The 'sparse' West Stand

A rare successful foray into first team experimentation for Roberto got the decade off to an excellent start for the club, but it was a familiar face that helped turn the tide for the Latics. Care to guess, though, how the BBC reported this match? I’ll give you one try.

The mainstream media outlets had a good old-fashioned field day, hauling out the tried and tested ‘Little Wigan, paltry attendances’ angle just because many fans decided they’d rather be in the pub or something. As a result, a little over 5,000 witnessed Latics’ biggest win of the campaign thus far, even if it wasn’t in the Prem.

The ten thousand-odd ‘missing’ people that decided not to brave the bitterly cold weather may wish they’d made the trip to the DW to see perhaps Wigan’s best performance of the season. Goal wise, it was certainly so, but with a hint of good fortune thrown in there as well. But was it really worth getting frozen feet for? Well yes, actually, but only really in the second 45.

Scott Sinclair made much of Wigan’s early running, causing Hull many problems on the wing and pressing his case for a first team start in Mohamed Diame’s continued absence from the midfield. For all their sprightliness in the first 20 minutes, however, the closest Wigan would come in the first half was a shot-come-cross courtesy of the aforementioned Sinclair pretty early on in the piece.

The remaining 30 minutes weren’t exactly vintage Latics, and a lineup that saw many serial bench-warmers get their chance looked to be slowly crumpling under the pressure of first team football. A string of Hull free kicks in shooting vicinity around the 35 minute mark saw Geovanni slot a decent free kick past stand-in ‘keeper Mike Pollitt to send the Tigers into the half time interval with a deserved one-goal cushion.

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Was today’s result penance for last week, or simply another indicator that anything can happen in a game involving Wigan this season? I’d vouch for the latter, though some typically poor Latics defending at some crucial points didn’t really help.

The first half went well, Wigan looking comfortable and carving out some good openings: in fact, it looked a little bit too easy at times. For all their domination, though, they never managed to stick the ball in the back of the net… and were made to pay, big style.

Wigan never really troubled the Hull goalkeeper, Paul Scharner in particular guilty of missing crucial passes and smacking the ball into row Z – Martinez finally saw the error of his ways and brought Jordi Gomez into the fray for the last half an hour. By then, it was a bit too late for him to make much of an impact, Latics already trailing by two goals. Scharner wasn’t the only one to have an off-day, though, as Charles N’Zogbia never quite fired despite some marauding runs, and was also subbed for Sinclair with ten minutes to play.

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