting them away for fun in February.

This is, of course, assuming that we don’t get a shock point against Manchester United. Well, you never know, eh?