Latics missed yet another golden opportunity –perhaps their best yet– to reignite their ailing season thanks to a mixture of poor defending and even worse officiating at the DW Stadium. For a neutral it was compelling, but for the ones really watching the game, namely fans of the two teams concerned, it was simply excruciating stuff.

In an attempt to galvanise the side, Martinez made five changes to the starting XI that lost to Wolves two weeks ago, perhaps the most notable being Rodallega’s relegation to the bench. Conor Sammon was the direct replacement, while fit-again James McCarthy and Jordi Gomez returned to the midfield. At the back, Steve Gohouri filled the gap left by the banned Alcaraz and Gary Caldwell was reinstated following his own one-match suspension. Stam was drafted in for Boyce and Watson given a stint on the sidelines as a new-look Latics side took to the pitch in search of the club’s first point(s) in two and a half months.

Wigan really went for it in the first half, once again dominating proceedings and, for the first time in a long while, took a lead into the break. The half didn’t start well, however, with Yakubu scoring within two minutes to put the home side on the back foot from the off. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Latics game without a sloppily conceded goal, would it? Ali Al Habsi got a hand to the Nigerian’s strike, which subsequently sailed beyond two scrambling defenders to give Rovers the lead.

The home side were almost handed a chance to get a foothold mere minutes later as the threatening Victor Moses was felled in the area for what looked like a clear-cut penalty. The referee waved it away, and you got the feeling this would be another one of those days.

To Wigan’s credit, they fought back fast. Blackburn’s joy was short lived, as Jordi Gomez soon had Latics back on level terms with a somewhat fortunate mid-range strike on 7 minutes. Rovers keeper Robinson was unsighted as a loitering Conor Sammon blocked his view and the Spaniard’s strike found its way into the net, much to the delight of the home faithful. It must also be noted that Mr Sammon was offside at the time, and you might say Latics were lucky not to have been pulled up for this. However, this team of officials, as we would discover as the game continued, would not be out of place on a Sunday League pitch, so I’m inclined to say it was more a case of incompetence chiefly on behalf of the whistleblower.

Anyway, not even ten minutes had passed and already this was gearing up to be a memorable encounter. Not that either team would really care about that if they didn’t get the three points, not one bit.

Gary Caldwell has more goals this season than Rodallega and Moses put together. Something wrong there?

Latics took the lead during another spell of pressure on the Blackburn goal on the half hour mark, Gary Caldwell heading a David Jones corner through the sea of bodies and past Paul Robinson. It wasn’t the best defensive display, but, as they say, you still have to put them away – something we haven’t been doing of late. Were things changing? Would today be different enough to reward three points? The hosts certainly gave it a proper go and continued to pressure up to half time.

The second Wigan goal signalled an extended period in which the hosts largely controlled the game, but one sensed they would need to score again to even think about labelling their lead ‘comfortable’. They should really have gone further ahead through Victor Moses, who spurned two fantastic opportunities, but will have been happy enough to lead at half time. After all, the last time that happened was… erm…

The second stanza was not as good for Latics. It should have resulted in a Wigan win, but external factors clouded the situation – Blackburn, also fighting a similar battle against the drop, had started to find their feet but still couldn’t genuinely threaten in the same way as their opponents. It was to get worse, too, as another piece of poor officiating led to the sending off of David Dunn. The Lancastrian looked to have won the ball from a breaking Mo Diame, but Andre Marriner saw it differently and awarded Dunn a second yellow card and an early bath (47 mins).

Believe it or not, that wasn’t the end of the poor decisions. Blackburn were soon illegally back on level terms with a piece of hoodwinkery that, in this age of television replays and advanced computer technology, was simply incredible. It was another of those moments that makes you lose faith in football altogether and perhaps the whole of humanity, and goodness knows I’ve had enough of them this season to last three lifetimes.

Law 17 – The Corner Kick: Procedure (Pg. 50, bullet point six): “The kicker must not play the ball again until it has touched another player” ~ Laws of Football handbook, FA.com

The visitors did the equivalent of pulling a joker out of their pocket when nobody was looking – quite literally. Seeing the referee’s back turned, Morton Gamst Pedersen caught the Wigan defence –and all three officials– completely off guard by quite blatantly taking a corner to himself and running into the penalty area, taking a deflected shot which was bundled in at the back post. You could say Latics should have been prepared, but what are you to do to combat such underhand actions? Well, I guess Blackburn thought they would take affirmative action to remedy the ref’s own incompetence and indecision. Which is fair enough, I suppose.

