Wigan Athletic 4 v 0 Manchester City
21st October 2006
Wigan Athletic recorded their biggest ever Premiership win against hopeless Manchester City today at the JJB Stadium.
A disappointing crowd of just 16,235 witnessed the historic occasion. However, the crowd would have hit the 20,000 mark had City's fans decided not to boycott the game over the match day admittance fee of £35. Whether or not the Wigan club's policy of charging such an amount for Premiership games will pay off in the long run is open to debate. However, that is an argument for another day, for the time being Latics can bask in the glory at beating the self proclaimed 'massiv club' by such a margin, whilst knowing it could and should have been a lot more.
Paul Jewell decided to drop midfielder Denny Landzaat in favour of Josip Skoko, who was starting his first league game of the season, whilst Ecuadorian winger Luis Antonio Valencia took Scottish international Gary Teale's place in the staring line up. Stuart Pearce was able to recall Nicky Weaver to operate between the sticks, whilst Matthew Mills and Stephen Jordan also came into first team reckoning.
Manchester City got proceedings underway and just two minutes later they were wishing they hadn't when Emmerson Boyce ran down the right channel and crossed an inch perfect ball for Emile Heskey to volley past the helpless Weaver. And if City thought things couldn't get any worse they were sadly mistaken as Richard Dunne headed a Josip Skoko free kick from the left past Weaver who had come out of his six yard area to collect the ball!
The JJB Stadium was going wild and for the next twenty five minutes they put City under intense pressure as the 'massiv' club just couldn't cope with the livewire Latics play. On the half hour mark disaster struck for Skoko as he was forced to leave the pitch after picking up an injury with Holland international Denny Landzaat replacing the stricken Australian. This seemed to disrupt the Latics and as the first half was coming to a close Bernardo Corradi missed two goal scoring opportunities and former Liverpool man Dietmar Hamman couldn't hide his frustration, picking up a booking from the surprisingly good referee Phil Dowd in the 43rd minute.
There were two substitutions at half time. Jewell had to replace Fitz Hall who failed to recover from a bad knock sustained towards the end of the first half with Scottish international Andy Webster, who was making his debut for the club. Pearce replaced the hapless Dietmar Hamman with Paul Dickov who was sent onto the field of play to try to wind up the Latics team, as that was all Pearce had left in his locker.
To be fair to Pearce, Dickov duly obliged by persistently baiting Boyce and generally making a nuisance of himself. However, he was only able to use these tactics in the middle of the park, as he got nowhere near a striking opportunity as Latics continued to turn the screw in the second half. Paul Scharner should have headed a third Latics goal within two minutes of the re start, and this gave City the impetus they need to try and at least make a fist of proceedings. Debutant Webster was booked for a foul on Corradi in the 52nd minute, and just five minutes later Dickov struck the ball at Leighton Baines from all of two feet and demanded, along with all 1,500 of the travelling supporters for hand ball and a penalty. Dowd was having none of it and by now City were devoid of any kind of positive tactics to break down Athletic.
And then in the 64th minute, four minutes after Pearce had substituted Matthew Mills for Darius Vassell, Latics scored their match clinching third goal. Baines, hoping for a place in the next full England squad must have impressed the watching Steve McLaren by passing for Henri Camara to poke home from all of six yards. Then, incredibly Latics repeated their first half feat by scoring after another two minutes, with Luis Antonio Valencia hitting a screamer past a now bemused Weaver in the City goal.
Cue wild celebrations from the Latics faithful and a mass exodus of the City fans, whilst the rest of them chanted 'We want our money back!". For the first time this season Latics fans could sit back and relax, knowing that three very badly needed points were definitely in the bag.
Roll on Fulham next week!
WIGAN ATHLETIC, Chris Kirkland, Emmerson Boyce, Arjan De Zeeuw, Fitz Hall, (Andy Webster 46), Leighton Baines, Luis Antonio Valencia, (Gary Teale 83), Paul Scharner, Josip Skoko, (Denny Landzaat 30), Kevin Kilbane, Emile Heskey, Henri Camara. Subs not used, Mike Pollitt, Lee McCulloch
Goal scorers, Emile Heskey 2 mins, Richard Dunne (og) 4 mins, Henri Camara 65 mins, Luis Antonio Valencia 67 mins
Booked, Andy Webster 53 mins
MANCHESTER CITY, Nicky Weaver, Micah Richards, Richard Dunne, Matthew Mills, (Darius Vassell 60), Dietmar Hamman, (Paul Dickov 46), Michael Johnson, Joey Barton, Trevor Sinclair, Stephen Jordan, Georgios Samaras, Bernardo Corradi. Subs not used, Joe Hart, Nedum Onoura, Marc Laird.
