Weekend off: A win-win situation for Bobby?

Bit of a fractured week, this, with FA Cup, Premier League, Champions League and Europa games all thrown into the mix spanning a seven day period. For Latics, however, the equation was rather simple: win tonight and face another Cup match against Fulham on Sunday. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Though Martinez was keeping his usual straight-laced, straight-faced perspective on a potential week of FA Cup ties, you just know that, deep down, he would have preferred to give his players a two week rest in preparation for the Premier League battles to come. I mean, come on. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t see this week as even a little bit of a hindrance to Latics’ survival aspirations.

Of course, it offered yet another opportunity for the likes of Adrian Lopez, Daniel Redmond and Callum McManaman to get some first team action against Premier League opposition, and by itself you’d think that’s a good thing. Perhaps it may turn out to be, who knows? Maybe Macca will be sticking a hat trick past Stoke on the final day of the season to keep us in the Prem for another season. Maybe Conor Sammon is the 600,000 Dollar Man to replace a radically off-the-pace Mauro Boselli and will grab ten goals between now and May? Perhaps, but he was ineligible for today so we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see him.

However, with our league position looking rather precarious –to the point your heart begins to sink when you see the league table– one can’t help but view tonight’s game as a mildly unwelcome distraction. A bit like Michael McIntyre, only much less irritating and, most of the time, infinitely more humorous. Well, maybe less so now Titus Bramble has left, but I suppose that cat mascot thing is always good for a laugh – looks like he learned his moves from JJ.

It’s going to take something special, a winning run the likes of which we haven’t seen under Martinez thus far, for us to emerge from this pickle with our heads intact. Forget all that just now, though. Tonight was about the regular bench-warmers and eager second-teamers getting a good run out, which they certainly did. Gary Caldwell and Momo Diame were the only survivors from the starting XI that ground out a 1–1 draw with Liverpool on Saturday with Watson, Moses and McCarthy taking their seats on the subs bench. The rest would receive a well-earned rest, which will be vital for the difficult run of fixtures to come… yeesh, I don’t even want to think about them.

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Emmerson Boyce helped his team to a clean sheet

With the Premier League (quite obviously) a massive priority, Latics made eight changes to the starting lineup for this ‘big’ local derby (as the Wigan Evening Post termed it), and they don’t come much bigger than Bolton. Well, maybe Preston. Or any of the Manchester Clubs. In terms of match practice, anyway, today’s game was a useful opportunity to blood some youngsters and new boys.

Most notably, Callum McManaman assumed the centre forward position, reprising his role from the Third Round tie at Hull. Diame, too, returned in the centre of midfield, as did James McArthur, who this week hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. You could say he was lucky not to hit anything else, but that would be somewhat irrelevant to today’s tie. McCarthy, Rodallega, N’Zogbia and a whole host of others were rested for the even bigger game against West Brom at the Hawthorns on Tuesday evening.

Wigan were slow to get off the mark and came under immediate pressure, Johan Elmander putting the ball over the bar via a Gary Caldwell –returning after a one-match ban– block after just ten seconds of the game. Very soon after, Victor Moses, also back in the side after a lengthy injury layoff, found himself through with a superb chance but only succeeded in finding the side netting. Bit of a dodgy moment for the Trotters, but a slightly rusty Moses was always going to struggle to put the ball in from such a narrow angle.

The visitors were looking a bit nervy, especially Adrian Lopez, facing Premier League opposition for the first time. But things settled down at the back as Victor Moses set about looking to make inroads, creating a couple of good chances and squeezing out the odd corner. In a good spell of pressure from Latics, Momo Diame won his side a free kick just yards from the Bolton area, the resulting Jordi Gomez shot easily saved by Jaaskelainen. Just seconds later, McManaman found himself with a superb chance created by Moses, but a fantastic last-ditch Robinson block thwarted his efforts to keep the score at 0-0.

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Pollitt and Stam: The match savers

Oh man, I really feared the worst with this one. After our most dismal performance of the season against Newcastle, the smart money once again seemed to be on Wigan for the drop as Big Bob’s side lingered in nineteenth place looking a bit toothless up front.

With certain members of the squad looking a bit worse for wear, Martinez switched things around with Figueroa back in the starting lineup and James McArthur given a chance ahead of Diame in the centre of midfield. Most significant, perhaps, was the return of Chris Kirkland in the Latics net. After some less than convincing performances in the first half of the season including 3–0 and 2–0 defeats at the hands of Millwall and Ipswich to add to his ever-increasing goals against tally (4 to Blackpool plus 6 against Chelsea), things were already looking ominous and we hadn’t even kicked off yet.

It can’t have helped that news filtered through shortly before kickoff that Wolves had gone a goal ahead against Chelsea to provisionally put Latics rock bottom of the league. Geez, you put in one terrible performance and the pressure really does build.

Ultimately, though, Wigan will do well to ignore their fellow strugglers’ games and concentrate on their own because we certainly ain’t gonna receive any favours from other teams this season. In fact, things are so tight down at the bottom that I wouldn’t be surprised if the current bottom three all end up safe. Wishful thinking, perhaps? Well, I’ll say we certainly haven’t seen the last of the drama this season.

Latics looked to be suffering the after effects of Sunday in the opening minutes, beginning quite sloppily, and things were about to get worse. Tom Clevelerley pulled up on eight minutes under pretty much no pressure, his hamstring seemingly giving way as he chased for the ball. Clev went straight down the tunnel, and ten-man Latics would come under immediate pressure from the hosts, who set about putting Kirkland and his fellow defenders under the cosh with some high crosses.

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Hugo snaffled one, though could so easily have had two

Bob’s battlers weathered an early storm to grab a point against local rivals Bolton, though it could well have been more had things transpired slightly different.

The Trotters had the better of the early stages, putting Latics under plenty of pressure in their own third and making the home side’s defence look decidedly dodgy. Thankfully, Alcaraz et al managed to survive a couple of shaky spells to repel pretty much all attacks, to the extent Bolton didn’t manage a shot on target in the whole first half.

Wigan, by contrast, had their fair share of attempts, at least one of which made Jussi Jääskeläinen scramble just a bit. N’Zogbia put the ball just wide of his right hand post before Hugo Rodallega got in a shot from distance, though on this occasion the Finn managed to control the ball away from any advancing Latics frontmen.

Things were soured somewhat by the loss of James McCarthy, stretchered off midway through the half with ankle ligament damage. His replacement, Mo Diame, would ironically inject some urgency into the centre of Wigan’s midfield, and help to turn things around just when the home side were really under the cosh thanks to some good man-to-man marking by Bolton.

Nil-nil at half time was a fair reflection of a half in which both sides looked a tad sloppy and struggled to challenge the opposition goalkeeper.

The second stanza was an altogether different story, with the game sparking to life on 59 minutes as Rodallega slotted the ball past the Bolton keeper for his third of the season. There was a hint of offside about the build-up — and by that I mean Hugo was certainly offside — but nobody in the South, East or West Stands was complaining. It was around this time that Charles N’Zogbia found that extra something to take his game to a higher level, the likes of which we haven’t seen since… well, last week.

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