Moses, though threatening, was a tad greedy and still can't find the net. Will he ever score?

After such a blow, it took Wigan some time to get back into things, but by the 70th minute they were dominating once again. By now, Albert Crusat and Hugo Rodallega had joined the fray, but the question remained – would Latics be able to grab that winner? Well, yes and no. You see, Albert Crusat managed to finally not only get one on target, but also past Paul Robinson and his side were back in front. Unfortunately, Wigan simply could not pass out the remaining time, even against ten men who they had pretty much dominated for a great chunk of the match.

Blackburn earned themselves a corner for what would surely be the last move of the game in the 98th minute. All Wigan had to do was clear the ball one more time and the season would be off and running again. In an act of desperation, Paul Robinson came flying up to the opposition penalty area… only to promptly be karate kicked by David Jones, leaving the keeper red in the face – quite literally, for he was bleeding profusely. Yakubu polished off the resultant penalty to make the score 3-3 with the penultimate touch of the game. In such moments are seasons decided, and with a difficult string of results to come, one fears six points could be all we have come January 2012. When you’re in such a situation, it really is a test of one’s faith.

Regardless of iffy officiating, today’s score might as well have read Wigan Attackers 3-3 Wigan Defenders as once again, it was a case of Latics being their own worst enemy. Plenty of enterprise, promising breaks, but a lack of quality and real finishing touch to seal it topped by a perpetually dodgy defensive line. Blackburn had three shots on target and scored from them all, so draw what conclusions you will from that nugget of information.

As another game passes, so do three (well, two in this case) more points, and this was the best chance yet; Wigan should have took all three points, but did not. Latics really can’t buy a win at the moment, and it’s looking increasingly likely they’ll have to steal points from the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United to be in with a sniff of survival this season.

Well, I’ve had more than enough excitement for one week and am off to finish that nice sweater I’m knitting my niece for Christmas. No really, this football club will be the death of me – today certainly took a god few years off my life expectancy.

In the spotlight once again: Roberto Martinez

Last time on Jesus Was a Wiganer: this viewer was left in fear of Roberto Martinez’s future at Wigan Athletic following a ninth straight defeat in all competitions. Rumours had started to spread about the Spanish supremo, who was supposedly ‘set to walk out’ based on highly cryptic, Enigma-style clues tucked away in interviews with Dave Whelan.

It was all codswallop, of course. Expert crossword compilers and Mensa quiz book writers have confirmed there was no solid evidence beyond the recent extended run of bad results –which I take no delight in reminding you is now nearing three solid months in length– and the collective will of many a pessimistic Wigan Athletic fan.

You can, however, feel the seam beginning to come apart. I’m not sure if there’ll be as much confidence in Bob’s Latics prospects come Saturday evening, but we shall leave such speculation for, well, tomorrow evening. Continuing with the (tenuous) cricket analogy, we’ll be hoping to put off that mandatory ‘ball change’ for some time, but it all depends on how many wickets we take against Blackburn.

Moving on to strictly footballing matters, I won’t try to second guess Roberto’s choice of starting lineup, merely suggest a potential XI which could help facilitate an end to this results drought. But hey, I ain’t the big boss with authority to make such assumptions reality, so take it all with a pinch of salt; my recent pre-match predictions for how Roberto will configure the Wigan starting XI have been less than accurate, sometimes to the point of being potentially libellous.

Wigan v Blackburn possible Latics lineup

Notice how Ali Al-Habsi finally makes an appearance in these possible lineups? I guess his consistent presence in goal is one positive in this season of relative negativity, and that’s contributory to the fact I forgot to put him in there up until now. Stupid really, because he’s been one of the better performers for the club since his arrival two seasons ago.

Speaking of decent performances, an alternative attacking lineup might feature Argentine Franco Di Santo, but for all his improvements this campaign, you still don’t see him as a goalscorer. Don’t get me wrong – he’s been one of the more impressive performers this campaign, and it’s somewhat unfair to rely on him as a primary source of regular goals, but he isn’t quite of the Nathan Ellington or (cough) Graeme Jones mould.

What we need to do is score, and this is a task that should ideally be delegated to your most experienced attacker. In our case, it’s left winger (insert tongue in cheek smiley here) Hugo Rodallega, who’s been struggling with injury and form this season. One would hope that a single goal would cure this, and that the bandwagon will get rolling again with Victor Moses and Momo Diame et al getting in on the act as well.