Booked, Dietmar Hamman 43 mins
Referee, Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)
Attendance, 16,235
Wigan Athletic recorded their biggest ever Premiership win against hopeless Manchester City today at the JJB Stadium.
A disappointing crowd of just 16,235 witnessed the historic occasion. However, the crowd would have hit the 20,000 mark had City's fans decided not to boycott the game over the match day admittance fee of £35. Whether or not the Wigan club's policy of charging such an amount for Premiership games will pay off in the long run is open to debate. However, that is an argument for another day, for the time being Latics can bask in the glory at beating the self proclaimed 'massiv club' by such a margin, whilst knowing it could and should have been a lot more.
Paul Jewell decided to drop midfielder Denny Landzaat in favour of Josip Skoko, who was starting his first league game of the season, whilst Ecuadorian winger Luis Antonio Valencia took Scottish international Gary Teale's place in the staring line up. Stuart Pearce was able to recall Nicky Weaver to operate between the sticks, whilst Matthew Mills and Stephen Jordan also came into first team reckoning.
Manchester City got proceedings underway and just two minutes later they were wishing they hadn't when Emmerson Boyce ran down the right channel and crossed an inch perfect ball for Emile Heskey to volley past the helpless Weaver. And if City thought things couldn't get any worse they were sadly mistaken as Richard Dunne headed a Josip Skoko free kick from the left past Weaver who had come out of his six yard area to collect the ball!
The JJB Stadium was going wild and for the next twenty five minutes they put City under intense pressure as the 'massiv' club just couldn't cope with the livewire Latics play. On the half hour mark disaster struck for Skoko as he was forced to leave the pitch after picking up an injury with Holland international Denny Landzaat replacing the stricken Australian. This seemed to disrupt the Latics and as the first half was coming to a close Bernardo Corradi missed two goal scoring opportunities and former Liverpool man Dietmar Hamman couldn't hide his frustration, picking up a booking from the surprisingly good referee Phil Dowd in the 43rd minute.
There were two substitutions at half time. Jewell had to replace Fitz Hall who failed to recover from a bad knock sustained towards the end of the first half with Scottish international Andy Webster, who was making his debut for the club. Pearce replaced the hapless Dietmar Hamman with Paul Dickov who was sent onto the field of play to try to wind up the Latics team, as that was all Pearce had left in his locker.
To be fair to Pearce, Dickov duly obliged by persistently baiting Boyce and generally making a nuisance of himself. However, he was only able to use these tactics in the middle of the park, as he got nowhere near a striking opportunity as Latics continued to turn the screw in the second half. Paul Scharner should have headed a third Latics goal within two minutes of the re start, and this gave City the impetus they need to try and at least make a fist of proceedings. Debutant Webster was booked for a foul on Corradi in the 52nd minute, and just five minutes later Dickov struck the ball at Leighton Baines from all of two feet and demanded, along with all 1,500 of the travelling supporters for hand ball and a penalty. Dowd was having none of it and by now City were devoid of any kind of positive tactics to break down Athletic.
And then in the 64th minute, four minutes after Pearce had substituted Matthew Mills for Darius Vassell, Latics scored their match clinching third goal. Baines, hoping for a place in the next full England squad must have impressed the watching Steve McLaren by passing for Henri Camara to poke home from all of six yards. Then, incredibly Latics repeated their first half feat by scoring after another two minutes, with Luis Antonio Valencia hitting a screamer past a now bemused Weaver in the City goal.
Cue wild celebrations from the Latics faithful and a mass exodus of the City fans, whilst the rest of them chanted 'We want our money back!". For the first time this season Latics fans could sit back and relax, knowing that three very badly needed points were definitely in the bag.
Roll on Fulham next week!
WIGAN ATHLETIC, Chris Kirkland, Emmerson Boyce, Arjan De Zeeuw, Fitz Hall, (Andy Webster 46), Leighton Baines, Luis Antonio Valencia, (Gary Teale 83), Paul Scharner, Josip Skoko, (Denny Landzaat 30), Kevin Kilbane, Emile Heskey, Henri Camara. Subs not used, Mike Pollitt, Lee McCulloch
Goal scorers, Emile Heskey 2 mins, Richard Dunne (og) 4 mins, Henri Camara 65 mins, Luis Antonio Valencia 67 mins
Booked, Andy Webster 53 mins
MANCHESTER CITY, Nicky Weaver, Micah Richards, Richard Dunne, Matthew Mills, (Darius Vassell 60), Dietmar Hamman, (Paul Dickov 46), Michael Johnson, Joey Barton, Trevor Sinclair, Stephen Jordan, Georgios Samaras, Bernardo Corradi. Subs not used, Joe Hart, Nedum Onoura, Marc Laird.
Booked, Dietmar Hamman 43 mins
Referee, Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)
Attendance, 16,235
Labels: Wigan vrs City
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