Wayne Rooney: Back in action

If we’re being totally honest, this was pretty much always going to be a blank weekend for Latics, with next week’s trip to West Ham seeing the resumption of our season proper.

Except perhaps not. Perhaps Wigan could do the unthinkable and somehow come away from Old Trafford with something more than a Wayne Rooney gingerbread man (which was quite nice, by the way, and I don’t even like Mancunian shortbread). Perhaps pigs might be spotted boarding Concorde at Liverpool John Lennon airport. Maybe Lionel Messi would be seen at the DW Stadium negotiating a cut price contract involving a year’s supply of free Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls.

If we’re being serious (wot that?), today was as good a time as any for Latics to grind out their first point(s) at the Theatre of Broken Dreams, not least because normally Man United are absolutely powerhousing their way through all in their path. This hasn’t been the case in the last couple of months, even if losses at Old Trafford are still as rare as an Olivier Kapo shot on target as they’ve ever been.

Nevertheless, with Wigan on good form of late, there was always hope that the planets might align and Latics would scrape a flukey draw. For the first 30 minutes of the game, however, this was looking far from feasible, with United bossing possession and looking the more likely to score. As the end of the half drew near, though, Wigan started to get some passes going and created a few decent chances. You might even say we should have scored, and indeed a goal might have been more than useful in our seemingly futile quest to score an away win at Manchester United (dude).

In a similar vein to recent games, Latics began to find their feet towards the end of the first period, and somehow managed to avoid conceding to boot. Just when you felt things were going to plan, United grabbed one on the nick of half time, and it could well have been prevented. If Ali Al-Habsi had committed to claiming the ball, he probably would have been able to stop Evra’s header finding the back of the net. As it was, he was left in Half and Halfsville as lost as Steve Caldwell navigating Wigan town centre’s one way system.

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Rooney calls Martinez an ambulance. Or maybe the pizza place?

Even the most hardened of Latics fans will admit there was an air of inevitability over this fixture. If we’re being honest, we all knew Manchester United were going to play some excellent football, in all probability leading to a comfortable win over the Latics.

In fact, you didn’t exactly have to be Stephen Hawking to predict the result of last night’s game:  I believe we’ve only ever managed to score a handful against The Red Devils in all our time in the Premiership compared to their 30+ in the same fixture.

Yep, they’re not just a bogey team, but a whacking great blob of phlegm that engulfs Little Wigan in a sea of yellowy-green mucus on a twice-yearly basis (sometimes more, if we’re unlucky enough to draw them in the cup).

I apologise if I put you off your tea, for that was a bit disgusting. It shall act, though, as an apt metaphor for Wigan’s performance on the night: clunky and not very pleasant to witness. Of course, few teams go to Man U and win, but at least many of them put up a fight – we didn’t even manage to do that yesterday as the Latics side of Chelsea and Aston Villa earlier this year looked to be at home watching The Great Escape. Is it me, or does that film get seven minutes longer each year?

Don’t get me wrong: Wigan were outplayed and outclassed, and even if Latics brought their A-game to Old Trafford they would still have struggled to get anywhere close to ‘Ze Champions’. However, it would have been good to at least have seen some pleasant footy on the big stage in front of 75,000 people. I suppose it was not to be, and the lads will no doubt be drowning their sorrows with extra training on New Year’s Day.

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Well, I can’t say these are as good as the professional ones from the official website (they aren’t even from the actual game), but there’s a few little gems in there. Hopefully this will be more of a regular thing, depending on how many photos I can snap during the forthcoming season.

As ever, high res versions of these are available via the JWAW (Illarterate) Flickr photostream.

• Wigan v Man U photos by JWAW at Flickr
• Wigan v Man U photos by JWAW at Notapatchon

Roberto should not be discouraged

Well, the less said about this the better, one would think.

The way Wigan played attacking-wise, you would have said they certainly didn’t deserve to be pummelled by so many goals. With a slightly dodgy defensive performance, though, there was always the chance we were going to be punished severely. It wasn’t always that way – the first half passed by with no goals and Wigan actually in the ascendency as the 45-minute mark came.

Man U created a hatload of chances, but up until the first goal had only managed to find Chris Kirkland’s gut numerous times. Lucky? Probably. It could easily have been 2-0 Man U at half time.

For 55 minutes, Wigan looked competitive and came from the half-time break looking very promising. Alas, ’twas not to be, as the floodgates seemed to open, unfortunately. You could sense that a collapse was coming after the second goal, which turned into an almost complete capitulation by the third. After that, well, it ceased to be a contest.

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