Once again, it will be a case of make do and mend at the back – Bob will have to make do with a less experienced centre back as he tries to mend the leaky pipe that is Latics back four. I would have suggested Boyce, but seeing as Gohouri played there last week it seems Roberto prefers Emmerson on the right.

Owing to misdemeanours, we won’t see Antolin Alacaraz for a while so Martinez might as well order him to have dip in the River Douglas: “yeah, Ant, I forgot to mention they’ve forecast snow for tomorrow, so bring your parka.” We shouldn’t laugh because spitting is a serious, unnecessary offence that has no place in the modern game (as opposed to racism which is, apparently, tolerated). Maybe that Diouf bloke, who’s reported to have been training with Latics this season, has been a bad influence.

Blackburn's ex-Latic Jason Roberts on the FIFA racism row: "There are ways that humour is used to bring certain things up but I certainly don't think that race is something to be spoken about in that manner"

Alcaraz is, surprisingly, Latics’ only real absence. By contrast, Blackburn have more than their fair share injury problems, with defenders Ryan Nelson, Scott Dann and Michel Salgado set to miss this weekend’s action. By this token, expect chances to come at both ends (yes, even for Wigan) as the league’s bottom two fight to climb out of the snake pit that is the relegation zone.

• Latics v Blackburn preview – Goal.com

Jason Roberts grabbed his customary DW goal

This downward spiral looked to be continuing with a goal by… guess who? It could only be ex-Latic Jason “always scores against Wigan” Roberts, who put the visitors into a 22nd minute lead. It was just about deserved, too, with Blackburn looking the better in front of goal up to that point. Latics had their own moments, but a string of bad decisions put paid to any chance of real shots on target. When they finally did some 12 minutes later, they actually managed to score from close range via James McCarthy, restoring some confidence and offering hope of a crucial three points. Tantalisingly, things were only just warming up. Though the game didn’t quite live up to the 4-4 thriller at St James’ Park, it came quite close, at least in terms of the scoreline.

Prior to the second half, you sensed Latics had to seize the moment and take back some control of their rapidly deteriorating season – a draw simply would not suffice. As the teams emerged from the tunnel once again, the rain had already started to fall that little bit harder, quickly turning the pitch into something resembling a farmer’s field. There was nothing muddy about the Latics performance, however, as they came out fighting, perhaps already for their Premier League lives.

A combination of Al Habsi, Moses and Rodallega ensured a perfect start to the second half as Hugo stole in behind Rovers’ defence to finish a truly route one move. It can’t have lasted longer than fifteen seconds: Al Habsi’s long clearance found Victor Moses, who headed perfectly into space for Rodallega to run on to and round the keeper. Not exactly the pretty football Martinez would prefer, but it resulted in a goal and that’s all that matters.

If our second goal was a little bit, erm, ‘uncultured’, then McCarthy’s finish for Latics’ third was a class above the sort of stuff we’re used to seeing at the DW. Charles N’Zogbia found himself up against a wall of defenders in the Rovers six yard box and somehow managed to tap the ball a whole five feet to McCarthy. The Glasgow-born Irishman produced a neat little touch with his right foot, setting himself up for a left footed shot wonderfully placed between what seemed like five or six Blackburn men into the bottom right corner of Paul Robinson’s net. What’s this, a good goal? Well, it did cap a fine first ten minutes or so of the second half. Good show.

But if Wigan thought they could sit comfortably on their two goal lead, they were in for a shock. Pretty much straight from the goal, Latics conceded a corner which would prove costly as Christopher Samba leapt higher than everyone to head powerfully past a floundering Al Habsi. Though the Omani came to claim, he was nowhere near the big Blackburn centre back, who in the event was able to finish with some ease and bring it back to 3-2. Nope, this wasn’t going to be easy.

Steve Kean, eager (keen?) to push for a result, sent on Dunn and Diouf on the 60-minute mark. Though the former wouldn’t make an immediate impact, he would have some bearing on the game a bit later on.

Ben Watson restored Latics' two-goal lead from the spot

Wigan, meanwhile, continued to press with an air of caution, looking to pass the ball in the opposition half and attempting to breach the Blackburn backline once more. When Momo Diame received the ball near the opposition corner flag, he made a bustling run into the penalty area, whereupon he was ankle tapped by Michel Salgado. Spot-kick to Wigan, and a chance for Ben Watson to follow up his midweek free-kick with another important strike. He made no mistake, sending the ball down the centre of Robinson’s goal to restore Latics’ two-goal lead. It was a little too close to the Rovers keeper’s left foot for Watson’s liking, but nonetheless found the net.

With 25 minutes left, this contest was far from over. By this point, the pitch had become a bit of a mudbath and a patch of play in right midfield –a particularly affected area– resulted in some spells of scrappy football in which both sides struggled to keep hold of the ball. You know what they say – fight fire with fire, and my word did Blackburn endeavour to play the proper British way on a proper British pitch, launching the ball into a packed Wigan area at every opportunity. It worked precisely once, when Emmerson Boyce left a foot in on David Dunn in his own area. Another penalty for sure, and Dunn assuredly placed the ball past Al Habsi’s left hand in front of an expectant group of travelling supporters. Needless to say, they were a bit chuffed with the outcome.

James McCarthy grabbed a brace to help his side to a vital three points

We were in for a close finish, which wasn’t really what Wigan wanted but had to be happy with. That area of the pitch, pummelled by what presumably must have been a midweek rugby friendly, was really slowing the game down and turning things in Wigan’s favour. Franco Di Santo would join the action — alongside McArthur and a returning Cleverley — for a brief time to try and see out what would be an imperative win, aiding the time wasting effort with a yellow card for kicking the ball away.

There was one last hurrah for the visitors as they once again pumped the ball forward to the 20-man melee that was the Wigan 18-yard box. Thankfully, referee Mike Dean adjudged David Dunn to have fouled Steve Gohouri, and with that, the final whistle would signal Latics’ oh-so-crucial three points that will hopefully start us off on a better run of results. I wouldn’t bet on it, though, with a resurgent Liverpool to come at Anfield next Saturday and both Manchester sides to follow. A win today offers hope of survival and proves there is the resilience to go down (well, hopefully not that part) fighting, but the work is far from over.

Jason Roberts: grabbed what would prove to be the winner

What with the relatively large number of North West teams in the Premier League nowadays, it seems these Lancashire derbies are cropping up more often than ever.

Off the back of recent games against Bolton and Preston (though admittedly the latter was a Carling Cup tie), visiting teams really haven’t had to travel that far for their respective encounters with the Latics at the DW Stadium.

Today’s test of Lancastrian grit and determination came in the form of Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. Both Latics and Rovers were in need of some points to ease some pressure exerted by the ominous relegation zone, with the away side holding an ever-so-slight advantage in the Premier League table.

Well, I haven’t much opinion on what happened in the first half, because I wasn’t privileged enough to see or even hear it. Certain Twitterers suggest Charles N’Zogbia ought to have had a goal in the latter stages, and indeed he had the ball in the net only to see his strike disallowed for an infringement.

Wigan began the second half very brightly, carving out three opportunities — of varying difficulty — within minutes of the restart. None challenged the goalkeeper, however, and Blackburn would reply almost immediately in the form of Morten Gamst Pedersen, who forced Ali Al-Habsi into a fantastic reaction save on 49 minutes.

Latics kept up the pressure, and Mo Diame almost finished after a decent build up, but didn’t count on Paul Robinson. This period of play was more like the Wigan side of recent times, in more ways than one. You see, for all the good forward movement and domination of possession, they’re always susceptible at the back – a fact evidenced in our goal difference this year (and last, come to think of it). I probably don’t need to tell you it’s the worst in the league.

Our defensive frailties were brought to the fore on 58 minutes, as Wigan fell pray to another set play, almost completely against the current run of play. So much so, in fact, that you almost expected the visitors to get an equaliser sooner rather than later to match Pedersen’s strike… but it just didn’t happen. Instead, Jason Roberts managed to grab an inevitable goal against his former club to put Blackburn 2-0 ahead, and Wigan found themselves in the strange situation of being thoroughly under the cosh whilst at the same time dominating play.

Frustrating indeed, that although Latics got one back via a wonderful free kick from Charles N’Zogbia, they could not snaffle a late, and perhaps deserved, equaliser.

I couldn’t fully comment on whether the scoreline is an injustice, reasons for which I have already provided, but I would suggest Wigan played well enough in the second half to warrant a point. Had this game been played at the DW, perhaps we would have managed that and more, but these away games are slowly becoming ever more difficult for us to grind out the points.

Always 1-1 at Ewood Park? Well, it should have been today.

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?